Parental challenge on assisted dying for children expected

Physician-assisted dying as it pertainsto children will be one of the topics discussed at the Canadian Paediatric Society conference being held this week in Charlottetown.

• Right to die: Should 'mature minors' have access to doctor-assisted death?

Dr. Dawn Davies, the group's chair on bioethics and a pediatric palliative care physician in Edmonton, told CBC News now that there is a law in Canada for adults when it comes to assisted dying, the issue of mature minors will be the subject of an independent review.

Thatreview will address the circumstances under which a person under the age of 18 might be able to request a physician-assisted death, but Davies said most requests to the palliative care community in Canada come from parents, not teenagers.

The new law doesn't provide for a surrogate decision maker to act on behalf of another person.

"That's where the challenges are going to come actually, is from parents who would be able to make virtually any other medical decision on behalf of their child, but they will not be able to make that decision," said Davies.

"I think those are where the charter challenges to the court are actually going to come from, is going to be parents."

Broad consultations required

When it comes to mature minors, Davies hopes there will be broad consultation in the review process.

"Not just from pediatric child health, but also from child protection, parents themselves, mature minors themselves," she said.

"Then I think we can have a better process that would exclude mature minors from being able to, you know, apply for medically-assisted dying if they had anything other than a terminal illness."

A shortage of pediatric palliative care

On a related issue, Davies said there are 20 full-time pediatric palliative care physician positions in Canada, and that is not enough..

"For the number of kids that die in Canada every year, that is like a woefully inadequate number of people with specialized training in palliative care, I think, to say that we're doing a very good job of managing the symptoms of kids at the end of life," she said.

The Canadian Paediatric Society conference runs Wednesday through Saturday.

• MORE P.E.I. NEWS |Getting tourists to stay longer focus of TIAPEI new 5 year strategy
• MORE P.E.I. NEWS |Prince County businesses make pitch to immigrant entrepreneurs