# Canadian Doctors Push Pause on Medical Assisted Dying

> Two Toronto psychiatrists urge Canada to pause medical assisted dying after patients faced family conflicts and poverty-related distress.
- Title: Canadian Doctors Push Pause on Medical Assisted Dying
- Summary: Two Toronto psychiatrists urge Canada to pause medical assisted dying after patients faced family conflicts and poverty-related distress. Canadian doctors…
- Keywords: medical assisted dying, canada, toronto, university of toronto, dr gary rodin, dr madeline li, assisted dying, intolerable suffering, family conflict, poverty, news, politics
- Source: Nationalpost — https://nationalpost.com/news/maid-approved-for-canadian-woman-who-could-no-longer-cook-say-u-of-t-doctors-in-nyt-oped
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: medical assisted dying, canada, toronto, university of toronto, dr gary rodin, dr madeline li, assisted dying, intolerable suffering, family conflict, poverty, news, politics
## Doctors' Concerns
Two Toronto psychiatrists wrote an op-ed for the New York Times arguing Canada's medical assisted dying law has gone too far too fast.
## Family Conflict Case
A woman in her 70s, the family matriarch who made Sunday dinners, sought assisted dying after losing cooking ability but chose to delay it through counseling.
## Holocaust Survivor Case
An 80-year-old Holocaust survivor requested assisted dying to reclaim freedom from Hitler but delayed it after family concerns about giving up too soon.
## Poverty and Loneliness
Doctors cite a 2024 report showing people seeking assisted dying due to poverty or loneliness, raising concerns about feeling they have no other options.
## Counseling Success
Both patients chose to delay procedures after counseling, with one eventually proceeding when he lost capacity to consent to assisted dying.
## Key takeaway

Canadian doctors argue that medical assisted dying has gone too far too fast, citing cases where patients delayed procedures after counseling and concerns about poverty and loneliness.