Medical experts are confronted with various situations that require them to make radical and quick decisions. One of the most controversial medical operations in the Canadian medical industry is Medical Assistance in dying. The patients and their relatives are sometimes confronted with tough decisions to make when it comes to extreme suffering or ending an individual’s life. The patients that experience irremediable medical conditions or are exposed to high levels of suffering due to illness are the common victims of exploring death through medical assistance to terminate their lives (Collier, 2009). In such cases, there are various medical experts that may be consulted to administer the assisted suicide. However, some of the issues that increase the level of controversy in the assisted suicide through medicinal means are the ethical and legal issues that are involved.
Over the years, medically assisted death has been a crime in Canada. The medical experts that are involved in the intentional administration of drugs to aid death risk being arrested and prosecuted for murder as a result of the violation of human rights. The charter of freedom and rights in Canada guarantees each citizen a right to security, liberty, and life. This is wide and covers even the patients, and this is one of the biggest threats to the medically assisted death given by the medical experts. In the Canadian constitution, the right to life is a fundamental guarantee that should not be compromised by any other person’s wish (Dyer, 2016). However, serious ethical issues arise as to whether an individual should be left to suffer from pain from a medical condition that cannot be cured. This is one of the issues inspires the administration of euthanasia as a way to end life without pain. In other situations, the family members and the government spend a lot of money on these individuals while sustaining their medical bills, even though for sure they never recover. Therefore, medical assistance in dying in Canada is an overly controversial issue in both the legal and ethical spheres, and there has not been found a clear framework to overcome the issues around it.
- Collier, R. (2009). Euthanasia debate reignited. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 181(8), 463-464.
- Dyer, O. (2016). Canada’s new assisted dying law faces legal challenge. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 354.
