MAID in Canada

In recent years, the way Canadian law defines the choice to end one's life has been significantly reformed. MAID in Canada examines what these changes reveal about the challenges of governing the practice of assisted death, and what Canada's recent, and still unfolding, experience with medical assistance in dying (MAiD) demonstrates about the relationship between law and society in the country. The number of people receiving MAiD has risen every year since it became legal – from roughly a thousand people in 2016 to nearly 16,500 in 2024. Explanations for this trend are difficult to disentangle from opinions about it, as deep ethical disagreements persist. Beginning with a review of the Supreme Court's landmark Carter decision, which invalidated the blanket ban on medical assistance in dying, this book reveals the ways in which the application of Canadian law has been evolving within and beyond its text. Reflecting critically on the law's role in establishing and managing social expectations around medically assisted death, legal expert Thomas B. McMorrow explores debates over MAiD eligibility and safeguards, especially the potential role of advance requests, and substitute and supported decision-making in MAiD. The definitive introduction to MAiD in Canada, this book illuminates key dimensions of the law, policy, and ethics affecting MAiD in order to inform scholarly discourse and public debate.