Medical Assistance in Dying committee  An advance request is written usually in a lawyer's office, with a power of attorney document, I would think. The centre for bioethics had an excellent template a couple of years ago. I wish they had not stopped producing it. Dying with Dignity Canada has an excellent template. T

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I agree 100%. I think it should be standard of practice, not legislated. It doesn't make sense to put in the legislation all the details that should be met. There are some details that are in the legislation currently that I wish were standard of practice. It would give more flex

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I would say the clearer and more filled with detail an advance request can be, the more information will be provided to a MAID provider. It's important to recognize that MAID providers won't meet a patient until an advance request is acted upon and the MAID provider is contacted

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Was that question for me? I thought it was for Professor Reiner.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I think an advance request should be able to be made for anybody, whether they have a diagnosis of an illness or not, because, with some illnesses like cancers with brain metastasis or dementia, you can be pretty certain that, at some point, there's is going to be a loss of capac

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Absolutely. I think one should rewrite or reaffirm an advance request, the same way that I think we should do that with wills and powers of attorney in general, to make sure that our wishes are consistent. To Mr. MacGregor's point, his 45-year-old self may not know what his 75-y

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I think there has been a misunderstanding about my three-month re-evaluation. That comes when I'm actively assessing a patient for medical assistance in dying. That's completely separate from an advance request. An advance request, I think, should be reaffirmed every three to fi

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Sure. I think the main difference is that with Audrey's amendment in Bill C-7, the person has to have set a date for MAID. Many patients don't want to set a date for MAID yet, but they can't sign that waiver of final consent until they have set a date for MAID. What patients are

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Absolutely. There were two patients I met with yesterday. One is a 72-year-old man with chronic pain and vascular dementia. He's living quite happily, but he wants to know that if he had a stroke next week he would be able to have MAID. However, he doesn't want to set a date for

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  No, not in general. This is for patients who are not ready to complete the assessment. If someone has completed the assessment, they want MAID and they're prepared to set a date for MAID, then we do that. That date can be days, weeks or even months down the road. However, if some

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  It's certainly an important part for advance directives or advance requests. I think anybody who writes an advance directive, which one can do now, should be reaffirmed periodically, three to five years or something like that, because then you see the consistency over time of som

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Yes, absolutely. Those would be reassessments as a MAID provider for somebody who's actively seeking MAID, certainly. As well, if somebody has an advance directive, then that should be affirmed periodically in the course of their early dementia. At some point they'll lose the cap

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I think any assessment should be done on a case-by-case basis. There should be a certain amount of flexibility built into the assessment process, but for something like advance directives for MAID, and advance directives in general, I think they should be reaffirmed or rewritten

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I think Professor Reiner and I were talking about two different things. When I see patients who would like an advance request, but because they're not available we can't have them, I will meet with them and then I'll touch base with them every few months just to confirm their int

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Yes. Over time and with experience, templates for MAID advance directives can be drafted, refined and improved. I would be pleased to provide you with my thoughts on what should be included in an advance request for MAID. I have provided some in the written piece I submitted. T