Article Text
PDF
Statistics from Altmetric.com
Canadian ethicists Jocelyn Downie and Udo Schuklenk seek to assess the effect of Canada’s decriminalisation of ‘medical assistance in dying’ (MAID) ‘to inform Canada’s ongoing discussions and because other countries will confront the same questions if they contemplate changing their assisted dying law.’1 Their assessment focuses on two arguments earlier levied against expansion of these procedures. The first is that of a ‘slippery slope’ and the second is what they disingenuously call, ‘social determinants of health’.
They conclude that, in both cases, the effect of legislation permitting first limited and then expanded options for medical termination has been benign. The argument in this brief commentary is that the ‘slippery slope’ is clearly evident and support for those with chronic, progressive diagnoses a clear contributor to the ever increasing number of persons seeking MAID.
Background
Downie and Schuklenk first review the legal and legislative history of MAID. In Carter v Canada (Attorney General), the courts found …
Footnotes
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.
Linked Articles
Read the full text or download the PDF:
Other content recommended for you
- Social determinants of health and slippery slopes in assisted dying debates: lessons from Canada
- Canadian neurosurgeons’ views on medical assistance in dying (MAID): a cross-sectional survey of Canadian Neurosurgical Society (CNSS) members
- Canadian French and English newspapers’ portrayals of physicians’ role and medical assistance in dying (MAiD) from 1972 to 2016: a qualitative textual analysis
- Considering medical assistance in dying for minors: the complexities of children’s voices
- Organ donation after medical assistance in dying or cessation of life-sustaining treatment requested by conscious patients: the Canadian context
- Words matter: ‘enduring intolerable suffering’ and the provider-side peril of Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada
- Making a case for the inclusion of refractory and severe mental illness as a sole criterion for Canadians requesting medical assistance in dying (MAiD): a review
- Taking the long view on slippery slope objections
- Impact of medical assistance in dying (MAiD) on family caregivers
- Exploring key stakeholders’ attitudes and opinions on medical assistance in dying and palliative care in Canada: a qualitative study protocol