Module 2: Direct Comprehensive Primary Care in the LTC Setting
64 2.7.7 Medical Assistance in Dying
Content Warning: The following lesson includes a discussion of medical assistance in dying. This content is disturbing, so we encourage you to prepare yourself emotionally before proceeding. If you believe that the reading will be traumatizing for you, then you may choose to forgo it.
Medical assistance in dying (MAID) has been legal in Canada since 2016 following the royal assent of Bill C-14.
Nurse practitioners, physicians, pharmacists, and “persons aiding practitioners” (including nurses) are permitted to help those who have explicitly requested MAID.
In 2022, there were 13,241 MAID provisions reported in Canada, accounting for 4.1% of all deaths in Canada, 7.6% of these provisions occurred in Residential Care Facilities (which includes LTC)
In accordance with federal legislation, MAID includes circumstances where a medical practitioner or nurse practitioner, at an individual’s request:
- Administers a substance that causes an individual’s death (previously referred to as euthanasia) or
- Prescribes a substance for an individual to self-administer to cause their own death (previously referred to as physician assisted suicide)[1][2][3]
To be eligible for MAID, one must meet all the following criteria:
- Be eligible for health services funded by a province or territory, or the federal government
- Be at least 18 years old and mentally competent
- Have a grievous and irremediable medical condition
- Make a voluntary request for medical assistance in dying
- Give informed consent to receive medical assistance in dying