I liked this one because it’s a topic I’m quite passionate about. I bought my own copy so I could mark it up!

After spending 12 years in maternity and newborn care, Dr. Stefanie Green’s focus changed to providing medical assistance in dying (MAiD). This Is Assisted Dying is a recounting of Dr. Green's first year providing MAiD in British Columbia. In an emotive and educational manner, Green details the history of MAiD in Canada—from the Rodriguez case in the early 1990s, to Carter v. Canada in 2011, to details on the way the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court in 2015 changed end-of-life care in Canada. Green also highlights similarities and differences between Canadian legislation and regulation of MAiD to those in other parts of the world.

Through portraits of her patients, Green outlines the eligibility for and the process of MAiD. Readers get a glimpse of what the event and final goodbyes may look and feel like. Dr. Green writes in a way that makes all parts of the book easy to understand. Readers who were not previously familiar with MAiD or do not have a medical or legal background will be able to follow along easily.

From the title, one might assume This Is Assisted Dying is a melancholic read about death, suffering, and grief. While those themes are present, the focal points are the hope, choice, and control MAiD can bring to people facing terminal illnesses. Ethics, law, and family relationships and dynamics are also explored through the final goodbyes and events of Dr. Green’s patients.

The spectre of death hangs over us like an elephant in the room. Whether it be ailing loved ones or aging parents it is always challenging to face our mortality. The stories of her patients provide an opening to broach these difficult conversations. This Is Assisted Dying is an engaging book that will stay with readers long after they’ve turned the last page.

This is an important, useful, and accessible book for Canadians interested in learning about the issues, procedures, and the early days of “MaiD” (Medical Assistance in Dying), which came into effect in 2016. Having said this, I cannot deny that an “accessible” book is not equivalent to an easily read one. There are innumerable descriptions of human suffering and the doctor-author’s experiences providing MaiD. I could handle the book only in small doses.

Green is a former family physician who, for many years, worked long hospital shifts as a focussed-practice maternity and neonatal care clinician in Victoria, British Columbia. Gradually worn down by the hours and missing time with her family, she decided to transition—you guessed it—to a focussed practice in euthanasia. (Green is one of the earliest providers of MAiD in Canada. Along with a small group of colleagues, mostly family medicine physicians, she was instrumental in developing protocols and procedures.) While Green talks about a somewhat surprising overlap between maternity and assisted-death care—both provide the intensity and drama that she is drawn to—I will admit to finding her selection of a practice exclusively dedicated to providing “assisted death” slightly bizarre. I am personally skeptical about someone doing this work only and am doubtful about anyone’s ability to remain mentally well balanced long-term. I base this observation on a lot of personal experience being present for veterinary euthanasia, which I believe takes its toll on and frankly hardens some veterinarians, sometimes alarmingly so. No one wants to call the human version of this procedure “euthanasia”—because of its association with eugenics—although euthanasia is precisely what it is. I find it a bit weird that while people routinely comment about “humane” euthanasia in veterinary medicine, they’re reluctant to use the term in a human context.

As well as providing case studies and an exploration of ethical, psychosocial, and legal issues around MaiD, Green tells stories about her own upbringing and family; so this is a combo memoir/expository piece. I can hardly say I enjoyed the book. Indeed, I suspect anyone who has been involved in the care of a terminally ill friend or family member (even a nonhuman one) will find this book bordering on (if not fully) harrowing at times. It is valuable, certainly, but it can only be recommended with the caveat that it makes for some hard-going reading.

Rating: 3.5 rounded down

Some of the heaviest topics are some of the most fascinating to read about. As a huge supported of medically assisted dying, I was eager to get my hands on this book to learn more about it. I'm glad I did. The subject matter is grim, but also built on a beautiful sort of empathy, and seeing the fight to standardize the practice gives hope that this empathy is in the right place. I don't see this being a title people pick up lightly, but it's one we could all benefit from reading.

I found This Is Assisted Dying to be quite surprising: After the Canadian Parliament legalised what it called “medical assistance in dying,” or MAiD, in June of 2016, it was up to Canadian medical professionals (doctors and nurse practitioners) to come up with the protocols and processes for offering the procedure, without precise pharmacological, legal, or bureaucratic guidance from the government. As one of the first doctors to begin a MAiD practice, Dr Stefanie Green was instrumental in setting the standards for termination of life care, and the story that she tells of her first year in this practice is fascinating and moving. Filled with stories of MAiD in action, Green brings us into the rooms of those terminal patients who insist on controlling their final moments — most often surrounded by loving friends and family, sometimes proceeding despite angry opposition — and the picture she paints is of peaceful passings; the end of suffering; the “good death” we all want for ourselves and the ones we love. Eye-opening and provocative, this is the kind of book you really want to talk to people about; totally recommended.

I finished this a few days ago and sat on it until I knew what to say for a review. I still have few words. This book was beautiful. Dr. Stefanie Green wrote with such grace about people at the end of their lives. I read this book through tears at times and smiles at others. I learned a lot and didn’t feel like I was reading a textbook, instead I felt like I was having a chat with my new friend Stefanie. I wasn’t sure how I would feel reading a book about death less than a month after my grandma died, but ultimately this called to me and I think this book helped me work some things out and understand more about death and grieving. I’m beyond glad to have had the pleasure of reading this.