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posted by janrinok on Saturday September 28 2019, @06:17PM   Printer-friendly
from the MAD dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Since Canada legalized Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) in 2016, as of Oct. 31, 2018, more than 6,700 Canadians have chosen medications to end their life.

Canadians who meet eligibility requirements can opt to self-administer or have a clinician administer these medications; the vast majority of people choosing MAiD have had their medications delivered by physicians or nurse practitioners. Canada is the first country to permit nurse practitioners to assess for medically assisted dying eligibility and to provide it.

The precise meaning and implications of MAiD—in particular, who can request medical assistance in dying in Canada—is still evolving through court rulings. Québec's Supreme Court recently struck down the reasonably foreseeable death requirement under the Criminal Code and the end-of-life requirement under Québec's Act Respecting End-of-Life Care.

Without the requirement of a reasonably foreseeable death, it is likely that other legal challenges will occur to extend assisted dying to other groups such as those whose sole underlying condition is severe mental illness.

Our research has explored how the nursing profession is regulating the new area of responsibility towards medically assisted dying and how nursing ethics might guide policy and practical implications of nurses' experiences.

Current legislation guards the right of health-care providers to conscientiously object to participation in MAiD. Nurses who do conscientiously object have a professional obligation to inform their employers of that objection, to report requests for MAiD, and to not abandon their clients. They also must ensure that their choices are based on "informed, reflective choice and are not based on prejudice, fear or convenience."

The nurses who surround the process of medically assisted dying are an important source of insight into the complex and nuanced conversations our society needs to have about what it is like to choose, or be involved with, this new option at the end of life, and to be involved in supporting patients and their families toward death with compassion.

Our most recent research involved interviews with 59 nurse practitioners or registered nurses across Canada who accompanied patients and families along the journey of medically assisted dying or who had chosen to conscientiously object. Nurses worked across the spectrum of care in acute, residential and home-care settings.

[...] With the changing landscape of medically assisted dying in Canada, the need for reflective conversations becomes ever more urgent. We need to better understand how medically assisted dying changes the nature of death to which we have become accustomed and how those changes impact all those involved.


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  • (Score: 3, Touché) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Saturday September 28 2019, @11:56PM (1 child)

    by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Saturday September 28 2019, @11:56PM (#900099) Journal

    Yeah, because none of the places where the process is legal have any safeguards whatsoever [deathwithdignity.org], or verification that a patient's condition is in fact terminal and suffering is expected, or anything like that....

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  • (Score: 2) by dry on Monday September 30 2019, @03:53AM

    by dry (223) on Monday September 30 2019, @03:53AM (#900664) Journal

    There were 2 Supreme Court cases. The first one was by Sue Rodriguez who wasn't terminal but has a really shitty quality of life, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/rodriguez-case-1993 [thecanadianencyclopedia.ca] due to ALS. She lost in a 5-4 decision. When the Supreme Court revisited a similar case, it was 9-0 in favour of allowing assisted suicide with no mention of being terminal, to quote

    “a competent adult person who (1) clearly consents to the termination of life; and (2) has a grievous and irremediable medical condition (including an illness, disease or disability) that causes enduring suffering that is intolerable to the individual in the circumstances of his or her condition.”

    Of course this freaked out the ruling Conservatives, who as usual were against individual rights other then making money or pushing Christian values, who added the terminally ill part after resisting following the Courts decision.