Last month, Advisors to the Vulnerable Persons Standard released a comprehensive report, " Towards a More Robust Monitoring Regime for Medical Assistance in Dying; Submission to The Federal Minister of Health". The report highlights critical omissions from the government's regulatory proposal that undermine the foundational commitments in the preamble to Canada's MAiD law.

This week, the VPS continues to spotlight the issue of MAiD monitoring with a new Blog commentary in the series " Why Monitoring Matters". This week's featured column, by VPS advisor Sister Nuala Kenny, is titled " Vulnerability, Monitoring and the Moral Core of Medicine". In it, Dr. Kenny elaborates on the philosophical underpinnings of medicine and articulates her experience of medicine "as a moral endeavour". 

From this foundation, Dr. Kenny reflects upon MAiD as both a consequence of and a catalyst for the erosion of conscience in medical practice. "Conscience", she writes, "is about forming the moral core of our acts and decisions. Without conscience development, sensitivity to the suffering of patients and families and recognition of those most vulnerable to requesting MAiD is compromised." 

Dr. Kenny's essay affirms the emphasis of the VPS submission on physician responsibility for protection of autonomy, understanding suffering, non-discrimination and provision of options. Noting that there will be bureaucratic pressures to "simplify paperwork" and fixations on privacy that threaten to erase all signs of institutional abuse and social neglect, she issues a clear call to a higher ethic of moral agency. A monitoring system rooted in physician responsibility, she argues, "may reawaken clinicians to the moral core of their practice". 

The VPS Blog, " Why Monitoring Matters" will continue in the coming weeks to feature guest commentators from medicine, ethics, law, social policy and human rights, providing Canadian lawmakers and the broader public with a range of insights and perspectives on the importance of robust MAiD monitoring.