• Sheila Holmes, Ellen Wiebe, Jessica Shaw, Amelia Nuhn, Alanna Just, and Michaela Kelly.
• Internal medicine resident at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
• Can Fam Physician. 2018 Sep 1; 64 (9): e387-e393.

ObjectiveTo explore the experience of family and close friends of patients seeking medical assistance in dying (MAID) in Canada.DesignQualitative study using semistructured interviews.SettingA clinic in Vancouver, BC, that provides MAID services.ParticipantsEighteen support people for patients seeking MAID.MethodsClinic patients seeking MAID identified their primary support people during consultations for an assisted death evaluation. Identified support people were invited to participate in the study, and those who were interested were asked to contact the interviewers. Semistructured interviews were conducted, transcribed, coded, and subjected to content analysis to elucidate common themes.Main FindingsAll participants were supportive of their loved one's wish for assisted death and they provided emotional and practical support in preparation for MAID. Support persons talked about the journey they went through from their loved one's diagnosis to the MAID request to the actual death. Some were initially opposed but changed their minds after seeing the suffering their loved ones endured. The time before the assisted death involved saying goodbye and, for some, ceremonial rituals (celebration of life, poems, singing, etc). Those interviewed after their loved one's assisted death found the death peaceful and reported that it offered advantages compared with natural death in their loved one's individual circumstances.ConclusionThis study provides insight into experiences of support people coping with a loved one who is seeking or has sought MAID in the context of a country unfamiliar with the legal process of a planned and hastened death. Participants were supportive of their loved one's wishes for assistance in death to end suffering and found the process to be peaceful overall.Copyright© the College of Family Physicians of Canada.

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