Quebec hoping to lead the way on opening up medical aid in dying

Politicians at Quebec's National Assembly will begin Friday considering the thorny question of whether to open up access to medical assistance in dying to people with mental illness, as an all-party committee begins hearing from experts.

"These are sensitive, delicate and important questions for Quebecers," Coalition Avenir Québec MNA Nancy Guillemette, who's presiding over the hearings, said Thursday at a news conference.

"I don't think anyone anyone would appreciate us playing politics with this," she said, stressing that all parties in the National Assembly have agreed to work together on the issue.

Quebec was the first province in Canada to pass a law legalizing assisted dying in 2014. That legislation too was the product of an all-party committee.

"Quebec was a pioneer in medical aid in dying and end-of-life care, and with this committee we count on continuing to be," Guillemette said.

Quebec once again a step ahead of Ottawa

Ottawa already revamped its medical assistance in dying law in March, removing the requirement for a person's natural death to be "reasonably foreseeable" in order to qualify.

But the federal government tabled the question of whether to allow people with mental illness to seek medical assistance in dying, referring it to a parliamentary committee for study.  The committee has two years to come up with a plan.

Quebec's National Assembly committee will issue a final report this fall, which will likely have some influence on Ottawa.

The CAQ government also backed off its own plan to open up assisted dying to people with mental illness in 2020, a move which ultimately led to the creation of this committee.

For the next two weeks the committee will hear testimony from experts including doctors, professors and lawyers.

During a second round of hearings in the summer lobby groups and individuals will have their chance to weigh in.