ArticlePalliative care and social practice2021
How does Medical Assistance in Dying affect end-of-life care planning discussions? Experiences of Canadian multidisciplinary palliative care providers.
Article in Palliative care and social practice, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 13 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 29 citations in OpenAlex.
- A qualitative study of the barriers to and facilitators of the delivery of medical assistance in dying services in Canada from the perspectives of involved professionals.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Communication Processes and Priorities in Medical Aid in Dying Conversations: A Cross-Sectional Qualitative Study of Multidisciplinary Cancer Clinicians.Cancer medicine · 2026Article
- Clinical Ethicists and Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD): Possible Roles and Challenges.Bioethics · 2026Article
- Examining Public-Facing Hospice Medical Aid in Dying Participation Policies in Legalizing U.S. Jurisdictions.Journal of palliative medicine · 2026Article
- Is Assisted Dying Really a Matter for Medical Regulation?The Journal of law, medicine & ethics : a journal of the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics · 2025Article
- Talking about desire to die: Talking past each other? A framework analysis of interview triads with patients, informal caregivers, and health professionals.Palliative & supportive care · 2025Article
- Canada's Medical Assistance in Dying System can Enable Healthcare Serial Killing.HEC forum : an interdisciplinary journal on hospitals' ethical and legal issues · 2025Article
- Nursing ethical dimensions of euthanasia and medically assisted suicide for older people in need of long-term care.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Navigating goals of care discussion in palliative care: A qualitative study applying Bourdieu's theory of practice.Palliative care and social practice · 2025Article
- Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in Mental Disorders: Ethical Positions in the Debate between Proportionality, Dignity, and the Right to Die.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Improving Palliative Care and Medical Assistance in Dying Practice in Canada: How Patients-Partners Could Contribute to Continuing Medical Education.Palliative medicine reports · 2023Article
- Experiences of healthcare providers with eligible patients' loss of decision-making capacity while awaiting medical assistance in dying.Palliative care and social practice · 2022Article
- Integration of medical assistance in dying into family practice.Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadienArticle
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMore than a dozen countries have now legalized some form of assisted dying, and additional jurisdictions are considering similar legislations or expanding eligibility criteria. Despite the persistent controversies about the relationship between medicine, palliative care, and assisted dying, many people are interested in assisted dying. Understanding how end-of-life care discussions between patients and specialist palliative care providers may be affected by such legislation can inform end-of-life care delivery in the evolving socio-cultural and legal environment.
aimTo explore how the Canadian Medical Assistance in Dying legislation affects end-of-life care discussions between patients and multidisciplinary specialist palliative care providers.
designQualitative thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews.
participantsForty-eight specialist palliative care providers from Vancouver (n = 26) and Toronto (
resultsQualitative thematic analysis identified five notable considerations associated with Medical Assistance in Dying affecting end-of-life care discussions: (1) concerns over having proactive conversations about the desire to hasten death, (2) uncertainties regarding wish-to-die statements, (3) conversation complexities around procedural matters, (4) shifting discussions about suffering and quality of life, and (5) the need and challenges of promoting open-ended discussions.
conclusionMedical Assistance in Dying challenges end-of-life care discussions and requires education and support for all concerned to enable compassionate health professional communication. It remains essential to address psychosocial and existential suffering in medicine, but also to provide timely palliative care to ensure suffering is addressed before it is deemed irremediable. Hence, clarification is required regarding assisted dying as an intervention of last resort. Furthermore, professional and institutional guidance needs to better support palliative care providers in maintaining their holistic standard of care.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.