This book, written both for a Canadian and an international readership, provides a multidisciplinary review of the framework and performance of the Canadian Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) program. In the first five years (2015-2021) of operation, this program delivered voluntary euthanasia and assistance in suicide to over 30,000 Canadian residents, presently representing a 30% annual growth. Looking back on these first five years, the 30 Canadian scholars and clinicians contributing to this volume raise important issues and attempt to answer key questions that have arisen in regards to its operation and its stated objectives. This volume strikes the most appropriate balance between the autonomy of persons who seek medical assistance, versus the interests and protection of vulnerable persons. Finally, the book makes suggestions on how the program can presently be improved. It identifies gaps in knowledge about MAID’s operational program and its impact on individuals, families and society in order to stimulate the necessary research that is essential to the evolution of a healthy and well-balanced program. As a first, comprehensive examination of medically assisted deaths in Canada, this publication will be of great value to lay, professional, academic, political audiences both domestically and internationally, especially in jurisdictions that are examining their options of permitting assisted deaths.
Part 1: MAID in Law and Regulations.- Chapter 1. Radical Autonomy in
Supreme Court of Canada Jurisprudence (Dylan McGuinty).- Chapter 2. Carter v
Canada: Exploring the Ebb and Flow of Competing Societal Values (Mary J
Shariff).
Chapter 3. From a Court Judgment to Federal Law (Travis Dumsday).-
Chapter 4. We Should Not Lightly Assume: A Review of Legislative,
Regulatory and Jurisprudential Developments of MAID Safeguards (David W.
Shannon).- Chapter 5. FReasonably Foreseeable Natural Death Requirement in
Bill C-7, and Expressivist Harm (Jonas-Sébastien Beaudry).- Part
2: Operational Issues in the MAID program.- Chapter 6. Medical Assistance in
Dying Step-by-Step: Processes and Challenges (Alireza Bagheri).- Chapter
7. Monitoring of MAID: Deficits of Transparency and Accountability (Jaro
Kotalik).- Chapter 8. CFederal Annual Reports on MAID: Informative but
Incomplete Picture (JaroKotalik).- Chapter 9. Organ Donation after Medical
Assistance in Dying (Ryan Tonkens).- Chapter 10. Medical Practice in Presence
of MAID (Amy Hendricks).- Part 3: Palliative Care and MAID.- Chapter
11. Palliative Care: Captive and Casualty of Carter v Canada? (Mary J
Shariff).- Chapter 12. Palliative Care and Medical Assistance in Dying
(Leonie Herx).- Chapter 13. Suffering as a Criterion for Medical Assistance
in Dying (John F. Scott).- Chapter 14. The Assessment and Relief of Suffering
in the Shadow of MAID (John F. Scott).- Part 4:Mental Disorders and
MAID.- Chapter 15. Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) and Suicide: A
community perspective (Mara Grunau).- Chapter 16. Unbalanced: Mental Illness,
MAID, and Medico-Legal Principles (David W. Shannon).- Chapter 17. MAID for
Persons with Mental Illness as a Sole Eligibility Criterion (Sephora
Tang).- Chapter 18. MAID for MentalIllness: What Exactly is Being Consented
To? (John Maher).- Part 5: Disability Perspectives, Human Rights and
MAID.- Chapter 19. MAID to Die by Medical and Systemic Ableism (Heidi
Janz).- Chapter 20. Assisted Life Before Assisted Death: Disability
Discomfort Regarding MAID (Tim Stainton).- Chapter 21. Implementing Medical
Assistance in Dying in Canada: Implications for people with intellectual and
developmental disabilities (William F. Sullivan).- Chapter 22. The
Psychosocial Aspects of Adapting to Traumatic Non-Life-Threatening Disability
(Irmo Marini).- Chapter 23. Canadas Medical Assistance in Dying Law and the
Rights to Life and Equality at International Law (Roberto Lattanzio).- Part
6: Social and Cultural Issues of the MAID Programme.- Chapter 24. Examining
Indigenous Perspectives on Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) (Dwight
Newman).- Chapter 25. Patient Physician Relationship and MAID: Trust and
Autonomy (Louisa Pedri).
Chapter 26. The Importance of Conscience as an
Independent Freedom (Derek Ross).
Chapter 27. Freedom of Conscience and
Medical Assistance in Dying Clinical Perspective (Simon Czajkowski).-
Chapter 28. Spirit at the Gateway: Religious Reflections on Medical
Assistance in Dying (Christine Jamieson).
Chapter 29. MAID Practice and
Impact (Jaro Kotalik).
Chapter 30. MAID: Pasts, Present and Futures (Tom
Koch).- Part 7: Overview and Conclusions.- Chapter 31. Overview and
Conclusions.
Jaro Kotalik, MD (Charles University, Prague), DMRT (University of Toronto), M.A. (Medical Ethics and Law, Kings College, London, UK), FRCPC, is Professor, Northern Ontario School of Medicine University; Adjunct Professor, Department of Philosophy, Lakehead University; Associate Member of the World Medical Association. He served as a radiation oncologist, CEO of Thunder Bay Regional Cancer Centre, Vice President of Cancer Care Ontario and Clinical Professor of McMaster University. He founded the Centre for Health Care Ethics at Lakehead University, was its director for 12 years and is now Chair of its Executive Committee. He was appointed to the National Council for Ethics in Human Research and to several committees of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons. He served as a bioethics consultant to many organizations, including Health Canada and Swiss National Bioethics Committee.
David Shannon is a member of the Law Society Ontario practicing health law in Thunder Bay, Ontario. He received a Masters of Law degree at the London School of Economics, and has continued in his law practice and non-government organization leadership since then. His Dave Shannon Cross-Canada Tour in 1997 gained national media attention as he became the first quadriplegic to trek across Canada in a motorized wheelchair, and in 2009 he set another first by going to the North Pole celebrating the message that seemingly insurmountable barriers can be overcome.
Shannon has won numerous prestigious awards and honours, such as the Order of Ontario and the Order of Canada for his work advancing the rights of disabled persons and other minority groups in Canada and abroad. His academic and professional body of work has been expansive within the realm of human rights and health law. David has also been a sessional lecturer at Lakehead University and Negahnewin College at both the undergraduate and graduate level as well keynote speaker at numerous conferences across North America.
