Double-edged MAiD death family legacy: a qualitative descriptive study

Individuals who accompany a loved one through medical assistance in dying (MAiD) have to live with the experience and the psychological, moral and social consequences of their involvement in the process long after the death occurs.

To explore the legacy of a MAiD death for individuals who accompanied a loved one through the process.

Using a qualitative descriptive approach we conducted semi-structured interviews to collect data from family members who had accompanied a loved one through MAiD. Data were analysed using conventional content analysis.

16 family members of 14 patients who received MAiD at a Canadian hospital with an interdisciplinary MAiD programme.

The main theme in the analysis is the opposing tensions experienced by individuals who accompany a loved one through a MAiD death, which we conceptualise as a double-edge experience. This double-edge experience is illustrated through four thematic opposing tensions: (1) support for patient autonomy and ambivalence about the MAiD choice, (2) gratitude for suffering relieved for loved one and grief for lost time with loved one, (3) time as a gift and time as a burden and (4) positive legacy and challenging bereavement experience.

The nature of the MAiD experience for involved families is rooted in complexity, ambiguity and ambivalence and thus resists easy categorisation. Families would benefit from structured psychosocial and spiritual supports that acknowledge this complexity, along with MAiD-specific bereavement support following the death.