Advisory — Maid at Ten: Lessons from Canada’s First Decade — ULethbridge hosting leading academics for two-day conference
Since the Supreme Court of Canada’s landmark decision in the Carter case in 2015 and Parliament’s subsequent legalization of Medical Assistance in Dying (Maid) in 2016, MAiD has become an established part of Canadian health care, law and public life. Yet despite broad public support, it remains one of the most controversial and poorly understood issues in the country.
The University of Lethbridge is presenting a two-day conference, the only one of its kind in Canada, to objectively look at MAiD and what the country has learned in the last 10 years.
WHAT: MAiD at Ten: Lessons from Canada’s First Decade
WHEN: Oct. 30-31
WHERE: Anderson Hall (Andy’s Place, AH101)
** Media are invited to attend a panel session on Friday, Oct. 30, 11:30 a.m., at which Dr. Dionne Walsh (Alberta Health Services), Craig Brown and Tania Stilson will discuss advance requests for MAiD and dementia. Panelists and conference organizer, Dr. Nicholas Dunn (Department of Philosophy, Applied Ethics Lab), will be available for interviews at 12:15 p.m.**
The first decade of MAiD in Canada was largely defined by its legalization and subsequent expansion. Today, Canada appears to be entering a period of reassessment, characterized by:
• The continued postponement of MAiD for mental illness
• The introduction of advance requests for those who will lose decision-making capacity
• Alberta’s recent MAiD restrictions
• Growing critiques from the disability community
• Increasing concerns about structural vulnerabilities and social suffering
• Debates over conscientious refusal and institutional participation from religious hospitals
• Broader questions concerning safeguards, oversight and public trust
This conference seeks to take stock of Canada’s first decade of MAiD. Ten years in, the central question is no longer simply whether MAiD should be legal. Rather, the debate increasingly concerns where the boundaries should be drawn, how these boundaries are justified, and what values should guide future MAiD policy.
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Contact:
Trevor Kenney, Manager of Public Affairs
403-329-2710
403-360-7639 (cell)
@ULethbridge
Our University’s Blackfoot name is Iniskim, meaning Sacred Buffalo Stone. The University is located in traditional Blackfoot Confederacy territory. We honour the Blackfoot people and their traditional ways of knowing in caring for this land, as well as all Indigenous Peoples who have helped shape and continue to strengthen our University community.