Assisted Death Is Not a Choice of Last Resort in Canada

By Gary Rodin and Madeline Li

Drs. Li and Rodin are professors of psychiatry at the University of Toronto.

We are psychiatrists who work with patients with advanced cancer. It’s no wonder, then, that when Canada legalized medical assistance in dying a decade ago, it quickly became a major topic of conversation in our clinics. We’ve counseled patients about the procedure and assessed whether they were eligible. One of us has administered the drugs to end patients’ lives. We’ve also researched what leads people to choose this option. And together, we created an institutional framework that determined how one of Canada’s largest medical centers would respond to requests for assisted death.

We know that medical assistance in dying can be dignified and profoundly meaningful for everyone involved. We remember a man in his 30s in our palliative care unit who, thanks to the procedure, was able to........

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