The Quebec government will make good on a promise made last month and allow early requests for medical euthanasia starting this fall.
From October 30th, patients will be able to make advance requests for surgery before their medical condition makes them unable to consent.
Quebec passed legislation in June 2023 allowing requests from people suffering from serious and incurable diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
In a statement released Saturday, Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette said the government is taking the “necessary measures” to ensure that “the collective choice of Quebecers is respected.”
“The issue of advance request for medical euthanasia has widespread support in Quebec,” said Jolin-Barrette.
Protecting doctors and nurses from criminal prosecution
The justice minister said he would ask prosecutors not to prosecute the doctors and nurses who performed the procedure.
Quebec had previously said it would wait until its Criminal Code was amended to ensure that health-care workers who take the life of someone who is unable to consent are not criminally charged.
A spokesman for the Minister of Justice said the federal government had refused to amend the Criminal Code, despite repeated requests from the provinces.
Immediately after the Minister’s announcement, Crime and criminal supervision The DPCP said it would instruct prosecutors that allowing criminal prosecutions for medically assisted death would be “against the public interest” if the death was carried out with the patient’s free and voluntary consent.
In a statement on Saturday, the DPCP said any files relating to medically assisted deaths that may be submitted to the DPCP should be notified directly to the director-general so that the DPCP can “determine the appropriate decision-making process.”
