Talk to clients about doctor-assisted death rules

If your clients are wondering if they should update their PoAs or living wills to take doctor-assisted death into account, tell them to hold off.

As of today, doctor-assisted death is legal in Canada, but the rules meant to govern such an action have yet to be passed into law.

Read: 5 things to know about the federal assisted dying bill

The Supreme Court gave the federal government until June 6 to pass laws regulating assisted death. That day is here but Bill C-14 is still days or weeks from being passed. This bill will limit the practice to consenting adults “in an advanced stage of irreversible decline.”

“Unfortunately, despite tremendous effort, this bill is not yet in place,” Health Minister Jane Philpott told health care workers gathered at a conference in Ottawa yesterday.

She urged the doctors to continue voicing their support for C-14, which is now undergoing scrutiny in the Senate.

Today, senators on Parliament’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee are hearing from experts in Canada’s legal and health communities. That includes a constitutional expert who will say C-14 doesn’t comply with the Supreme Court ruling because it restricts access to people who are already near death.

C-14 is more restrictive than the Supreme Court ruling, allowing assisted death only for those suffering from a serious and incurable disease, illness or disability, and for those for whom a natural death is “reasonably foreseeable.”

Read: Request to die shouldn’t come from substitute decision maker

In 2015, the top court directed that assisted dying should be available to consenting adults with “grievous and irremediable” medical conditions who are enduring suffering that is intolerable to them.

The Senate legal committee will report its findings tomorrow at the earliest. From there, it will likely be days or weeks until the bill is passed. The Senate might also make amendments to the bill – which would mean it gets sent back to the House of Commons for more review.

Meanwhile, the government is urging the Senate to pass the law quickly, arguing the legislation is urgently needed to protect health care professionals and vulnerable people.

Read: What the right-to-die ruling means for POAs

However, critics argue that there will be no void; the eligibility criteria set out by the Supreme Court and guidelines issued by medical regulators in every province will apply to anyone seeking medical assistance to die.

So as lawmakers debate a national set of rules, research your province’s guidelines. For instance, several provinces explicitly rule out advance requests — meaning that your clients won’t be able to set out their wishes for an assisted death before becoming seriously ill.

This article runs down what you need to know about the rules in each province.