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A new report from Health Canada shows strong support for allowing advance requests for medical assistance in dying (MAID).\u00a0<\/p>\n
A survey<\/a> of more than 46,000 Canadians found nearly 70 per cent favour allowing advance MAID requests for patients diagnosed with incurable conditions that will cause them to lose decision-making capacity.\u00a0<\/p>\n But advance requests for MAID remain controversial, even among doctors who support MAID.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s many concerns,\u201d said Dr. Mathieu Moreau, a family doctor and professor at the University of Montreal who has been involved with MAID since it became legal in Quebec in 2015.\u00a0<\/p>\n No decisions made<\/p>\n In an advance request, a person requests to have MAID in the future when they have lost their ability to consent. They still must meet all other legal requirements for MAID. A person lists the symptoms they must be experiencing before they can receive MAID, for example, not recognizing their family.<\/p>\n A person must be able to consent at the time they make the advance request, but not at the time they receive MAID.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Advance requests are illegal under the Criminal Code, but have been allowed<\/a> in Quebec since October 2024 for patients diagnosed with diseases that cause loss of capacity, such as dementia. Only people diagnosed with such an illness can make an advance request for MAID. <\/p>\n In 2023, a joint House of Commons-Senate committee recommended<\/a> the federal government legalize advance requests for MAID for people diagnosed with diseases that will lead to loss of capacity.\u00a0<\/p>\n This past March, a United Nations committee recommended <\/a>Canada not allow advance requests for MAID.\u00a0<\/p>\n A Senate bill to legalize advance requests for MAID is at second reading<\/a> in the Senate. To become law, it needs to pass second and third reading in the Senate and then three readings in the House of Commons.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe Government of Canada has not yet made any decisions about expanding eligibility to allow for advance requests,\u201d Mark Johnson, a spokesperson for Health Canada, told Canadian Affairs in an email.\u00a0 \u201cIt is currently reviewing the results of the consultation and wants to thank everyone who contributed to this important work.\u201d<\/p>\n Dying with Dignity Canada, a charity that advocates for MAID access, wants Canada to legalize advance requests.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cDying With Dignity Canada believes the federal government must prioritize amending the Criminal Code of Canada to include advance requests for MAID within national legislation,\u201d Helen Long, the organization\u2019s CEO, told Canadian Affairs in an email.\u00a0<\/p>\n At the end of October, the charity co-hosted an event exclusively for parliamentarians to discuss MAID legislation.\u00a0<\/p>\n Challenging evaluations<\/p>\n Some doctors are wary of advance requests.<\/p>\n Patients with advance requests\u00a0 still need to be assessed and approved for MAID before\u00a0MAID is administered, says Moreau. This means confirming that a person experiences what they consider to be intolerable suffering that cannot be relieved in a way they consider acceptable.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very challenging to evaluate, to assess the suffering of someone else that is not able to communicate their suffering, which will be the case of many patients,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n