09/04/2026
In Canada, a doctor can raise medical assistance in dying with a patient before the patient ever brings it up—which is exactly what many jurisdictions prohibit, since patients are primed to defer to a doctor as the expert and may treat the suggestion as a recommendation rather than one option among many.
Only one witness is needed for a written MAiD request—and that witness can be a paid caregiver.
And if a patient is found ineligible for MAiD, there's no limit on how many times they can seek out a new assessor until they find one who says yes.
None of that is true in most of the jurisdictions we compared.
Rebecca Vachon's new report for Cardus, Part 2 of our international comparison of assisted dying regimes, looks at the procedural safeguards meant to keep a MAiD request voluntary, informed, and free from pressure—and how far Canada's have eroded compared to Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
Read the full report at the link in the comments ⬇️
