The importance of debating major social issues in parliament: the example of Quebec's Act respecting end-of-life care.

• Author: Chagnon, Jacques

In an age when parliaments are often criticized for being too partisan in nature, it is still possible for legislatures to serve as exceptional forums to conduct in-depth examination of major social issues and foster broad-based consensus. Using the process employed when considering Quebec's recent Act respecting end-of-life care as an example, the author shows how important and contentious social matters can be debated and examined in a constructive way by legislators, along with extensive participation from civil society. He concludes by proposing that Canadian parliaments may want to investigate whether to follow the examples of Finland and France by creating special committees to review such issues.

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Parliaments, at their best, are capable of creating exceptional forums in which to conduct in-depth examination of major social issues, in a calm and non-partisan manner. Such initiatives should take place more often in my view because they give rise to the kind of broad-based consensus that fosters social progress. They also enhance the image of Parliament, which is too often seen as an arena for partisan debate. Quebec's recent discussions surrounding its new Act respecting end-of life care provide one recent example of the benefit of debating social issues.

The Select Committee on Dying with Dignity

The Act respecting end-of-life care was adopted in June 2014. Founded on respect, compassion and understanding, with regard to people who are at the end of their lives, the act sets out the rights relating to end-of-life care and prescribes the conditions under which a person may obtain medical aid to die. The debate on euthanasia and assisted suicide has been going on in Quebec for some 30 years, during which time a number of court rulings have been handed down on the subject.

The debate reached an important juncture in 2009, when the College des medecins du Quebec published a paper which proposed that society, medical practitioners and the legislature consider whether euthanasia might not be, in cases of exceptional suffering, an appropriate final step in the continuum of end-of-life care. At about the same time, opinion polls showed that the public, in general, and doctors, in particular, supported medically assisted dying by a margin of more than 70 per cent, provided appropriate safeguards were put in place.

It was against this background that, on December 4, 2009, the Members of the National Assembly unanimously adopted a motion to create a select committee to study the issues relating to dying with dignity.

The Select Committee on Dying with Dignity was chaired by a government MNA and...