"Five-Year Kidney Donation Outcomes After Medical Assistance in Dying"

Medical assistance in dying (MAiD), controversial for over 2000 years, has recently been legalized in a number of countries. In each country, MAiD is only provided, with a variety of restrictions, at the patient’s request. In some countries, the MAiD process is limited to the patient’s physician writing a prescription for drugs to be taken at home, if and when the patient chooses to do so. In other countries, physicians or their associates may administer drugs intravenously (usually in a hospital setting), and death occurs with circulatory arrest. Terminology differs by country. In some countries, both approaches are called MAiD. In others, the term is limited to situations where a prescription is written, whereas death after intravenous injection is called euthanasia. The legal and ethical issues associated with each of these approaches have been described in detail.