MONTREAL — As the frequency of medical aid in dying continues to rise in Quebec, the head of the independent body that monitors the practice in the province says he worries doctor-assisted deaths are no longer being seen as a last resort.
Quebecers have stopped appreciating MAID as an exceptional procedure for people with incurable illnesses whose suffering is unbearable, Dr. Michel Bureau said in a recent interview.
Earlier this month, Bureau's commission sent a memo to doctors reminding them that only patients who have a serious and incurable disease, who are suffering and who have experienced irreversible decline in their condition can receive MAID. The memo reminded doctors that the procedure must be independently approved by two physicians, and that doctors shouldn't"shop" for a favourable second opinion.
In the commission's last annual report, which covered a period between spring 2021 and spring 2022, it said 15 out of 3,663 doctor-assisted deaths in Quebec didn't respect the law. The problematic cases involved one instance in which MAID was administered to someone who had an expired provincial health insurance card. In six cases, patients were not admissible for the procedure; in three other cases, patients were unable to consent.
Those numbers have continued to rise. In 2022, MAID represented 6.1 per cent of deaths in Quebec, according to the province's statistics institute. And in B.C., MAID deaths accounted for 5.5 per cent of deaths in 2022, according to the province's Health Department; as of June 30, MAID deaths represented 6.2. per cent of deaths in that province.
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