Nine years after Canada legalized Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID), the demand has surpassed expectations, leading to ethical challenges for doctors. The principle of patient autonomy is central to Canada's approach, allowing individuals to seek MAID without exhausting all reasonable treatment options. This contrasts with practices in other countries such as the Netherlands. Clinicians grapple with the complexities of supporting patients in their decision to die, reflecting on the moral implications of this responsibility as new types of MAID requests arise.
In Canada, to receive MAID, a patient does not have to have exhausted all other reasonable options to alleviate their suffering. They just have to be made aware of them.
This is the story of an ideology in motion, of what happens when a nation enshrines a right before reckoning with the totality of its logic.
Clinicians are also reckoning with a philosophical question that gets more and more complicated as new types of MAID requests emerge.
An emphasis on patient autonomy is the guiding principle of MAID, defining Canada's culture around assisted death.
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