Vol. 13 No. 2 (2024): Medical Assistance In Dying: Resistance in Canada

Tomorrow’s historians will find rich veins of meaning in the crush of narrative and counter-narrative that swirl around Canada’s controversially named “Medical Assistance in Dying” (MAID) regime. Expanded in March 2021 to authorize medical practitioners to administer euthanasia or suicide assistance to disabled persons who are still very much alive and in no way approaching the end of their natural lives, the regime has been championed in public policy debates as progressive and humane. Whose voices will prevail when the story of MAID is written? This special issue of the Canadian Journal of Disability Studies argues, not surprisingly, for disabled voices to be heard with resounding force. To this end, we have assembled in this volume testimonial statements entered into the parliamentary record by disabled and disability-aligned citizens immediately prior to a radical and – as argued in these texts – discriminatory, expansion of MAID law and the regime it authorizes.