Canada’s Headlong Assisted Death Expansion: Compassionate Medical Assistance in Dying, or Negligent Social Suicide Promotion?
Presenter: Dr. Sonu K. Gaind
Commentator: Dr. Derryck H. Smith
Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, Mary and Phil Seeman Health Law and Policy Seminar
Thursday October 28, 2021
12.30 – 2 pm
Online event
For registration and further information: events.law@utoronto.ca
Session Description
Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS)/Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) has been legalized or decriminalized in well over a dozen jurisdictions around the world, and assisted dying policies continue to evolve rapidly. Many jurisdictions are exploring whether to introduce assisted dying laws, or expand existing laws. There is wide variation between PAS/MAiD frameworks, including how policies address potential applications for assisted dying for mental illness. PAS for sole criterion mental illness is available in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland, and recent Canadian legislation will permit psychiatric euthanasia by 2023.
This session will explore medicolegal, scientific, ethical and public policy issues related to PAS/MAiD, focusing on the particular challenges posed with mental illnesses in the context of PAS/MAiD. This will include review of the Canadian experience and significant policy developments, exploration of differences between different groups who seek PAS/MAiD for different reasons, and potential impacts of expanding PAS/MAiD laws on marginalized populations suffering from life distress.
Bio K.S.Gaind
Dr. Gaind is a full Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto (U of T) and Chief of Psychiatry at Humber River Hospital. He is co-Director of the U of T Adult Psychiatry & Health Systems Division and a University Governor, an Honorary Member of the World Psychiatric Association, an Executive Member and Medical Practice & Tariff Chair of the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) Section on Psychiatry and Chair of the OMA Relativity Advisory Committee, and a Past-President of both the Ontario Psychiatric Association and of PAIRO. He represented Canada internationally from 2015 to 2016 as President of the Canadian Psychiatric Association and from 2017-2020 as the Global Zone 1 Board Representative to the World Psychiatric Association (and in the more distant past represented the country on Canada’s two first International Physics Olympiad teams!).
Dr. Gaind has been actively involved in health policy development and advocacy since residency, and has been recognized with numerous regional, provincial, national and international awards for his teaching, advocacy and impact. He has helped form health policy and engaged medical colleagues and the public to be more aware of and advocate against policies that stigmatize and discriminate against the mentally ill.
As Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) policies have been evolving in Canada, Dr. Gaind has testified in front of the Federal External Panel on Options for a Legislative Response to Carter v. AG Canada, the Provincial-Territorial Expert Advisory Group on Physician-Assisted Dying, the Special Joint Commons/Senate Committee on Physician-Assisted Dying, and the Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs on issues relevant to mental health and mental illness that need to be considered in the MAiD framework. He was also an expert witness for the government in Truchon v. AG Canada. Dr. Gaind chaired the time-limited Canadian Psychiatric Association Task Force on Assisted Dying, was selected to sit on the Council of Canadian Academies Expert Panel on Mental Disorders and Assisted Dying, and has spoken across the country and internationally on the subject.
Bio Derryck H. Smith
Dr. Derryck Smith is a Clinical Professor Emeritus with the Department of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia. He was Head of the Department of Psychiatry at BC Children’s Hospital for 30 years. He is a Past President of the Doctors of British Columbia and the BC Medical Legal Society. He served on the Medical Services Commission for eight years.
Dr. Smith was a board Member of Dying with Dignity Canada from 2012 to 2018 and chaired the Physicians Advisory Council of Dying with Dignity, Canada. He was a Board member of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies from 2015 to 2019
He was an expert witness in the Carter case and has testified both before the House of Commons and Senate on Bill-C14 and more recently before the Senate on Bill C7. He was a member of the task force of the Canadian Psychiatric Association on MAID and Psychiatry in 2021-2022
His clinical practice consists of conducting Independent Medical Examinations for both defence and plantiff including testimony and disability assessments. His area of special interest is in Traumatic Brain Injury and Psychiatric illness
