Resource Center

Medical Aid-In-Dying discusses the ethical and legal issues surrounding the practice of physician-assisted death (MAiD), where a doctor provides a patient with lethal medication at their request to end their life. It highlights that while most states prohibit MAiD, a few have legalized it, and debates continue within the medical and legal communities. The article emphasizes that state-of-the-art palliative care should be the primary approach to end-of-life suffering, with MAiD considered only as a last resort. The piece also reflects on the moral and legal history of the practice, noting public and professional division over its legality.

About The Organization: The Hastings Center addresses social and ethical issues in health care, science, and technology. We study each of them through a common lens, a lens that asks us to identify which values are at stake, how to maximize their achievement, and how best to balance them, when they conflict. We always examine the issue in terms of a small set of essential values, or ethical considerations, like fairness, compassion, integrity, and stewardship.  We also try to articulate the (sometimes hidden) values and assumptions that underlie conventional analyses of who bears the costs, who gets the benefits, and who is exposed to the risks. Bioethics Briefings contain overviews of issues of high public interest, such as abortion, climate change, organ transplantation, and physician-assisted death. The briefs, written by leading ethicists, are nonpartisan, describing topics from a range of perspectives that are grounded in scientific facts.

Keywords: Physician-assisted death, Medical aid-in-dying (MAiD), End-of-life care, Euthanasia, Legalization of MAiD, Ethics of death, Palliative care, Right to die, Assisted suicide, Patient autonomy, End-of-life decision making, Legal challenges, Moral debates, Terminal illness, Healthcare policy, Medical ethics, Compassionate care, Death with dignity, Physician's role, Public opinion on MAiD