The amount of people in Manitoba receiving medical assistance in death (MAiD) has increased substantially in the years since it was legalized in 2016.
After legalization in 2016, 42 people in Manitoba requested MAiD, and 24 people received it. Less than 5 of the people who received it were in the Prairie Mountain Health region.
In 2019, 313 people requested MAiD with 177 people receiving it, including 24 people in the Parkland.
Shared Health, the group responsible for carrying out requests for MAiD, says that only 33 requests have been denied or deemed ineligible.
In other cases, the patient decided to not go through with the procedure.
The Canadian government is launching consultations on medical-assistance in death before it is set to change the legislation next month.
The changes will include removing the ability for someone near death to receive MAiD and making sure vulnerable people can’t be coaxed into receiving MAiD.
As it stands, medically-assisted death is available to patients who wish to end their life due to terminal or serious incurable health conditions.
Other criteria that patients must meet are they must be older than 18 and capable of making health decisions, be in a state of decline that is irreversible, have voluntarily requested MAiD, and be at the point where natural death is foreseeable.
Manitoba is the province to have one health-care team responsible for carrying out MAiD.
