The laws in Canada for medical assistance in dying (MAID) should be the strictest in the world — since it's written in the Criminal Code — but for years, many medical practitioners have not been following the regulations. This is according to Alexander Raikin, a Visiting Fellow in the Bioethics, Technology and Human Flourishing Program at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, who has written extensively on this matter.Some of the most notable accounts of this have been in Ontario and Quebec."In Quebec, we know that there are, you know, as of now, there have been hundreds of cases where made practitioners failed to follow the law," stated Raikin."On Ontario's side, I can't really explain.""The Chief Coroner of Ontario has not sent a single case to the police for investigate.""The Provincial Coroner in Ontario has a lot of powers that he could use to actually investigate some of these cases."Huh, what else about these cases isn't common knowledge to Canadians? Check out the clip below to find out..Raikin has previously written about Quebec's health practitioners' inability to follow proper procedure when treating patients with MAID.In 2023, Quebec's independent monitoring agency for MAID reviewed only 4% of MAID cases. And in Ontario's case, only 4% of MAID cases, the Chief Coroner of Ontario, Dirk Huyer, classified only 6% for full review."We know that, you know, if you do not follow the exact detailed safeguards and eligibility criteria under Canada's federal law, you are breaking a criminal law," states Raikin..To be eligible for MAID in Canada, a patient must qualify for health services federally or provincially, be 18 years or older and mentally competent, have a "grievous and irremediable medical condition”, make a voluntary request, and get informed consent.To provide MAID medical practitioners must be of the opinion that the person meets all of the eligible criteria, as well as many other requirements. "The last public statement that the Chief Coroner of Ontario made was a letter to every single Ontario healthcare practitioner warning of repeated compliance concerns with MAID providers, not following the Criminal Code," Raikin states."He was referring to violations and compliance concerns with the criminal code."."If this had been a healthy, normal society that would raise red flags.""And after the Chief Coroner of Ontario warned about this, that was the last public statement, but then he made many, many other statements to internally to physicians and nurses, including MAID providers where the exact same problem has continued over the years."Raikin stated that New York recently voted to legalize doctor assisted suicide and "one of the reasons that it passed on a very narrow vote was because the proponents of that bill specified that their assisted suicide bill would look nothing like Canada."Unfortunately, there seems to be much to learn about MAID that you may not — check out the clip here to bridge this gap.
