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Every year more people are choosing medical assistance in dying in the Interior Health region with numbers growing dramatically since the procedure became available eight years ago.

The first year the procedure was available in 2016, a combined 31 people in the Interior and Northern Health Authorities chose MAID, according to a provincial report. The following year, 118 people in Interior Health chose the procedure, and every year those numbers rose. There with 554 MAID deaths recorded in 2022.

The health authority recorded 290 deaths in the first half of 2023, the latest statistics available.

Medical assistance in dying allows an eligible person to get assistance from a medical practitioner to end their life but only under rules and criteria outlined in the criminal code of Canada. Only medical practitioners are allowed to assess a patient and do the procedure.

Gender, age and health reasons for choosing the procedure have remained fairly consistent across the years, with male and female participants at roughly half and half with average ages of 77 and 79 respectively.

By far the biggest health reason for choosing MAID is cancer which accounts for over 50% of MAID deaths. Co-morbidities — or co-existing health conditions — are at about 30%, and cardo-vascular conditions are at around 20%. Neurological conditions, respiratory conditions and organ failure are also present in smaller numbers.

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Almost half of MAID participants undergo the process in their home, with a quarter dying in a hospital and roughly 10% in a hospice setting. Fewer people undergo the procedure in community care facilities, residential care facilities and medical clinics.

MAID is a controversial issue among both public and politicians.

It was initially established for those with reasonably foreseeable deaths but in the spring of 2021, Parliament passed Bill C-7 which, among other changes allowed individuals to qualify for MAID even if their death isn’t foreseeable and for others who initially requested the procedure to still get it after they’ve lost their capacity to give consent.

READ MORE: Why this Kelowna death doula supports medical assistance in dying

More recently, advocates have been pushing for an expansion of MAID to include those suffering with mental illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease to become eligible, while some provinces are calling on the government to indefinitely delay the expansion.

Earlier this month, an exclusion for those suffering solely from mental illness was extended by the federal government until March of next year.

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