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A "euthanasia kit" available in Belgium for the general practitioners who want to practise euthanasias at patients' homes.ETIENNE ANSOTTE

The Quebec government says it is open to debating the legalization of euthanasia, reigniting a polarizing national debate that the Conservative federal government says it has no interest in revisiting.

Quebec Health and Social Services Minister Yves Bolduc, a physician before he entered politics, told reporters Thursday that when he practised medicine, he supported legalizing euthanasia under certain circumstances. He was responding to a draft report from the Quebec College of Physicians that recommended euthanasia be considered appropriate care in some cases.

The full report will not be made public until fall, but already it has sparked another round of discussion about whether patients who are suffering have the right to choose their own deaths.

"We will wait to see their conclusions and then we will make our recommendations. It is an issue that greatly interests me," the minister said. "In the past I expressed a great deal of interest regarding ethics and I published a chapter in a book on the issue. … I have an open mind on the matter."

Euthanasia and assisted suicide are banned under the Criminal Code, which falls under federal jurisdiction, so politicians in Ottawa would have to be persuaded to amend the law.

A spokesman for Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said Thursday the subject raises complex ethical, legal and medical issues.

"Although the government monitors these issues, it has no plans to propose any reforms to this area of the law," the spokesman said.

Euthanasia is legal in the Netherlands and Belgium, and some Canadians have travelled to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland, where assisted suicide is permitted, to end their lives. The clinic was in the news this week when renowned British conductor Sir Edward Thomas Downes and his wife chose to die there together after she was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

In Oregon, residents are permitted to kill themselves with a fatal dose of prescribed medication if they are diagnosed with a terminal disease that's expected kill them within six months. A similar proposal was recently approved by referendum in the state of Washington.

But Ingrid de Kock, president-elect of the Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians, said palliative care doctors would oppose any move to change the law on euthanasia in this country.

"I think there's a strong sense amongst us, as there is among the general public, that [euthanasia]can be a very slippery slope," Dr. de Kock said.

"Most people who die never see a palliative care provider, and so they don't have optimized pain and symptom control. You can imagine that if you're in a lot of pain then one might want to consider euthanasia, but I think we often see if you have good pain and symptom control [euthanasia]becomes a non-issue."

Ruth von Fuchs, president of the Right to Die Society of Canada, said it's no surprise Quebec is leading the way in this debate. She said Quebec, with its more European bent, typically shows 80-per-cent support for euthanasia or assisted suicide in public opinion polls.

"What I think [the Quebec College of Physicians]is trying to say is that death is sometimes a benefit. It's sometimes a form of care. It's the most practical, most sensible and the most honest kind of care."

At the moment, many people in pain at the end of life are prescribed large doses of morphine or other pain killers that can have the secondary effect of stopping breathing.

"They're just trying to be a little more open about a practice that already exists," Ms. von Fuchs said.

Arthur Schafer, director of the University of Manitoba's centre for professional and applied ethics, said it's likely only a matter of time before the physician's role as end-of-life caregiver is expanded in Canada to include a form of voluntary assisted suicide, subject to significant safeguards.

"I think some kind of law reform will come in Canada, probably along the lines of Oregon," Prof. Schafer said, though he added it may take time. "Thousands of Canadians die every year after life support is withdrawn either at their request or the request of their family because prolonging their dying would serve no purpose. We don't call that euthanasia, we call it respect for patient autonomy. Critics said this would open the floodgates, it would be a slippery slope. … The actual result is that our hospitals are kinder, gentler places."

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