Death with Dignity: Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID)

Medical assistance in dying refers to a doctor or nurse practitioner helping a person, at their request, to end their life. The person must want to voluntarily and intentionally end their life. Medical assistance can be in one of two ways. Either the doctor or nurse practitioner gives a medicine to the person that causes death, or they prescribe a medicine for the person to take themselves that causes death. For both ways, the doctor or nurse practitioner must be present for the death. Medical assistance in dying, or MAID, is a complex, multilayered and deeply personal issue and anyone thinking about this should talk with their family, their loved ones and anyone else who can support them through the process. Medically assisted dying applies to all eligible patients have a terminal condition, whereas suicide refers to cases of individuals choosing to end their lives without medical assistance. Suicide is a choice to end an otherwise open-ended span of life, whereas the person with a terminal illness does not necessarily want to die but cannot do so.