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Quebec premier who helped legalize euthanasia now has doubts
The premier of Quebec, who oversaw the legalization of euthanasia in 2014, now says he wouldn't vote in its favor again today.
Philippe Couillard was Quebec's premier in 2014, when euthanasia was legalized.
His liberal party helped oversee the legalization.
Couillard now says he might not support the same bill today after seeing how far it has come.
Known as Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD), assisted suicide and euthanasia were legalized in Quebec in 2014 while Couillard was premier, and the law took effect in December 2015. The bill was initially introduced by the Parti Québécois, but received multiparty support from Couillard's Liberals.
Since then, Quebec has become the world leader in euthanasia, and it shows no signs of slowing down. According to the 2024–2025 Report of the Commission on End-of-Life Care, 6,268 total deaths were committed between April 1, 2024, and March 31, 2025. This comprised more than seven percent (7.9%) of all deaths in Quebec, with a nine percent (9%) increase in MAiD deaths over the previous year.
Furthermore, Quebec's Justice Minister recently announced plans to amend the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms to include abortion and MAiD and to force doctors to participate in both.
Officials also announced they are moving to potentially allow euthanasia for people via advance directives, meaning someone could still be euthanized, even if they had requested euthanasia after receiving a diagnosis of dementia but later refused assisted death. Their advance directive, combined with their dementia diagnosis, means they could be killed anyway, even if they were no longer capable of consent.
A Quebec medical group also sent out a memorandum last year, telling health care workers that they are required to cooperate with MAiD requests, regardless of any conscientious objections they may have.
In a new interview with CBC's The House, Couillard said if he had the chance to do it again, he might not support the MAiD bill after seeing how rapidly it has been expanded.
"It was clearly reserved for terminal or pre-terminal conditions with a defined, unfortunate road to the end of life. And this is not the case anymore," he said. "I'm not sure that I would have again voted for that law with the extension that we have seen in the recent years."
Couillard also admitted that those who warned against the dangers of MAiD were right.
"I was warned about this by people opposing the law that told me, 'We see your motivation is good, but you will see, once you open the door you will not close it and it will open wider,'" he said. "And this is what happened."
A former neurosurgeon, Couillard openly said he now struggles with doubt.
"In general, when this hits me, I think about specific patients that I've known in my medical career that were in such deep distress and pain that I think we did the right thing," he said. "But I hope we didn't go too fast. I hope we didn't take this as a trivial matter, which is certainly not the case."
Live Action News is pro-life news and commentary from a pro-life perspective.
Our work is possible because of our donors. Please consider giving to further our work of changing hearts and minds on issues of life and human dignity.
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Guest Articles: To submit a guest article to Live Action News, email editor@liveaction.org with an attached Word document of 800-1000 words. Please also attach any photos relevant to your submission if applicable. If your submission is accepted for publication, you will be notified within three weeks. Guest articles are not compensated (see our Open License Agreement). Thank you for your interest in Live Action News!
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·Quebec premier who helped legalize euthanasia now has doubts
The premier of Quebec, who oversaw the legalization of euthanasia in 2014, now says he wouldn't vote in its favor again today.
Philippe Couillard was Quebec's premier in 2014, when euthanasia was legalized.
His liberal party helped oversee the legalization.
Couillard now says he might not support the same bill today after seeing how far it has come.
Known as Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD), assisted suicide and euthanasia were legalized in Quebec in 2014 while Couillard was premier, and the law took effect in December 2015. The bill was initially introduced by the Parti Québécois, but received multiparty support from Couillard's Liberals.
Since then, Quebec has become the world leader in euthanasia, and it shows no signs of slowing down. According to the 2024–2025 Report of the Commission on End-of-Life Care, 6,268 total deaths were committed between April 1, 2024, and March 31, 2025. This comprised more than seven percent (7.9%) of all deaths in Quebec, with a nine percent (9%) increase in MAiD deaths over the previous year.
Furthermore, Quebec's Justice Minister recently announced plans to amend the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms to include abortion and MAiD and to force doctors to participate in both.
Officials also announced they are moving to potentially allow euthanasia for people via advance directives, meaning someone could still be euthanized, even if they had requested euthanasia after receiving a diagnosis of dementia but later refused assisted death. Their advance directive, combined with their dementia diagnosis, means they could be killed anyway, even if they were no longer capable of consent.
A Quebec medical group also sent out a memorandum last year, telling health care workers that they are required to cooperate with MAiD requests, regardless of any conscientious objections they may have.
In a new interview with CBC's The House, Couillard said if he had the chance to do it again, he might not support the MAiD bill after seeing how rapidly it has been expanded.
"It was clearly reserved for terminal or pre-terminal conditions with a defined, unfortunate road to the end of life. And this is not the case anymore," he said. "I'm not sure that I would have again voted for that law with the extension that we have seen in the recent years."
Couillard also admitted that those who warned against the dangers of MAiD were right.
"I was warned about this by people opposing the law that told me, 'We see your motivation is good, but you will see, once you open the door you will not close it and it will open wider,'" he said. "And this is what happened."
A former neurosurgeon, Couillard openly said he now struggles with doubt.
"In general, when this hits me, I think about specific patients that I've known in my medical career that were in such deep distress and pain that I think we did the right thing," he said. "But I hope we didn't go too fast. I hope we didn't take this as a trivial matter, which is certainly not the case."
Live Action News is pro-life news and commentary from a pro-life perspective.
Our work is possible because of our donors. Please consider giving to further our work of changing hearts and minds on issues of life and human dignity.
Contact editor@liveaction.org for questions, corrections, or if you are seeking permission to reprint any Live Action News content.
Guest Articles: To submit a guest article to Live Action News, email editor@liveaction.org with an attached Word document of 800-1000 words. Please also attach any photos relevant to your submission if applicable. If your submission is accepted for publication, you will be notified within three weeks. Guest articles are not compensated (see our Open License Agreement). Thank you for your interest in Live Action News!
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·Guest Column
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·Issues
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