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FIRST READING: Quebec tells doctors to start ignoring federal homicide laws

8 0
31.10.2024

A new MAID practice veers into culpable homicide, so they're simply ordering prosecutors to look the other way

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By authorizing its doctors to carry out “advance directives” for MAID starting Wednesday, the Government of Quebec has effectively told its health-care system to start committing murder.

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Last year, the Quebec legislature adopted Bill 11, which aimed to allow physicians to administer MAID to unresponsive or mentally incompetent patients, provided that the patient had given “advance” authorization to do so.

This is considered murder under federal law, so Quebec announced this week it will simply be instructing its prosecutors to ignore the relevant sections of the Criminal Code governing culpable homicide.

In a Monday statement, the federal Ministry of Health said they wouldn’t be challenging the decision – but warned Canada’s non-Quebec doctors not to get any ideas.

“As the Criminal Code applies uniformly across Canada and does not permit the provision of MAID based on an advance request, providing MAID pursuant to an advance request remains an offence under the Criminal Code,” it read.

The standing federal law on MAID holds that doctors can authorize death for any adult with a “grievous and irremediable medical condition” — but with the caveat that the patient has to provide “informed consent” immediately before the procedure.

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As soon as a patient becomes unresponsive or mentally incompetent, it becomes illegal to administer MAID.

The Quebec law proposes to ignore this, and to allow MAID for........

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