New research by ethicists, including Eric Racine, Director of the Pragmatic Health Ethics Research Unit at the IRCM, offers important conclusions and food for thought on the role of interdisciplinary support groups (ISGs) in the context of medical aid in dying (MAID), a particularly common end-of-life option in Quebec. The research was carried out by Catherine Perron as part of her doctorate in clinical ethics at the Université de Montréal, under the supervision of Dr. Racine and Marie-Eve Bouthillier, associate clinical professor at the Université de Montréal and head of the ethics center at the CISSS de Laval.
In Quebec, the ISGs are mandated to support those involved in the clinical, administrative, legal and ethical aspects of medical aid in dying (MAID). Their multi-disciplinary role is thus fundamental to the development of a procedure that has only been in force for a few years, and certain aspects of which remain to be fully understood and defined, with the aim of improving the provision of this ultimate care.
This article presents the results of a mixed-methods, multi-phase study conducted on SIGs, with the aim of describing current practices, critically analyzing them and formulating recommendations on promising practices for province-wide implementation.
In the course of this work, the researchers realized that an intermediate support approach should be favored, between total empowerment of the teams making up the GIS and centralization of MA applications (which would result in a lightening of the GIS's responsibilities).
Action always linked to context and values
The fundamental finding of this work is the importance of :
The structuring of SIGs and their practices, the researchers observe, is intimately linked to their values. The conclusions of this work call for the harmonization of SIGs and their practices (their composition is currently not very homogeneous, and varies greatly between establishments and regions), while taking into account their specific values and contexts, all to promote the equity and quality of services intended for MA applicants and those who support them.
The team would like to thank the MSSS for its support in this work.
