BOOK LAUNCH | Ramona Coelho, K. Sonu Gaind, and Trudo Lemmens – Unravelling MAiD in Canada

DETAILS AND REGISTRATION

Join the Macdonald-Laurier Institute for the launch of Unravelling MAiD in Canada: Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide as Medical Care, a new book that critically examines the evolution of MAiD policy and its troubling implications.

Euthanasia and assisted suicide – now known in Canada as Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) – has expanded rapidly in the 10 years since its introduction and is now the fifth-leading cause of death in Canada. Originally introduced as an exception to the Criminal code prohibitions on assisted suicide, homicide, and consent to death – intended to relieve suffering in a broad end-of-life context – its uptake has increased considerably and is now permitted under broader circumstances where death is not reasonably foreseeable, suffering deemed subjectively intolerable, and to vulnerable and disabled Canadians. Its rapid proliferation, which continues unabated, is raising urgent questions about where Canada’s policy is headed.

The event takes place at Kildare House, 323 Chapel Street, Ottawa, ON K1N 7Z2. 

Learn more: Unravelling MAiD in Canada: Rethinking Policy and Practice - Macdonald-Laurier Institute

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.

about the book

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.