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THE QUESTION
Can you describe a "typical" assisted death? I would like to know exactly what is given to the patient and whether it involves any suffering.
THE ANSWER
The federal government is still in the process of drafting assisted-dying legislation. It has until June 6 to enact a new law that complies with a Supreme Court of Canada ruling in 2015 that struck down the country’s ban on doctor-assisted death.
So, we can't yet say with certainty what type of assisted death will be available to a majority of Canadians. (Quebec adopted its own protocol in December.)
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But it will likely follow the examples set in other places where medically assisted dying has been permitted for many years. There are essentially two different approaches:
- In the Netherlands, a physician administers a combination of drugs either through an IV needle or by mouth. (The Quebec approach, in which a physician must be present, is partly based on the Netherlands model.)
- In the U.S. state of Oregon, a doctor writes a prescription for the patient who can then pick up the oral medication at a local pharmacy. The patient is basically in control and decides when and where to take the lethal dose (100 or more capsules) that is mixed into a sweet drink such as juice, to mask the bitter taste. The patient is usually instructed also to take an anti-nausea medication beforehand to prevent vomiting up the toxic drink.
An expert panel, appointed by the provincial and territorial governments, has recommended that Canadians be given both options.
"It should be the patient's choice," says Maureen Taylor, a physician assistant and co-chair of the advisory group.
Taylor is the widow of Dr. Donald Low, a highly-respected microbiologist who made a passionate appeal for assisted death before he succumbed to brain cancer in 2013.
"I know for Don, we didn't want anyone else there when he died," Taylor says. "He would have been happy to take the medication at home."
A special joint parliamentary committee, made up of 10 members of Parliament and five senators, also produced a list of recommendations related to eligibility and access to medical assistance in dying.
However, it did not deal with the specifics of how the drugs should be administered, leaving those details to the medical profession, and the provincial and territorial governments, which are constitutionally responsible for delivering health care.
"We have left that somewhat open," Liberal MP Rob Oliphant, co-chair of the committee, says. "We believe that it should be a matter of clinical practice guidelines with the best interest of the patient in mind."
But regardless of what the two committees proposed, the method used to hasten death may at least initially hinge on drug access.
Right now, the main oral medications used for assisted death in Oregon – secobarbital and pentobarbital – aren't available in Canada, says Dr. Ellen Wiebe, a clinical professor in the department of medicine at the University of British Columbia.
Other oral medications could be used, but the alternatives can take a relatively long time to bring about death – four to 10 hours. By contrast, the IV drugs lead to death in about 15 to 20 minutes.
For that reason alone, Wiebe expects most patients will prefer the IV drugs injected by a health-care provider.
Wiebe is one of the first Canadian physicians to take part in a medically assisted death. She attended to a Calgary woman who had obtained court approval in February for an assisted death – ahead of the new federal legislation being passed. The woman suffered from advanced amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a neuromuscular disease that had left her almost completely paralyzed.
Wiebe travelled to the Netherlands earlier this year to study first hand how Dutch doctors carry out assisted dying. Most of their patients – 90 per cent – select the IV medications.
The Dutch IV protocol involves the injection of three separate drugs:
- The first medication is a sedative that relaxes the patient and induces sleep.
- The second drug puts the patient into a coma and eliminates any reflexive movements.
- The third drug is a neuromuscular block that paralyzes the muscles, including those involved in breathing, thereby resulting in death.
"For the patients, they just go to sleep and won't wake up," Wiebe explains.
In some ways, it's a more peaceful passing than what might happen naturally.
Wiebe points out that terminally ill patients often slip into a coma when they are dying and it may take over a day before the heart stops.
"With a planned death, it is much easier on the family members because it takes minutes instead of hours."
The goal of a medically assisted death, she adds, is to the make the patient feel and appear comfortable. So, the IV medications work in a way that eliminates any gasping or shaking that might upset the loved ones sitting at the bedside.
Both the parliamentary and the provincial-territorial committees recommended that other health professionals – such as nurse practitioners and physician assistants – acting under the supervision of a physician, should be legally permitted to administer the lethal doses.
Otherwise, "we just don't have the supply of doctors to be able to provide a physician on site in every remote area," Taylor says.
Oliphant, who has been a United Church minister for 30 years, believes only a small fraction of Canadians will eventually opt for an assisted death.
Yet, simply having that choice available "will provide peace of mind" says Oliphant, who has been at the bedside of many dying patients in his role as a minister.
"The thought of the pain is very, very worrisome to some people. They want to have the option of assisted death" even though they may not follow through in the end, he says.
That's certainly the pattern that has emerged in other places where assisted death is legal. Far more people discuss it with their doctors than act on it. In the Netherlands, for instance, only 3 per cent of people rely on a doctor to hasten death. "The reality of the journey is usually better than they imagined," Oliphant says.
Paul Taylor is a patient navigation adviser at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. He is a former health editor of The Globe and Mail. You can find him on Twitter @epaultaylor and online at Sunnybrook’s Your Health Matters.