Understanding the Policy Landscape Surrounding Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada's Federal Prison System.

Medical assistance in dying (MAiD) has been legal in Canada since 2016, and the implementation of MAiD for people who are incarcerated has raised ethical and procedural concerns. In this article, we review the current Correctional Service Canada guideline on MAiD alongside a joint report by the Office of the Correctional Investigator (OCI) and the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) on aging and dying in prison. We echo concerns raised by the OCI and the CHRC about the limits of adequate end-of-life care currently provided to those in custody and offer our analysis of the procedural guideline for MAiD in prison, which we argue to be inadequate in support for patient-centered care and equality in access to health care.

Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) for Canadian Prisoners: A Case Series of Barriers to Care in Completed MAiD Deaths.

As of August 2020, 11 patients who were federally incarcerated in a Canadian prison requested medical assistance in dying (MAiD), and three received it. This case study seeks to understand the process of care as described by physicians involved in each of the cases that resulted in MAiD. During the summer of 2020, semistructured interviews were conducted with physicians involved in each known Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) MAiD case.

"Dying with a Smile, Just Knowing that Somebody's Listened to Me": End-Of-Life Care and Medical Assistance in Dying in Canadian Prisons.

Medical assistance in dying (MAiD) has been legal in Canada since 2016 and some incarcerated patients who are at the end of their lives are eligible for the procedure. Interviews with nine incarcerated men at a federal penitentiary in Canada provide insight into some of the ways that people who are navigating aging and end-of-life in prison think about MAiD. Interview themes are organized around: experience with death and dying; possibilities and barriers related to applications for release from prison at end-of-life; experiences of peer-caregiving in a prison palliative care program; support for MAiD and the expansion of eligibility criteria; what a good death looks like.