Dementia patient gets MAID after family member brought forward the request
- Sharon Kirkey
- Oct 2
- 1 min read
Story by Sharon Kirkey
Oct. 1, 2025
A frail woman in her late 80s with dementia received MAID after a family member brought forward a request for an assisted death, a new report reveals.
The woman’s life was ended after a MAID provider deemed the woman had given her final expressed consent to proceed, based on her ability to repeat a question and squeeze the provider’s hand.
The case is among half a dozen flagged in the latest report from the Office of the Ontario Chief Coroner’s MAID Death Review Committee. Together they’re raising questions around how MAID is being approved for people with dementia, including whether people are receiving MAID without proper assessments to determine if they have the capacity to consent to death.
“What really stuck out to me is that people with dementia are choosing MAID for feelings like loss of dignity, perceived burden, emotional distress and fear,” said family physician and committee member Dr. Ramona Coelho.
Palliative care can help people grappling with such existential suffering, she said. Yet the report found only 13.6 per cent of people with dementia who died by MAID in Ontario in 2023 and 2024 received palliative care, compared to 82.3 per cent of people who received MAID for other causes.
