Refusing care as a legal pathway to medical assistance in dying

Abstract

Article abstractCan a competent individual refuse care in order to make their natural death reasonably foreseeable in order to qualify for medical assistance in dying (MAiD)? Consider a competent patient with left-side paralysis following a right brain stroke who is not expected to die for many years; normally his cause of death would not be predictable. However, he refuses regular turning, so his physician can predict that pressure ulcers will develop, leading to infection for which he will refuse treatment and consequently die. Is he now eligible for MAiD? Consider a competent patient with spinal stenosis (a non-fatal condition) who refuses food (but not liquids in order not to lose capacity from dehydration). Consequently, her physician can predict death from starvation. Is she now eligible for MAiD? Answering these questions requires that we answer three sub-questions: 1) do competent patients have the right to refuse care?; 2) do healthcare providers have a duty to respect such refusals?; and 3) are deaths resulting from refusals of care natural for the purposes of determining whether a patient is eligible for MAiD? If a competent patient has the right to refuse some particular care, and healthcare providers have a duty to respect that refusal, and if the death that would result from the refusal of that care is natural, then that refusal of care is a legal pathway to MAiD. However, if the competent patient does not have the right to refuse some particular care, or if healthcare providers do not have a duty to respect that refusal, or if the death that would result from the refusal of that care is not natural, then that refusal of care is not a legal pathway to MAiD. In this paper, we explore this complex legal terrain with the most profound of ethical implications -access to MAiD. RésuméAbstract Une personne compétente peut-elle refuser des soins afin de rendre son décès naturel raisonnablement prévisible pour être admissible à l'aide médicale à mourir (AMM)? Prenons l'exemple d'un patient compétent atteint d'une paralysie du côté gauche à la suite d'un accident vasculaire cérébral droit qui ne devrait pas mourir avant de nombreuses années ; normalement, la cause de son décès ne serait pas prévisible. Cependant, il refuse de se retourner régulièrement, de sorte que son médecin peut prédire que des plaies de pression se développeront, entraînant une infection pour laquelle il refusera le traitement et mourra par conséquent. Est-il maintenant admissible à l'AMM? Prenons l'exemple d'un patient compétent atteint d'une sténose spinale (affection non mortelle) qui refuse de manger (mais pas de boire pour ne pas perdre sa capacité à cause de la déshydratation). Par conséquent, son médecin peut prédire la mort par famine. Est-elle maintenant admissible à l'AMM? Pour répondre à ces questions, nous devons répondre à trois sous-questions : 1) les patients compétents ont-ils le droit de refuser des soins ; 2) les prestataires de soins de santé ont-ils l'obligation de respecter ces refus ; et 3) les décès résultant de re...

An Alternative to Medical Assistance in Dying? The Legal Status of Voluntary Stopping Eating and Drinking (VSED)

“…A detailed discussion of this issue is available in "The legal status of deep and continuous palliative sedation without artificial nutrition and hydration" [8] and "Is refusing care a legal pathway to medical assistance in dying?" [24] The conclusion drawn, based on a review of the case law as well as a review of instructions for and practices with respect to the completion of medical certificates of death (including when the manner of death is to be certified "suicide"), is that we cannot in all cases confidently state whether or when death by VSED is suicide. In the face of such uncertainty and in light of the seriousness of the possible consequences of criminal charges, it seems prudent to assume for the sake of argument that death by VSED is suicide and therefore to explore whether telling patients about VSED as a possible pathway to death constitutes counselling, abetting, or aiding suicide under the Criminal Code.…”