Lawrence & Schiller

As of Oct. 30, people with dementia in Quebec are allowed to make advance requests for MAiD, before they lose the capacity to provide informed consent.

Quebec’s Health Department says it will be ready to meet the expected demand for advanced applications for medical assistance in dying when it begins accepting those requests next week.

All dementias are progressive neurodegenerative conditions with continuous decline in functional capacity.

Death and dying, being inherent to life itself, must be discussed openly rather than shrouded in morbid mystique.

Under the law, patients whose natural deaths are not reasonably foreseeable but whose condition leads to intolerable suffering can apply for a track-two assisted death.

The government issued a press release saying it has asked the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions to respect the conditions laid out in the province’s act respecting end-of-life care when it comes to pressing criminal charges.

An application filed by Dying with Dignity in Ontario Superior Court on Monday argues that it is discriminatory to bar people with mental disorders from being eligible for an assisted death when it is available to people who suffer physically.

Dr. Birinder Singh begins two-year term as Canadian Medical Protective Association president.