Book – Unravelling MAiD in Canada

Description

Unravelling MAiD in Canada: Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide as Medical Care

How legalized medical assistance in dying has expanded more rapidly in Canada than in any other country – and what that means for health care and broader society.

Since legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide as medical assistance in dying (MAiD) in 2016, Canada has witnessed an internationally unprecedented expansion of the practice, making it the country with the highest number of MAiD deaths.

Initially introduced to relieve suffering in a broad end-of-life context, the law expanded quickly to make MAiD available to disabled Canadians not approaching their natural deaths. MAID will also become legal for sole reasons of mental illness sometime after 2027, and there are plans to expand it further to include minors and advance requests. From a cross-disciplinary perspective, including contributions from authors with lived experience, Indigenous perspectives, and expertise in medicine, mental health, disability, law, and ethics, Unravelling MAiD in Canada challenges readers with the ethical, medical, legal, societal, and disability justice rights concerns that have arisen in regard to this hotly debated irreversible practice.

Canada now provides more state-facilitated euthanasia and assisted suicide than any other country. This volume puts forth critical reflections and valuable insights as more jurisdictions consider their own assisted dying laws and policies.

552 pages, paperback. April 2025

Authors:

Ramona Coelho is a family physician in London, Ontario, and a founding member of Physicians Together with Vulnerable Canadians.

K. Sonu Gaind is professor and governor at the University of Toronto and chief of psychiatry at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.

Trudo Lemmens is professor and Scholl Chair in Health Law and Policy at the Faculty of Law and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health of the University of Toronto.