The Christian Medical and Dental Association (CMDA) of Canada, along with more than 40 Nova Scotia medical practitioners and 10 Dalhousie medical school graduates, have urged the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia (CPSNS) to renege on a new policy they believe violates their conscience rights.

Despite concerns surrounding the implementation of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) for Canadian federal prisoners, the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) is confident the process is fool proof.

The appalling contemporary throwback known by its cutesy euphemism “medical aid in dying” (MAiD) is now making its death fingered presence felt in the nation’s jail houses.

More than half a year has now passed since the British Columbia government ordered Vancouver Coastal Health to build a euthanasia facility next to St. Paul’s Hospital, thereby doing an end run around the Catholic hospital’s principled opposition to assisted suicide.

The parents of a terminally ill woman who was transferred to another facility to be euthanized after St. Paul’s Hospital refused to allow the procedure on its premises are suing the provincial government and Providence Health Care, the Catholic health-care provider that operates St. Paul’s.

Despite recent revisions to guidelines for Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD) in Canadian prisons announced in March, correctional investigator Ivan Zinger remains concerned about a process that remains opaque to public scrutiny. 

As support for euthanasia grows across the country, the line between genuine and holistic palliative care and medical assistance in dying has become increasingly blurred nearly inconclusively according to palliative care professionals in Canada.

The Court of Appeal of Alberta has granted the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC) intervenor status in the controversial case of a 27-year-old Calgary woman with autism seeking approval for medical assistance in dying (MAiD) against her father’s wishes.

A decision by a judge in Calgary, Alberta, in favor of a young woman seeking medically assisted suicide over her father's objections amounts to "the blatant devaluing of persons with disabilities," a Canadian activist told OSV News.

The grim calculus of tracking the cost of Medical Assistance in Dying shows that B.C. doctors receive $283.85 for every “MAiD Event preparation and Procedure” they perform.

Medical assistance in dying (MAiD) access for individuals solely living with a mental illness is officially delayed until March 17, 2027, as the Senate of Canada passed Bill C-62 at third reading Feb. 29.  

Speakers at a rally on Parliament Hill demanded the federal government provide more life-saving supports for those deeply suffering from mental illness rather than giving them access to medical assistance in dying (MAiD).

Canada is already too far down the slippery slope with regard to medically assisted dying, and should aim for “living with dignity” as opposed to “dying with dignity” say proponents of more compassionate alternatives for the mentally ill and other vulnerable populations.

The federal government established a pathway for Bill C-62 — the legislation that, if passed by Parliament before March 17, will halt the expansion of Canada’s euthanasia regime for at least two years — to likely progress through the House of Commons before the end of Feb. 15. 

The director of the B.C. Aboriginal Network on Disability Society perfectly summarized last week’s delay in extending doctor-delivered death to the mentally ill. “It’s not like a win or anything,” Neil Belanger told Register reporter Anna Farrow.