MAiD in Canada_rev2
MAiD in Canada Mobile_rev2

March 2, 2023
7 - 9 PM

DeVries Centre Chapel
22500 University Dr.
Langley, BC

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In June of 2016, medical assistance in dying (MAiD) became legal in Canada. Since then, MAiD has undergone multiple revisions that have expanded its scope and access. Most recently, Canada gained international attention as our government was set to make MAiD available to those individuals whose sole underlining health concern is mental health. This update to MAiD was set to go into effect in March of 2023, but as of December 15, 2022, this has been temporarily delayed.

More than a news headline, MAiD is an increasing ethical challenge for many Canadians. It affects far more than just the patient. From the medical professionals involved in administering it, to the friends and family processing it, its ethical challenges are sweeping. As the law expands the difficulties that MAiD presents are becoming more and more challenging to navigate both personally and professionally. This pre-conference event is an opportunity to be informed and to discuss a Christian response.

February 2015
The Supreme Court of Canada rules in Carter v. Canada that parts of the Criminal Code will need to change to satisfy the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The parts that prohibited medical assistance in dying would no longer be valid. The Supreme Court gives the government until June 6, 2016, to create a new law.

June 2016
The Parliament of Canada passes federal legislation that allows eligible Canadian adults to request medical assistance in dying.

June 2018
The case of Christian Medical and Dental Society of Canada v. College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario is heard regarding mandating “an effective referral” and is dismissed by the lower court. The Ontario Court of Appeal hears this case in January 2019. The ruling upholds the lower court decision.

September 2019
The Superior Court of Québec decision in Truchon v. Attorney General of Canada declares unconstitutional the “reasonable foreseeability of natural death” eligibility criterion.

October 5, 2020
In response to Truchon v. Attorney General of Canada, on October 5, 2020, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada introduces Bill C-7: An Act to amend the Criminal Code (medical assistance in dying) in Parliament, which proposes changes to Canada’s law on medical assistance in dying.

March 17, 2021
Parliament passes revised legislation that makes important changes to who may be eligible to obtain medical assistance in dying and the process of assessment. These changes take effect immediately. The government is working with provinces and territories and with health care professionals to ensure eligible Canadians will be able to request MAID according to the new law, and that the appropriate protections are in place.

As of March 2023, people with mental illness alone will become eligible for assisted dying in Canada. There has been 24 months for an expert review to provide protocols, guidance and safeguards.

December 15, 2022
The Canadian government announces its plans to temporarily delay eligibility for MAiD for those whose sole medical condition is mental illness. The reason given is to provide them with more time to disseminate information and resources to health care providers, and to review a report by the Special Joint Committee on MAiD that is due out in February 2023. It is not known at this time how long the temporary delay will last.

Learn more about the history of MAiD in Canada

KEYNOTE ADDRESS

[Main] Farr Curlin

Farr Curlin, M.D.

Josiah C. Trent Professor of
Medical Humanities

Duke Divinity School

20 years of experience
in palliative care

Dr. Curlin is a hospice and palliative care physician who joined Duke University in January 2014 where he holds joint appointments in the School of Medicine, including its Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities & History of Medicine, and in Duke Divinity School, including its Initiative on Theology, Medicine and Culture. He works with Duke colleagues to foster scholarship, study, and training regarding the intersections of medicine, ethics, and religion. After graduating from medical school, he completed internal medicine residency training and fellowships in both health services research and clinical ethics at the University of Chicago before joining its faculty in 2003. Dr. Curlin’s empirical research charts the influence of physicians' moral traditions and commitments, both religious and secular, on physicians' clinical practices. As an ethicist, he addresses questions regarding whether and in what ways physicians' religious commitments ought to shape their clinical practices in a plural democracy. Dr. Curlin and colleagues have authored numerous manuscripts published in medicine and bioethics literature, including a New England Journal of Medicine paper titled, “Religion, Conscience and Controversial Clinical Practices.” He is particularly concerned with the moral and spiritual dimensions of medical practice and the doctor-patient relationship, and with the moral and professional formation of physicians. His areas of expertise are medicine, medical ethics, doctor-patient relationship, religion and medicine, and conscience. At the University of Chicago, Dr. Curlin founded and was co-director of the Program on Medicine and Religion.

More about FARR

MEDICINE: HAVE WE LOST OUR WAY?

What is medicine and what is it for? What does it mean to be a good doctor? What does it mean to be a good patient?

Answers to these questions are essential both to the practice of medicine and to understanding the moral norms that shape that practice. In the current reigning provider-of-services model, clinicians eschew any claim to know what is good for a patient and instead offer an array of “health care services” for the sake of the patient’s subjective well-being.

Against this trend, Farr Curlin calls for practitioners to recover what they call the Way of Medicine, which offers physicians both a path out of the provider of services model and also the moral resources necessary to resist the various political, institutional, and cultural forces that constantly push practitioners and patients into thinking of their relationship in terms of economic exchange.

PANELISTS

Raphael Samuel SQ 1200

Raphael Samuel, M.D.

Anesthesiologist
Adjunct Speaker

Apologetics Canada

Raphael Samuel is a Christian speaker, apologist and anesthesiologist. Born in Durban, South Africa, he obtained his medical degree and a Master’s degree in Medicine there. He further obtained Fellowships in Anesthesiology from the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. He is currently completing his Master’s degree in Christian Apologetics at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, Southern California.

Having lived, worked and ministered in three different countries on three respective continents, he testifies to the transformative power of, and universal need for the Gospel of Jesus. By presenting evidence for the moral, logical, historical, and scientific coherence of the Christian worldview, he aims to help the fellow believer to love the Lord God with all his mind (Mk 12:30), as well as address barriers to belief faced by the skeptic.

Raphael lives in Hamilton, Canada with his wife, Reshmi, and two sons.

More about RAPHAEL
Andy22-SQ1200

Andy Steiger, Ph.D.

Founder
President

Apologetics Canada

Dr. Andy Steiger is the founder and president of Apologetics Canada. He is the author of Reclaimed: How Jesus Restores Our Humanity in a Dehumanized World released in 2020, which was awarded runner up to evangelistic resource of the year. Currently, Andy is working on a new video series, Branded: A Series on Identity, that addresses our personal, communal, and spiritual identity. Preceding this, he created The Human Project video series. In 2018, The Human Project debuted at film festivals around the world and won a number of awards including Best Short Film and People's Choice. Andy also created and hosted The Thinking Series and is the author of Thinking? Answering Life’s Five Biggest Questions.

Andy speaks on gospel questions internationally at universities, conferences, churches, prisons, and coffee shops. Between his 20 years of experience as a pastor and his completion of a PhD at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, Andy brings both experience and research to his work.

He currently lives in Abbotsford, British Columbia with his wife, Nancy, and their two boys.

More about ANDY
Gloria Woodland

Gloria Woodland,
DMin

Director of the Chaplaincy &
Spiritual Care Program

ACTS Seminaries

Gloria has had the opportunity to be involved in denominational ministry and many years of experience in public-sector chaplaincy. In addition to her faculty responsibilities at ACTS Seminaries, she is privileged with opportunities to be a conference presenter at national and international conferences and to be a consultant for non-profit ministry organizations on the inclusion of spiritual care in their ministry activity. 

More about GLORIA
Larry Worthen

Larry Worthen

Executive Director

Christian Medical &
Dental Association

Larry Worthen has been the Executive Director of the Christian Medical and Dental Society of Canada since 2012. He holds a law degree from Dalhousie University, a Diploma in Adult Education and a Masters of Arts in Theology and Religious Studies. His Master’s Thesis was on the topic of the New Evangelization in the teaching of Pope John Paul II. He has been following the legalization of MAiD in Canada and its impacts on the medical system since legalization in 2016. He is also an ordained permanent deacon in the Roman Catholic Church. He preaches regularly at his parish and has been involved in pastoral care where he has supported the sick and the dying. He is married to Dr Linda Gagnon has two children and eight grandchildren.

More about LARRY

SCHEDULE

6:30 PM Doors open / Refreshments
7:00 PM Welcome by Andy Steiger
7:10 PM Medicine: Have We Lost Our Way? by Farr Curlin
7:55 PM MAiD Legal Update by Larry Worthen
8:10 PM Panel Discussion / Q&A
hosted by Andy Steiger
9:00 PM Event ends / Refreshments
10:00 PM Doors close

LOCATION

ACTS Seminaries

DeVries Centre
22500 University Dr., Langley, BC V2Y 1Y1

NOTE: Paid parking is available.

REGISTER

Pre-registration is now closed.

Any remaining tickets will be available at the door.

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