(Quebec) Jennifer Maccarone is “worried” and feels “rushed” in the study of Bill 11, which reviews the criteria for access to medical assistance in dying. She insists that the government must hold a forum of experts before deciding whether to allow people with neuromotor disabilities, or rather all those who have a disability, to request this ultimate care, if they meet the other criteria provided. by the law.
In a highly emotional press briefing on Thursday, the Liberal MNA for Westmount–Saint-Louis recalled that groups (including the Office for the Handicapped and the Barreau du Québec) said that allowing people with disabilities Serious and incurable “neuromotor” access to expanded access to medical assistance in dying was discriminatory. This criterion, provided for in Bill 11 of the Minister for Health and Seniors, Sonia Bélanger, is also in contradiction with the Canadian Criminal Code, which provides access to this care for all forms of disabilities. .
” I’m worried. I want to do my job as a parliamentarian properly. [I feel] pushed around, very emotional. It’s very, very, very sensitive,” Ms. Maccarone, whose two children have autism, said upfront.
Ms. Maccarone is concerned that people with a non-neuromotor disability who are capable of consenting to care do not have the same rights as all other citizens of Quebec, if they meet the criteria established to have access to medical assistance in dying.
“I’m really scared the moment I, I won’t be there for my kids, then they’ll face such a decision, then there won’t be proper support. Then I have the horror to think of seeing my children who are suffering, then [that they will not have] access to all the same rights then to all the same care as the other citizens”, a- she said.
“We have a responsibility to all citizens of Quebec to take the pulse of the population, to hear the experts. It is not a question of wanting to delay the passage of this law or the work of this bill. It will be important to continue the debate, to continue to hear the groups, the citizens in the parliamentary committee, but we need to have more information, we need to hear from the experts,” added Ms. Maccarone.
In a brief press scrum Thursday in Quebec City, Minister Sonia Bélanger said she was “surprised” by the exit of the Liberal MP, with whom she is sitting these days at the public hearings for Bill 11.
“In the different groups we met, some offered to take some time to talk more. So I say this morning: let’s continue our work. We are in full consultation. We have over 36 bands coming to meet us,” she said.
Ms. Bélanger then assured that she had no deadline for passing the bill and that she wanted to continue the cross-partisan work that guides the laws adopted in Quebec on this very specific subject.
Regarding the expert forum requested by the Liberal Party and other groups, the CAQ minister said that she “is not closing the door”, but that it is still too early to decide.