Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID)

Summary of changes

Activity on this program started: November 01, 2018

Reference period of change - 2023

Canada's federal legislation on medical assistance in dying (MAID) was passed on June 17, 2016, allowing eligible Canadian adults to request and receive MAID through a series of Criminal Code exemptions. The federal MAID monitoring program came into force on November 1, 2018, through the Regulations for the Monitoring of Medical Assistance in Dying providing a robust framework for the collection, analysis and reporting of information. Health Canada amended these Regulations in January 2023 to align with changes to the Criminal Code, arising through former Bill C-7, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (medical assistance in dying), which came into force on March 17, 2021.

Therefore, the data collected in 2023 for some variables are not fully comparable with the data collected in previous years as several reporting requirements and questions have been updated. There are some missing data for new variables due to time delays for provinces, territories and practitioners to transition to the new data collection requirements. The quality and reliability of the self-identification data (race, Indigenous identity, and disability) is limited due to variation in data collection approaches, inconsistency in interpretation of variables and non-response.