I’ve noticed misunderstandings about medical aid in dying (MAID). Here’s the deal:
MAID has been legal in Switzerland since 1942.
In the US, MAID is allowed in 13 states. Legislation is pending
in at least 16 other states. To receive MAID in the US you must be terminally ill with less than
six months to live. Except for Oregon and Vermont, you must also be a
resident of one of the states in which MAID is allowed.
MAID is legal for residents of Canada. In 2021, Canada removed the requirement that a
person’s death must be “reasonably foreseeable.” The central principle of
Canada’s stance on euthanasia is autonomy—honoring a patient’s wishes to be in
control.
As one Canadian physician wrote in a letter to the editor of
The New York Times, “I agree that patients considering MAID deserve careful
exploration of their suffering and access to counseling, palliative care and
social support. But counseling should support patients’ decisions, not be
another test they must pass before their choice is respected.…I have asked
patients requesting MAID what they would need to no longer want it. Overwhelmingly,
the answer is not counseling, housing or companionship. It is a cure, or a reversal
of irreversible decline, something that medicine cannot offer.”
For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.
