Quebec doctors endorse euthanasia

Quebec's College of Physicians has endorsed euthanasia in extreme circumstances, provoking fear among opponents that the rest of Canada is getting dragged into an unwanted drive toward mercy killing.

Quebec doctors issued a cautiously worded policy Tuesday suggesting Criminal Code changes to protect doctors who follow an “appropriate care logic" to end the life of suffering patients facing “imminent and inevitable death."

The change would protect doctors who withhold treatment or boost painkillers to end suffering and hasten the end, according to Yves Lamontagne, president of the college.

“Doctors do their best to give appropriate care, knowing it could sometimes be interpreted as a crime in the Criminal Code," Dr. Lamontagne said. “Appropriate care should not be defined as murder."

A series of polls, position papers and a private member's bill in Parliament, all originating in Quebec, have promoted euthanasia in recent months. Quebec Health Minister Yves Bolduc has also said he is open to the idea.

“It has all gone several steps too far," said José Luis Pereira, chief of palliative care at Bruyère Continuing Care and Ottawa Hospital.

Dr. Pereira, who worked for three years under Switzerland's legal euthanasia system, said the Quebec College of Physicians is mixing end-of-life care with outright euthanasia, confusing the public and opening a door that would inevitably lead to more widespread mercy killing.

“They always start off with the premise of extreme cases, and the definition inevitably expands," Dr. Pereira said. “There's an enormous amount of misinformation, it's extremely irresponsible."

While recent polls showed 75 per cent of Quebeckers support euthanasia, support sinks to about 50 per cent in most other provinces.



Delores Doherty, a Newfoundland pediatrician and fierce euthanasia opponent, said a bill introduced in Parliament by Bloc MP Francine Lalonde shows activists are successfully advancing the issue.

Ms. Lalonde's bill has little chance of becoming law, but “the debate has been dragged onto the national stage from Quebec," said Dr. Doherty, president of the pro-life umbrella group, LifeCanada. “I don't know why Quebec doctors are pushing it, it defies logic, other than there are some doctors who really want to go ahead and do it."

A spokeswoman for federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said the government has “no intention to come forward with legislation on this."

But some Quebec activists aren't looking to Ottawa for a solution. They have already plotted a course for the province to go alone.

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