In Quebec, palliative care centres have come under threat since the enactment of the law on “medically assisted dying”, MAD, dated June 2014 (Cf. Gènéthique du 10 juin 2014).
Although law 52 allows palliative care centres to refuse to carry out any form of “medically assisted dying”, this option is mixed: “Either palliative care centres refuse to go against their care philosophy and are at risk of losing their financial backing or they agree to shorten the life of certain patients, thereby quashing the very reason for their existence”.
“By instructing palliative care centres to respond positively to the requests of MAD in their peaceful havens, we are condemning to inevitable death one of those rare settings in which a community refusing to succumb to the ideological concepts of the all-powerful, independent individual, gives voice to its beliefs through words and actions”.
Le Devoir (09/11/2015)