Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Specifically to the point on dementia, my current understanding is that it would be unacceptable to provide MAID without a clear duration of life expected. For that reason, advance requests would be required. Advance requests may not be perfect, but we frequently see patients....

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  First of all, it's very unlikely that at that stage in someone's illness they're able to communicate with me, but I very often hear from family members along the lines of “Can we speed this up? It's torture for us watching this go on and drag out.” For many patients, when we withdraw technology, they die quite quickly.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Good evening. It's a privilege to speak to you today in my capacity as an emergency and ICU doctor, as a scientist, and as an author of a book on how shifts in technology and society have changed our relationship with death. Please accept my apologies for attending this meeting while on call in an intensive care unit north of Ottawa.