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Medical Aid in Dying: How Might U.S. Policy Prevent Suffering at the End of Life?

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MAID Submitted Version.pdf (371.2 KB)

Links to Files

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08959420.2023.2226306?journalCode=wasp20

Permanent Link

https://doi.org/10.1080/08959420.2023.2226306
 http://hdl.handle.net/11603/28761

Collections

UMBC School of Social Work
UMBC Faculty Collection

Author/Creator

Author/Creator ORCID

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2278-8495

Date

2023-06-22

Type of Work

journal articles
preprints
Text

Department

Program

Citation of Original Publication

Nancy Kusmaul, Todd D. Becker, Allison Gibson & Cara L. Wallace (2023) Medical Aid in Dying: How Might U.S. Policy Prevent Suffering at the End of Life?, Journal of Aging & Social Policy, DOI: 10.1080/08959420.2023.2226306

Rights

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Aging & Social Policy on 22 Jun 2023, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/https://doi.org/10.1080/08959420.2023.2226306.
Access to this item will begin on 06/22/2024

Subjects

Abstract

Medical aid in dying refers to policies that allow terminally ill patients to seek assistance from their medical providers to obtain medications to hasten death. In this paper, we used a 7-point policy analysis model to examine the diversity of medical aid in dying policies that exist in jurisdictions (states and territories) in the U.S. and the implications of these policies for suffering at end of life. As of this writing, these practices are available in 12 jurisdictions, including 11 states and the District of Columbia. Legalization has occurred via statutory approaches in 10 jurisdictions and permissive approaches in two jurisdictions. We discuss the structures of these laws, the requirements for participation, and the limitations created by having jurisdiction-specific policies on such broad, bioethical issues. Existing laws appear to relieve suffering in patients at end of life. Jurisdictional differences create barriers to comprehensive expansion but provide insights into practice in different contexts.