What is it about?
Individuals suffering intolerably from a medical condition are able to request medical assistance in dying (MAiD) under some circumstances. MAiD can either be a physician or nurse practitioner prescribing fatal drugs for the patient to self-administer or a physician directly administering lethal drugs. While laws around MAiD have been in effect in different areas of the world since 1942, Canada only recently made MAiD legal in 2016. Individuals under the age of 18 years are not allowed to receive MAiD in Canada. As laws exist in other countries that permit MAiD, the current review aims to 1) review laws and data around MAiD in Canada and other countries with particular attention on laws for minors; 2) address important ethical considerations for extending MAiD services to minors in Canada; and 3) provide recommendations for changes to current MAiD legislation in Canada based on the findings. Combining data from other countries with ethical factors involved for offering all options to relieve suffering, it is recommended that Canada extend MAiD legislation to mature minors with the inclusion of psychologists in the assessment of decision-making capacity and informed consent.
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Why is it important?
Canada's laws around medical assistance in dying (MAiD) are still relatively new. The current review provides recommendations for how to move forward in extending these laws to other vulnerable populations who are deserving of these services based on current parameters.
Perspectives
Medical assistance in dying (MAiD) is a vital part of healthcare. Now that it is decriminalized in Canada, policies and laws around MAiD should be regularly and critically reviewed in order to determine equitable treatment of all eligible people. Mature minors are one such group that appears to meet all other inclusion criteria aside from age, and are also a group who are afforded the same rights as adults in many circumstances. Thus, it would be advantageous to seriously consider removing the age criterion for receiving MAiD and to instead critically assess decision making capacity on an individual basis.
Michaela Patton
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Proposal for the extension of rights to medical assistance in dying (MAiD) to mature minors in Canada., Canadian Psychology/Psychologie canadienne, August 2021, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/cap0000219.
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