Death with Dignity, Medical Aid in Dying (MAID), End of Life Options laws—there are many phrases used to describe policies which permit terminally-ill persons to work with their physicians to obtain medication to ‘write their final chapter,’ to have autonomy in their final day.
Fully distinct from euthanasia, MAID is a process driven by the dying person themselves, empowering those whose worldview opposes this path to follow the traditional path in which the disease dictates the final days. But critically, MAID provides a legal path for the dying person and their willing physician to provide a humane, comfortable path at the end of their life.
Such policy proposals reveal societal rifts, within the disability community, within the medical community, and within the faith community. In this service, we will primarily focus on the issues raised in the faith community, and the intersection between society’s faiths and society’s governance.