Difficult Choices: Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada, and the Implications for the Disability community

About this episode

The episode discusses the implications of Canada's revised Medical Assistance in Dying legislation on the disability community with expert Dr. Mahadeo Sukhai.

In this 65th episode the Triple Vision Team tackles the complicated issue of Medical Assistance in Dying, or MAID. In 2021 Canada’s parliament revised its MAID legislation to allow for MAID in circumstances other than a death being foreseeable and imminent. As a result, MAID is now available to Canadians who have a "grievous and irremediable medical condition", which can include a serious and incurable illness, disease, or disability. This change has opened the doors to many ethical discussions about possible implications for the disability community. We invite Dr. Mahadeo Sukhai into a conversation about this. Mahadeo is well qualified on this topic as Chief Operating Officer of IDEA - STEM, an organization which focuses on accessibility and inclusion of persons with disabilities in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and health care. He is also an Adjunct professor in the School of Medicine ophthalmology at Queen’s University, as well as faculty in the Business Administration Technology program at Ontario Tech University, and in Inclusive Design at OCAD University. "If we believe, in the disability community, that we have a right to oversight of our…

People in this episode

Host: Triple Vision Team

Guest: Dr. Mahadeo Sukhai

Topics covered

• Medical Assistance in Dying
• disability rights
• ethical implications
• healthcare policy
• accessibility
• inclusion

Keywords

• MAID
• Canada
• disability community
• ethical discussions
• grievous medical condition
• inclusion
• accessibility

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: IDEA - STEM

Books & works: Triple Vision

Places: Canada

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