Quebec Specialists In Favour of Euthanasia

A new survey shows Specialists in Quebec are in favour of euthanasia. Assisted suicide is more common than the public realizes.

A recent poll of Quebec medical specialists found that 75 per cent of those who answered the poll were "certainly" or "probably" in favour of legalizing euthanasia, as long as the practice were strictly regulated, according to a CBC report. The president of the federation of Quebec medical specialists, Dr. Gaétan Barrette, compared the debate over euthanasia to the one 20 years ago surrounding legal access to abortion. The public was largely in favour of that practice, but doctors hesitated. "Society was ahead," [on the abortion issue], he said. "Doctors came after, and then governments legislated much later after [the] Superior Court had to rule [ on the issue]," said Barrette. Similarly, according to Barrette, Canada needs a clear law on euthanasia. Canadians will recall the Sue Rodriguez case. CBC archives describe how this terminally ill ALS patient took her case to the Supreme Court of Canada. Rodriguez's highly publicized bid to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide was refused by the Supreme Court judges in a 5-4 decision. Justice John Sopinka expressed "deepest sympathy" for Sue Rodriguez but stated: "No consensuses can be found in favour of the decriminalization of assisted suicide. To the extent that there is a consensus, it is that human life must be respected." Rodriguez died in 1994. In Holland, euthanasia has been legal since 2001. Dutch doctors are allowed to administer a lethal dose of muscle relaxants and sedatives to terminally ill patients who request it.