Quebec has authorized medical practitioners to administer euthanasia to patients who are unresponsive or mentally incapacitated as long as permission was given in advance. The Government of Quebec’s Bill 11, put in motion in 2023 and adopted on Wednesday of this week, bypasses Canada’s Criminal Code, and the practices it allows is considered murder under federal law. Province officials have instructed prosecutors to ignore the relevant sections of the Criminal Code. Further, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government said they won’t challenge the new law, but warned Canadian doctors in other provinces not to expect the same rules to apply to them when administering Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD). “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,” wrote the Ministry of Health, per the National Post. .WATCH: MAiD doctor laughs after euthanizing 400 Canadians .Canada’s current law on state euthanasia states doctors can authorize MAiD for any adult with a “grievous and irremediable medical condition,” but the patient must provide “informed consent” immediately before undergoing the procedure. Should the patient become unresponsive or mentally incompetent, giving MAiD becomes illegal. In Quebec as of this week, the law no longer applies. Bill 11 bypasses the Criminal Code and states a patient who is unresponsive or mentally incapacitated can be killed as long as they gave “advance directive” to do so. That means a patient can be in a coma, have dementia or in some way “incapable of giving consent to care,” and as long as they earlier had given written consent to die through assisted suicide, medical practitioners can euthanize them. .IN-DEPTH: Canadian Armed Forces members who die from MAiD equated to 'died in combat'.The province didn’t stop there — the government tried to get the federal government to change the Criminal Code, but were denied. Therefore, as the Post pointed out, any Quebec practitioner administering assisted suicide to a mentally incapacitated patient based on an advance directive could, under Canadian law, be considered as committing homicide. The Criminal Code explicitly prohibits a doctor from intentionally killing a patient, with the exception of an authorized MAID request, since Trudeau’s amendment in 2016. The Criminal Code states, “no person is entitled to consent to have death inflicted on them, and such consent does not affect the criminal responsibility of any person who inflicts death on the person who gave consent.” .Ontario report indicates multiple MAiD deaths are non-terminal patients, including vax-injured. Outside these boundaries, if a health worker euthanizes a patient they could be ruled guilty of manslaughter or first-degree murder — which both come with life sentences, or aiding someone who dies by suicide, which comes with a 14-year sentence. Yet, Quebec prosecutors said Wednesday the Quebec Ministry of Justice ordered them not to pursue criminal charges related to any MAiD death under the provisions of Bill 11, per the Post. In a directive issued by Patrick Michel, Quebec’s director of criminal and penal prosecutions, last month, the department told persecutors state euthanasia was supported by a “broad consensus of Quebec society” and said it was in the public interest to “respect the autonomous right of people who wish to obtain medical assistance in dying.”“It would not be in the public interest to authorize a criminal prosecution in connection with a death occurring in the context of medical assistance in dying … if the analysis of the evidence confirms that the care was provided in compliance with wishes expressed in a free and informed manner,” reads the directive.
