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By Gillian Slade on December 7, 2016.



gslade@medicinehatnews.com

The number of Albertans seeking medical assistance in dying keeps climbing for a total now of 57, with 28 in the past two months.

Of the 57 Albertans, there were seven in the AHS south zone, 18 in the Calgary area, 27 in Edmonton, and five in the north.

Between Feb. 6 and June 17, when federal legislation came into effect allowing medical assistance in dying (MAID), there were court orders for six medically-assisted deaths in Alberta, said AHS spokesperson James Frey.

From June 17 to the beginning of October there were 29 medically-assisted deaths in the province, and another 28 since then.

AHS defines a medically-assisted death as “the administering by a medical practitioner or nurse practitioner of a substance to a person, at their request, that causes their death.”

Initially about 150 physicians indicated a willingness to be part of MAID. Some have since said they do not want to participate in the whole process, Dr. Jim Silvius, AHS medical director, told the News recently.

“We are still working on finding more physicians. It is a major decision for physicians. They are not taking it lightly,” said Frey on Tuesday.

Some physicians do not mind doing the required medical assessments but do not want to administer the substance that will result in death, said Silvius. Others only want to participate for their own patients.

“We are also working to educate and answer the questions of physicians and nurse practitioners in the hopes to have more of them sign up to participate in the process,” said Frey. “We are doing this so we don’t overburden the health-care professionals who are currently willing to provide this difficult and emotional service in communities.”

AHS is addressing this by holding education sessions for physicians and is also putting a mentoring program in place. A physician not comfortable with the procedure yet will go out as an observer with one who is, said Silvius.

MAID is a four-phase process established by AHS. Early in the process two medical opinions are required to confirm the patient meets all federal legislation criteria including that death is reasonably foreseeable.

At the last stage the patient must give final consent. They have to sign just before the substance that will result in death is administered. When the patient can’t do that the process stops.