Jean Truchon

Debate over medical assistance in dying is heating up as a deadline approaches to expand the program to people whose sole underlying condition is a mental disorder. 

United Nations human rights experts are alarmed by what they see as a growing trend to enact legislation allowing medical assistance in dying for people suffering from non-terminal, disabling conditions.

Quebec Superior Court has granted the federal government a five-month extension to revise its legislation on medical assistance in dying, giving Ottawa until just before Christmas to conform with a provincial court ruling.

The Quebec government won't appeal a court ruling last month that struck down sections of the provincial law on medically assisted dying that were deemed unconstitutional.

A Quebec Superior Court judge has invalidated sections of both the federal and Quebec laws on medically assisted dying, ruling on Wednesday, September 11, 2019, they were too restrictive and therefore unconstitutional.

Armed with a court judgment that potentially expands access to medical aid in dying across the country, one of the Quebecers who led the legal fight described it on Thursday, September 12, 2019, as a win for those struggling with incurable, debilitating diseases.

Two Quebecers suffering from incurable degenerative diseases are arguing that laws governing medical assistance in dying are unconstitutional and that legislators exceeded their powers by setting overly strict criteria.

Two Quebecers suffering from incurable degenerative diseases were in court Monday to challenge provincial and federal laws that have left them ineligible for medically assisted death.