The true value of life is being argued in the province of Quebec.
The Quebec government has introduced landmark legislation that would grant terminally ill patients the option to end their lives, as early as this fall.
The bill would make Quebec the first jurisdiction in Canada to permit such a procedure, termed "medical aid in dying".
The proposed legislation opens the debate of quantity of life over quality of life. Is it just or moral to permit a doctor to assist in the suicide of another human being? Is it lawful to give power to a doctor to end another person's life? Is it fair to force a human being to live in severe pain and suffering in the final days, months or years of life?
The bill has three components. It would expand the palliative care system across Quebec to make better end-of-life care a priority. It would establish a protocol for doctors providing sedation to suffering patients until such time as their natural death occurs. And it would establish a framework for those patients with a painful terminal condition who opt to put an end to their life.
Patients eligible must be adults and must provide their full and informed consent repeatedly as their condition worsens. Patients would be restricted to Quebec residents covered under the provincial health insurance program.
If legislation moves ahead, it will set a precedent in Canada. For decades, many terminally ill people have fought for the right to end their own lives with doctor-assisted-suicide; some have resorted to extreme measures, like taking their lives into their own hands, or by travelling to countries around the globe where euthanasia is legal. But in some instances suicide is impossible and travel is unfeasible.
In my opinion, the debate doesn't surround the sanctity of human life, but rather whether it is moral for government to allow one human being to assist in the consented killing of another.
While all parties in Quebec support the bill, concerns have been raised by others.
Some argue that allowing a doctor to end a patient's life contradicts the Criminal Code, which makes it an offence to cause a person's death even with that person's consent (euthanasia).
While it's assumed the number of people who opt for the procedure would be extremely minimal, it would have a massive effect on the Canadian health care and legal system.
We're all entitled to live freely. Are we going to be allowed to die freely too?
The bill won't be debated in the National Assembly until this fall.
