Canadian psychotherapists expect to soon find themselves in the same position as physicians when it comes to so-called medical assistance in dying — or MAiD — as the government looks to expand access to legal, medically-induced suicide.
And that’s making some of them extremely uncomfortable.
Just as doctors in most Canadian jurisdictions must check their conscience and help a patient die under certain circumstances — even if it is only in referring a patient to someone who will carry out the practice — psychotherapists expect they will also be forced to go against their conscience in helping a patient with a mental disorder commit suicide.