In Case You Missed It is a round-up of news articles and commentaries featuring Dying With Dignity Canada speakers and stories. Did you miss these stories in April?

Eligibility and Access

Health Canada has released its Fourth Interim Report on Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID). According to the report, more than 6,700 suffering Canadians have been able to access their choice of a medically assisted death since the law was passed in June 2016.

• Read the report here
• Read Health Canada’s press release on the report
• Nearly 7,000 Canadians have died with medical assistance: Health Canada | The Canadian Press

Quebec’s commission on end-of-life care released its first report examining the impact of the province’s end-of-life care law. One of the report’s key findings is that access to assisted dying is unequal across the province.

• Access to medical aid in dying unequal across Quebec, report finds | CBC Montreal
• Quebec open to expanding criteria for medical aid in dying requests following report | Global News
• More Quebecers are seeking medically assisted death, report suggests | Presse Canadienne
• Number of Quebecers seeking assisted death has jumped, commission finds | The Canadian Press
• L’aide à mourir, un droit encore bafoué au Québec | Le Devoir

A new study out of McGill University shows that the next generation of Canadian physicians will be more open to helping their ailing patients end their lives through medical assistance in dying. Read more on CBC Montreal.

Dying With Dignity Canada (DWDC) supporters Ron Posno, of Ontario, and Dana Livingstone, of B.C., spoke out about their journeys raising awareness about the need for advance requests for MAID. Read the Dementia Connections piece.

CBC Edmonton’s Jennie Russell won the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award for her investigative series on the impacts of forced transfers for assisted dying on patients. Read more about Russell's series and the award.

Support

In British Columbia, a group of frontline workers and palliative-care experts have joined forces to assist those most at risk of an untimely death to make effective end-of-life plans. Read more on The Globe and Mail.

Education

To celebrate Advance Care Planning (ACP) Month, DWDC ran a special ACP blog series, with posts designed to guide you through different aspects of the process and introduce important things to consider. Read the entire series:

• Part 1: Advance care planning: What you need to know
• Part 2: 5 things to remember when planning for end of life by DWDC board member Leigh Naturkach
• Part 3: A DWDC supporter shares a poem about her end-of-life wishes
• Part 4: Tammy’s story: How I’m creating space in my Vietnamese family to talk about death, dying, and end of life
• Part 5: “Leave a legacy, not a mess”: The costs of not preparing your advance care plan
• Part 6: Having the talk: Conversation starters for advance care planning

We also held an interactive webinar on April 24 on the topic of advance care planning. Watch it here.

Dr. David Amies, a member of our Clinicians Advisory Council and our Lethbridge Chapter, wrote a piece for the Lethbridge Herald with some helpful tips for end-of-life planning. Read it here.

North Bay, Ont.’s Dr. Paul Preston gave a presentation in his community about the medical assistance in dying process. Read and watch what he said on the CTV News Northern Ontario site.

The federal assisted dying law raises delicate questions about how anatomy programs should deal with grievously ill patients and families who contact them about body donation while they are exploring MAID. Read The Globe and Mail piece.

Two B.C. doctors spoke at a hospice event on palliative care and medical assistance in dying. Read more on the Campbell River Mirror.

Personal stories

A Sask. woman shared the story of her brother’s assisted death: “In a lifetime of not having any choices of his own to make […], this was the ultimate choice that he could make himself and he did.” Read the powerful Regina Leader-Post story.

Nova Scotia’s Jenny Hasselman wrote about how she supported her mother on a journey with assisted dying for the DWDC blog. Read it here.