Don’t miss your chance to protect end-of-life rights
We still have a small window of opportunity to change countless lives
If you had a small window of opportunity to change countless lives for decades to come, would you act on it?
Those are the stakes for advance requests for medical assistance in dying (MAID) in Canada. An advance request would allow someone to make a written request for MAID that could be honoured later, after they lose the capacity to make medical decisions for themselves.
But until our federal government listens to the 84% of Canadians who support advance requests, Canadians will continue to be at risk of having to endure years — perhaps even decades — of intolerable suffering.
With an election looming closer and MPs looking to win over voters this spring, we must not let the conversation around MAID go cold. Let your elected representative know that people across Canada insist that their end-of-life rights not be ignored any longer.
Continuing to put advance requests on hold is cruel, inhumane, wholly unnecessary — and must be corrected now.
Advance requests are finally within reach
After years of delays and setbacks, Bill C-390 was introduced last spring — empowering provinces and territories to create their own frameworks, allowing advance requests for MAID for those with capacity-eroding illnesses like Alzheimer’s, in their province or territory.
Bill C-390 died when Parliament was prorogued, but not before Quebec had boldly moved ahead to allow advance requests for MAID in their health jurisdiction in October — a victory that went unchallenged by the federal government. However, the federal Criminal Code remains unchanged, meaning that advance requests are still illegal.
Without further legislation dedicated to legalizing advance requests, countless people in other provinces and territories will continue to be denied access.
Sign the letter to your MP today
Advance requests for MAID are about dignity, compassion and choice: each of us deserve to have our health preferences and end-of-life wishes respected — and then carried out.