New poll: Quebeckers do not support “medical aid in dying”

As Quebec wades into ‘end of life care’ with their vote (2nd reading) today, LifeCanada issued this press release, noting that a majority of Quebec residents are NOT in favour of what the government terms “medical aid in dying” (a euphemism for euthanasia).

Specifically, in the poll conducted by Abingdon Research (October 23-28), 47% said Bill 52 requires further study, while another 14% expressed opposition to the idea of allowing doctors to kill their patients. Only a minority 35% were in favour of the bill.

Respondents were concerned with the actual rate of ‘non-consensual patient terminations’ (aka death without knowledge of the fact that you are about to be snuffed out) that has occurred in other jurisdictions, like Belgium, for instance.  Doctors (and nurses) actually admit to killing their patients without their consent, in about 1/3 of the actual REPORTED euthanasia deaths that occur in that country.  Bearing in mind that there would be a percentage of doctors who would not report their acts of “non-consensual patient terminations”, for fear that the authorities who are supposed to be minding the “safeguards” might actually take notice.

Here’s a little quote: (see article here)

The researchers found that a fifth of nurses admitted being involved in the assisted suicide of a patient.

But nearly half of these  –  120 of 248  –  also said there was no consent.

‘The nurses in our study operated beyond the legal margins of their profession,’ said the report’s authors in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

It is likely many nurses ‘ under-reported’ their involvement for fear of admitting an illegal activity, the study said.

But it added that many were probably acting according to their patients’ wishes, ‘even if there was no explicit request’.

That’s consoling…  the patient “probably” wanted to die, even though they didn’t actually ask for it.  I think this illustrates very nicely one of the problems with legalizing euthanasia – in the eyes of those administering it, it actually becomes a medical act that needs to be prescribed.  And the doctor always knows best.

Keep in mind that Bill 52, the Quebec Bill to legalize euthanasia, is actually modeled on the Belgium law.

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