#3 Marie Nicolini: Should people with mental illness have access to medical aid in dying?

Content warning: This episode contains discussions of suicide, suicidal ideation, and symptoms of mental illness. If you or someone you know or love is struggling, please seek help. You can call or text 988 to reach the suicide and crisis lifeline.

In this episode, we interview Dr. Marie Nicolini, a psychiatrist and bioethicist who testified to the Canadian Parliament as an expert witness on the issue of medical aid in dying (MAID) for mental disorders. With Marie, we discuss whether we should legalize MAID for mental illness, what practical and conceptual challenges we face in constructing appropriate safeguards, and how legalizing MAID might interact with efforts to prevent suicide and improve psychosocial services for people with mental illness.

(00:00) Our introduction
(13:02) Interview begins
(14:07) Safeguards: The voluntariness requirement
(23:16) Safeguards: The unbearable suffering requirement
(33:01) Safeguards: The incurability requirement
(42:38) Safeguards: Retrospective oversight
(46:07) Is MAID for mental illness at odds with suicide prevention?
(1:01:08) Does legalizing MAID disincentivize improving psychosocial services
(1:06:13) What does MAID express about how we value people’s lives?
(1:12:44) The future of MAID policy

Bio(un)ethical is a bioethics podcast written and edited by Leah Pierson and Sophie Gibert, with production support by Audiolift.co. Our music is written by Nina Khoury and performed by Social Skills. We are supported by a grant from Amplify Creative Grants.