No system in place to gather information on the number of euthanasias or assisted suicides
By Deborah Gyapong
OTTAWA (CCN)
Obtaining accurate euthanasia statistics in Canada will be almost impossible, leaving no way of assessing possible instances of abuse, warns Alex Schadenberg.
The executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition said even in Quebec where the requirements for reporting and oversight are the most rigorous, euthanasia deaths are likely to be under-reported.
The Quebec system, like that of Belgium and the Netherlands, relies on doctors to self-report instances of euthanasia, he said. “The doctor does the death,” but we will have no way of knowing if he or she reports all of them, especially those that fail to meet the government’s criteria.
As for the rest of Canada, there is no system in place to gather information on the number of euthanasias or assisted suicides, Schadenberg said. “A system was promised, but we don’t know what it is.” The euthanasia law calls for a review in five year’s time.
Schadenberg said some smaller hospitals in Canada are not releasing any data on euthanasia for privacy reasons. He predicted euthanasia statistics could become as difficult to come by as abortion statistics are in Ontario, due to so-called privacy concerns.
Though there have been some news reports on the number of euthanasia deaths in Canada since the law came into effect in June, Schadenberg said the numbers “keep changing.”
Quebec’s oversight commission that examines whether doctors have followed the criteria for euthanasia is already being criticized as “too demanding and too curious,” said Aubert Martin, the executive director of the province’s grassroots anti-euthanasia organization Living with Dignity.
Quebec recently released a report showing 262 euthanasia deaths have taken place there since it passed its own legislation on Dec. 10. Quebec’s Health Minister Ga‚tan Barrette told journalists he was surprised at how high the figures were— about three times higher than the government anticipated. Barrette estimated the number could be as high as 300 by the end of the year, but Schadenberg thinks the figure will be more like 450.
“We were not surprised by that,” said Martin. A report after six months had already shown the numbers were “exceeding predictions by two or three times.”
Yet while the Quebec government expressed surprise at the numbers, it is pushing to remove some of the safeguards such as requiring a second doctor to approve a euthanasia request, Martin said. The bill was also supposed to improve access to palliative care but instead the government has pressured palliative care centres to provide euthanasia on their premises.
“Every precautionary measure sold as a way to pass the law is now seen as an obstacle,” Martin said. “So if we follow that logic, it’s easy to predict in the next years, what we call the slippery slope will be felt as wanted progress.”
Though the government claims there is a “consensus” regarding euthanasia, it contradicts this by saying it’s hard to find a second doctor to okay it, Martin said.
Across the province, Martin estimates only 10 to 12 doctors have been involved in those reported 262 deaths. In Quebec City, where most of the deaths by euthanasia have taken place “there are only two of them doing the job,” Martin said. “They’re the two complaining [about the requirement for a second doctor]”
In the recent government report, there were three cases of euthanasia that did not comply with the law but there is no information on what if anything will happen in those cases, Martin said. “We’re talking about euthanasia; we’re talking about killing a human being. This is criminal. Is there going to be any follow up?”
Schadenberg said the Quebec government will not divulge the circumstances of the three euthanasia deaths that were outside the law, though one patient was not terminally ill as required. There is no sign “they are even slapping the wrist of the doctor involved,” he said.
