Nurse practitioner (NP) Erica Maynard of Nova Scotia brings her whole self to work, and that includes her role in medical assistance in dying (MAID) assessments and provisions. How does this procedure uniquely affect nurse practitioners, and what lessons have come up along the way during Erica’s journey? In this special post for the Dying With Dignity Canada blog, Erica shares her experiences working with patients to help them access their right to choice at end of life.

Dying With Dignity Canada welcomes the Quebec government’s plan to permit advance requests for assisted dying.

In this moving tribute, the sons of Nova Scotia’s Peter Blakesley describe life after their father’s melanoma diagnosis — and how the choice of an assisted death gave Peter the chance to die in a manner that, he felt, preserved his dignity and agency.

Ottawa must take immediate steps to fix human-rights violations imposed by the federal assisted dying law, Dying With Dignity Canada (DWDC) says.

The leading national charity defending end-of-life rights in Canada, DWDC is calling on the Trudeau government to follow through with its election promise to expand the federal assisted dying law.

Dying With Dignity Canada is vigorously condemning a provincial private member’s bill that threatens to impede assisted dying access in Alberta.

In this powerfully candid entry for the DWDC blog, British Columbia’s Johanna Clark remembers her husband Neil’s final months following a lung cancer diagnosis in 2017. Neil accessed his wish of a medically assisted death in May 2018, with the heartbreaking knowledge that he could have lived for longer. Neil, worried about losing capacity and knowing that the federal assisted dying law requires final consent at the time of the procedure, chose to end his life early to ensure he could have the assisted death he wanted.

In this moving testimonial, British Columbia’s Marion Janssen recounts the end-of-life experiences of her grandparents and parents. After watching three loved ones — her mother, father, and grandmother — suffer with dementia, Marion knows she does not want the same ending for herself. That’s why, she writes, she believes advance requests for assisted dying must be allowed.

In September 2016, Nova Scotia’s Douglas Henshaw became one of the first people to receive a medically assisted death in Canada. His wife, Sylvia — a Dying With Dignity Canada volunteer and member of our First Person Witness Council — reflects on four lessons she’s learned in the past three years.

Dying With Dignity Canada is cheering a Quebec judge’s decision to strike down a restriction in Bill C-14, Canada’s federal assisted dying law.

How do you say goodbye to your partner of 66 years? Barbara of Victoria, B.C. struggled to imagine life without her husband, Joe. However, after his cancer diagnosis, Joe chose to access medical assistance in dying (MAID) to end his pain, and to ensure he maintained the quality of life he wanted for himself and for those he cared about. Ultimately, Joe’s choice to access MAID brought peace to the whole family. Now, Barbara is sharing their story with the hope of informing and empowering others.