ABOUT
What is this site all about?
MAiD continues to present new and evolving ethical challenges for healthcare professionals, patients, family members, and policy makers. The recent changes in legislation with Bill C-7 to include patients for whom death is not reasonably foreseeable, and the potential upcoming legislative changes to include patients for whom mental illness is the sole underlying condition, further add to the ethical complexities surrounding MAiD. This website offers a repository of current research, reports, resources, policies, and guidelines related to navigating MAiD in Canada.
Where did this research come from?
Dr. Julia Brassolotto is an Associate Professor of Public Health in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Lethbridge. Dr. Alessandro Manduca-Barone is a bioethicist and Research Associate in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Lethbridge. This website is informed by their research in the field, involving multiple qualitative studies and producing stakeholder reports, publications, and presentations. These insights come from research projects funded by Dr. Brassolotto’s Alberta Innovates Research Chair (2016-2023), a SSHRC Insight Development Grant (2020-2023), and a SSHRC Insight Grant (2024-2029).
The Insight Development Grant (IDG) project included Co-investigators Dr. Duff Waring and Dr. Monique Sedgwick, AHS Collaborator Dr. Dionne Walsh, and Research Assistant Paige Zurbrigg. This work involved 1) a MAiD policy review with consideration of rural-specific issues in Alberta; 2) a scan of ethical issues surrounding MAiD as depicted in Canadian news media and; 3) a qualitative empirical study of MAiD in rural Alberta. For this third prong, we interviewed individuals with professional or personal experience with the MAiD program. Our data confirmed, extended, and/or challenged current thinking about MAiD in rural settings, and elucidated the importance of ensuring that MAiD policy and service provision be context-sensitive and attentive to the particularities of rural settings.
What’s next?
For our Insight Grant project, our research team (with the addition of Dr. Polly Ford-Jones) will build upon our IDG project in three ways: 1) conceptually, by shifting from a specific focus on rurality to a focus on the key concepts of vulnerability and autonomy; 2) temporally, from examining the implications of the original law under Bill C-14 to the implications of Bill C-7 and its upcoming amendment(s); and 3) geographically, by expanding from the rural South to all of the province of Alberta (for the empirical work).
