It's time to remind the Quebec government that euthanasia is always wrong.

Let’s keep euthanasia and assisted suicide out of Quebec.

On May 25, 2010 the Quebec government announced that it is soliciting feedback from Quebec citizens about whether euthanasia and assisted suicide are acceptable forms of “care”. Citizens of Quebec have until July 16, 2010 to provide this feedback to the government in one of three ways:

1. By putting down one’s thoughts about euthanasia and assisted suicide in the form of a written brief, submitted before July 16 by email (csmd@assnat.qc.ca) or by mail:

Laplante, Anik
Secrétaire
Édifice Pamphile-Le May
1035, rue des Parlementaires
3e étage, Bureau 3.15
Québec (Québec) G1A 1A3

2. By calling (418) 643-2722 and requesting a form to submit in order to be able to participate orally to the roving euthanasia consultation, without writing a brief.

3. By filling out an online questionnaire located at:

https://www.assnat.qc.ca/csmd/dyingwithdignit y.aspx

Whether Quebec goes down the road of euthanasia and assisted suicide is up to you.

WHAT EUTHANASIA IS

While normal end-of-life care involves eliminating pain so that the patient can die painlessly from natural causes (e.g. disease or old age), euthanasia involves deliberately killing a patient, prior to natural death, to eliminate pain. For example: a paraplegic who has many years to live but can’t stand the mental anguish of not having his full mobility and therefore asks a medical practitioner for a pill to end his life—that’s a case of euthanasia. However, a case of someone who dies from a disease (for example, from cancer) while under sedation (so that this person does not feel pain) is not euthanasia.

Nobody is against eliminating the pain when a patient is dying. But everyone should be against killing the patient as a means of eliminating mental or physical pain.

BUT WHAT ABOUT REFUSING TREATMENT?

Some people think they are for euthanasia because they are for allowing a patient to refuse treatment for a terminal illness when that treatment is judged disproportionate. For example, some would say: “If living means I have to be hooked up on life-support machines for months and months, then I would rather die.” However, refusing treatment in this case is not euthanasia. If you have cancer, and you refuse another painful chemotherapy session, and then you die, the cause of death is the cancer, not the medical practitioner or yourself.

We call it euthanasia when you or your medical practitioner intentionally causes your death, before your death is caused naturally by disease or by old age. And this is something everyone should be against, in every circumstance. Here’s why:

THREE REASONS WHY EUTHANASIA (KILLING THE PATIENT INSTEAD OF KILLING THE PAIN) IS ALWAYS WRONG

1. There is always a way out, even in the most complex cases. Ending the patient’s life is not a humane solution to tragic situations of pain and suffering: the physician’s duty is always to kill the pain, not the patient. There are no limits imposed on the physician’s means of relieving pain. The means are many, accessible, increasingly sophisticated and constantly developing. In extreme cases, heavy sedation that puts patients to sleep can even be a last resort to sustain them through their suffering, until death takes place from natural causes. In treating terminal cases, there are no obstacles to ending or foregoing treatments considered useless or disproportionate by the patient or the physician. There is always a way out, even in the most complex cases.

2. People who did not ask to die will be put to death. There are individuals who seriously or insistently ask for euthanasia or assisted suicide. They are very few in number. These requests are usually rooted in their personality and the need they feel to control their life—and their death. The vast majority of people in similar situations do not ask for life-shortening intervention. Individual freedom and autonomy end where they impinge on the freedom of other members of Society.

Changing the law to satisfy the demand of such a small number of people would imperil the lives of a much greater number who initially were not even aimed at. The experience of the few countries that have taken the route of euthanasia and assisted suicide shows that these practices soon become ungovernable despite the controls and guidelines put in place: protocols are not respected, consents are not obtained, the pressure exerted by families is strong and difficult to manage. People who have not asked to die are put to death.

3. Where euthanasia appears, quality end-of-life care disappears. Decriminalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide would create unwarranted pressure on the chronically ill, the severely disabled and those who require a lot of assistance or expensive treatments: The vulnerable could begin to think that they are an undue burden on their loved ones or on society and that they should consider euthanasia or assisted suicide. Euthanasia might well dangerously distort social attitudes toward the seriously ill, the disabled and the old.

So please consider participating in the consultation in one way or another. A lot a lives, and the quality of all lives here in Quebec, are at stake.