Law, Vulnerability and Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada: A Post-Carter Policy Review

This project focuses on assisted-dying policy in Canada; assisted-dying was legalized in February 2015 as per the Carter v. Canada (Attorney General) (2015) ruling, because the longstanding blanket prohibition of assisted-dying was found to be unconstitutional as it violated the plaintiff’s s. 7 right to life, liberty and security of the person. In June 2016, Bill C-14: An Act to Amend the Criminal Code and to make related amendments to other Acts (2016) was enacted federally. One of the main concerns from various sources regarding this legislation is that an individual’s natural death must be reasonably foreseeable to access MAID. Bill C-14 (2016) excludes individuals who do not have a ‘foreseeable natural death’ from accessing medical assistance in dying. The current policy has not found a balance between the need to protect vulnerable populations from becoming victims to assisted-dying and is not accessible to those who are suffering from non-terminal illnesses or are deemed vulnerable. The methodology used in this research was a policy analysis, using court cases/rulings, federal legislation, provincial policies, transcripts, and legislative backgrounds/summaries. In addition, the co-investigator conducted two one-on-one semi-structured interviews to supplement the main data.