Live and Let Die - The Battle Over MAID

Aug 4, 2025

Kerry Bowman, a bioethicist specializing in healthcare decisions, and Katie Englehart, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, delve into the contentious evolution of medical assistance in dying (MAID) in Canada. They discuss how MAID has quickly become a leading option for end-of-life care, now accounting for nearly 5% of all deaths. The duo highlights ethical dilemmas faced by individuals with disabilities, critiques societal support systems, and brings attention to UN concerns about accessibility and care, sparking a vital conversation about autonomy and suffering.

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INSIGHT

Rapid Growth of MAID in Canada

Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) in Canada grew from 2016's legalization to nearly 5% of all deaths by 2023.
Canada leads globally per capita in MAID, raising concerns about its rapid expansion and social implications.

ANECDOTE

Filmmaker Exposes MAID's Disability Impact

Filmmaker Reed Davenport documents disability and MAID's complexities, exposing systemic ableism.
Disabled people face coercion through lack of support, pushing some toward assisted death.

ANECDOTE

Medical System Coerces MAID Choice

Roger Foley faced an impossible choice between costly hospitalization or MAID due to inadequate homecare access.
This illustrates the coercive medical and social context influencing MAID decisions for disabled individuals.

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Canada is now the number one provider of medical assistance in dying in the world per capita. The latest stats, from 2023, show that MAID accounted for almost 5% of all deaths in Canada, or around 15,000 people in that year. And it’s only been legal since 2016.

MAID was introduced for patients who were experiencing intolerable suffering, irreversible decline and whose death was foreseeable. Within a few years it was expanded to cover people who are not close to death but who are living with chronic illness or disabilities and facing intolerable suffering.

Canada’s number one spot on the global stage and the expansion of MAID eligibility has attracted the attention of the United Nations. The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities issued a report that raised questions about access to housing, social support, and healthcare, especially for people with disabilities. It noted that the suffering that qualified these people for the recent expansion to MAiD is suffering that might have been avoided if their needs were met by the Canadian government.

Today we're going to meet four people, all with experience on the front lines of the debate, some of whom have been in the room witnessing firsthand death by MAID.