By Canadian Press

Jean Truchon, who fought to expand medically assisted death, receives procedure

Apr 8, 2020 | 7:18 AM

MONTREAL — One of the two Quebecers who successfully fought to expand medically assisted dying has received the procedure.

Jean Truchon says in a statement released posthumously that the COVID-19 pandemic forced him to push up the date he’d chosen to die.

Lawyers who represented Truchon announced his passing in a statement on Tuesday, saying he received medical aid in dying at a Montreal-area long-term care facility.

Truchon and Nicole Gladu — Quebecers who suffered from incurable degenerative diseases but didn’t qualify for a medically assisted death under the original rules — fought successfully to have the laws changed.

Their lawyers argued that the “reasonably foreseeable natural death” requirement of the Criminal Code, as well as a section of the Quebec law that states people must “be at the end of life,” were overly strict.

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A Quebec Superior Court ruling invalidated the laws in September 2019. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on April 8, 2020.

The Canadian Press