The Canadian Experience with Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada
Hear from medical expert Dr. Stefanie Green, about the Canadian Experience with Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada (MAiD). MAiD became legal in Canada about the same time that California’s law became legal – in 2016. Canada has roughly the same population as California. The rate of people taking advantage of California’s End of Life Option Act is less than 1%, while the rate in at least one Canadian province is 7%.
Canada’s laws are clearly less restrictive than California’s.
Canada’s medical assistance in dying laws are the result of a unanimous Canadian Supreme Court decision in 2015 ( Carter v. Canada ) declaring laws prohibiting medical assistance in dying were unconstitutional.
I attended yesterday. Stefanie was wonderful. It was a great talk. I really got a lot out of it.
-anonymous 11/17/19
This meeting was recorded in Nov., 2019. Canada is still in the process of refining their laws (each province administers the law, so the rules are somewhat different in different provinces.) The expectation is that some of the information in this video will become outdated within the next 6 months.
Dr. Stefanie Green spends the majority of her time working in assisted dying. She is medical advisor to the BC Ministry of Health Medical Assistance in Dying oversight committee. She is co-founder and current President of the Canadian Association of Medical Aid in Dying Assessors and Providers (CAMAP).
August 23, 2026.
Voluntarily stopping eating and drinking (VSED) is a legal choice to end hopeless suffering by hastening death. More people are considering this end-of-life option, but few truly understand it. A daughter, a doctor, and a death doula explain the medical, practical, and emotional support that can help ensure a peaceful and dignified end-of-life experience.
June 14, 2026
What do you do when the law won’t allow the kind of death you want? For a growing number of Americans, the answer is: go to Switzerland. This program brings together perspectives rarely heard side by side:
A wife’s story – Pat Spears shares her deeply personal journey and the decisions she and her husband, Bert – facing Alzheimer’s – made to travel to Switzerland.
A practical roadmap – John Watson, the mastermind behind The Switzerland Alternative, introduces a trusted resource for navigating end-of-life options in Switzerland.
Inside perspective – Experts from Pegasos explain the process, requirements, and realities of Voluntary Assisted Death in Switzerland
Whether you are planning ahead or simply want to understand what options exist beyond U.S. borders, this program offers insight you won’t find in the headlines.
On May 22, 2026, Professor Thaddeus Mason Pope, JD, PhD, HEC-C, was the guest speaker for the Girsh endowed lecture on Medical Aid in Dying to the UCSD School of Medicine. The lecture begins at 11:05. Professor Pope reviewed the evolution of the California End of Life Option Act over its first decade, then discussed how medical aid in dying is likely to evolve over the next five years, including: (1) by expanding access to people with dementia, (2) by changing eligibility requirements, and (3) by amending safeguards to be more evidence based.
4/30/2026 From Dorset, England, Sean Davison, Ph.D. (microbiology)., discusses the legal challenges he has faced, including arrests and sentencing for assisting people in their efforts to die with dignity on their own terms. He also briefly discusses Voluntary Assisted Dying via Swiss clinics. Sean served for 5 years as the head of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies, worked with Pegasos Swiss Clinic, and is the author of 3 books.