Health Canada pressures doctors to offer 'medical assistance in dying' to patients

According to Health Canada's 2023 Model Practice Standard, it is advising doctors to offer 'medical assistance in dying' to patients whom they deem eligible — whether those patients express interest or not.

Key Takeaways:

• A 2023 Health Canada document advises health authorities to adopt a set of practice standards that would mandate doctors and nurse practitioners to tell patients that they could be eligible for euthanasia.

• 'Medical assistance in dying' (MAiD) is not the same as palliative care. While palliative care seeks to end the pain of a patient naturally nearing the end of life, assisted suicide and euthanasia seek to immediately and intentionally end the life of a patient.

• If it is determined that a person may be eligible for MAiD and their values allegedly align with the idea of MAiD, the document states that doctors should tell the person of the potential for them to die under MAID.

• Though the guideline is not law and Health Canada cannot force provinces or health authorities to adopt the guideline, patients are more likely to undergo MAiD if a doctor suggests it.

The Details:

In an article published on November 7 in The B.C. Catholic, writer Terry O'Neill explained that doctors opposed to assisted suicide and euthanasia "are sounding the alarm about governmental pressure on health professionals to initiate MAiD discussions with their ailing patients."

He wrote that "a little-known 2023 Health Canada document" is "urging health authorities and professional bodies to adopt a set of 'practice standards' that would mandate doctors and nurse practitioners to raise the issue of medical assistance in dying with certain patients."

That document states, "[Physicians/Nurse Practitioners] must take reasonable steps to ensure persons are informed of the full range of treatment options available to relieve suffering." It also says that doctors and nurse practitioners "must not assume all persons potentially eligible for MAID are aware that MAID is legal and available in Canada."

If the doctor or nurse practitioner determines that MAiD is "consistent with the person's values and goals of care" they should "advise the person of the potential for MAID" or refer them to a physician who is willing to discuss eligibility for MAiD.

Commentary:

Many people think that palliative care and MAiD are synonymous, but they are not the same.

Palliative care seeks to allow a patient to live the remainder of his or her natural life while offering relief from their pain; MAiD intentionally ends the life of the patient under the guise of 'ending suffering.' (Read more here about the significant differences.)

"Whoever is in charge of 'Death Canada," as I'll call them, seems to have forgotten the promises that were made to the medical community when euthanasia was first proposed — that no one would be forced to become complicit in it," said Vancouver family physician Will Johnston, head of Euthanasia Resistance BC. "And now they're simply reneging. They're violating that promise by insisting on compelled speech."

Dr. David D'Souza said that the problem with telling doctors to initiate a MAiD conversation with a vulnerable patient is that "a patient is more likely to take this option given that a health professional has suggested it."

The idea that doctors are being pressured into offering MAiD and patients are being pressured into choosing MAiD is not farfetched. Doctors have long said that the government wants them to promote MAiD as a way to cut medical costs. Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, said he receives "many phone calls from patients complaining they are being 'pestered and pestered' to succumb to MAiD."

Schadenberg added, "Some of the MAiD teams are very sales-oriented. They can't understand why you don't want it."

The Bottom Line:

The practice guideline is not law and Health Canada can't force or compel health authorities to adopt it, according to O'Neill. In addition, The B.C. Catholic could not find evidence that any medical group in British Columbia has put this guideline into practice. However, the very existence of the guidelines signals to an even darker future in Canada for the ill and elderly.