Quebec defies federal government to consider allowing assisted dying in certain circumstances

Lawyers have cleared the way for the province of Quebec to allow doctors to help patients with incurable conditions to die.

Quebec has the constitutional power to prevent such doctors from being prosecuted, a 450 page report by three legal experts concluded.

Assisted dying is banned under Canada’s Criminal Code and opposed by the federal government.

But in light of the report, published in French on Tuesday 15 January,1 Quebec politicians are planning to produce draft legislation by June 2013 that would permit assisted dying in specific cases.

The report recommended that assisted dying should …