James Downar

Dec 17, 2024 | theconversation.com | James Downar |l’Université d’Ottawa

More and more countries are legalising voluntary assisted dying. This lets a doctor, or sometimes a nurse practitioner, give life-ending medication to an eligible person who requests it. As of 2023, 282 million people lived in regions where voluntary assisted dying is legal. Jurisdictions such as the Netherlands, Belgium and Oregon have had these laws in place for decades. Other countries, including Canada, Spain, New Zealand and Australia, have passed reforms more recently.

Oct 30, 2024 | bmj.com | James Downar |Eliana Close |Ben White

James Downar, professor of palliative care1, Eliana Close, senior research fellow2, Jessica E Young, senior research fellow3, Ben P White, professor of end-of-life law and regulation41Division of Palliative Care, Department of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada2Australian Centre for Health Law Research, Faculty of Business and Law, Queensland University of Technology; Brisbane, Australia.

Mar 1, 2024 | bmj.com | Peter Tanuseputro |James Downar

Peter Tanuseputro, associate professor1, Colleen Webber, postdoctoral fellow12, James Downar, professor123 1Investigator, Bruyere Research Institute, Ottawa ON, Canada 2Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa ON, Canada 3Department of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa ON, Canada Correspondence to: P Tanuseputro peter.tanuseputro{at}mail.utoronto.ca Advanced analytics may help move from population to personalised predictions For decades, healthcare providers have understood that...

Oct 16, 2023 | cmaj.ca | James Downar |Susan MacDonald |Sandy Buchman

KEY POINTSDespite fears that availability of medical assistance in dying (MAiD) for people with terminal illness would lead to requests for MAiD driven by socioeconomic deprivation or poor service availability (e.g., palliative care), available evidence consistently indicates that MAiD is most commonly received by people of high socioeconomic status and lower support needs, and those with high involvement of palliative care.