Submission – Vulnerable Persons Standard (VPS) on the Proposed Regulations for Monitoring of Medical Assistance in Dying (2018)

The Vulnerable Person Standard incorporates five evidence-based safeguards intended to protect the lives of Canadians. These safeguards aim to ensure that Canadians requesting assistance from physicians to end their life can do so without jeopardizing the lives of persons in circumstances that make them vulnerable to abuse, coercion, and inducement to suicide.

In this submission advisors to the Vulnerable Person Standard provide recommendations to the federal Minister of Health for strengthening the proposed regulation on monitoring of medical assistance in dying. These recommendations are important for ensuring that there is public accountability and transparency in relation to medical assistance in dying; that vulnerable persons are protected by the application of the eligibility criteria and safeguards in the legislation that allows medical assistance in dying; that it is possible to identify and monitor trends in requests for and provision of medical assistance in dying; and that data is available to qualified researchers for the purpose of enabling independent analysis. 

For more information about the Vulnerable Person Standard, go to: www.vps-npv.ca

Available in PDF and RTF versions.