Unrestricted MAID: A thought experiment

ABSTRACT: If you slide far enough down the slippery slope envisaged by opponents of medical assistance-in-dying (MAiD), you eventually land in an ostensibly ghastly society where life has been devalued, suicide is rampant, and physicians have industrialized euthanasia. But what if the slippery slope lead us somewhere completely different? 

This paper aims to explore and evaluate some overlooked public health benefits from the full legalization of MAiD, with the elimination of all prohibitions and regulations on the practice. We instead anticipate positive effects for public health in three domains: 1. Expanded access to those who currently do not qualify for MAiD through the removal of onerous and ineffective access criteria with a sharpened focus on horizontal equity; 2. Heightened safety through preventing complications from suicide attempts and rerouting of potential private suicides into alternate forms of care; and 3. Aggregate benefits to the health system as a whole through lowered…