Wiebe, Ellen, Kelly, Michaela · Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2023 · DOI
This study looked at how doctors in Canada handled requests from patients with serious chronic illnesses who asked for medical assistance in dying (MAID) between March and September 2021. Among 54 patients who made these requests, about 15% had ME/CFS or similar complex chronic conditions, and 52% had chronic pain. Doctors reported struggling most with patients who also had mental health conditions and uncertainty about whether patients had tried all available treatments.
This study directly documents the medical and clinical contexts surrounding MAID requests from ME/CFS patients in a jurisdiction where such requests are legally permitted. For ME/CFS patients and advocates, the data reveals gaps in treatment availability and the role of untreated mental health comorbidities in end-of-life decision-making. Understanding provider challenges may inform discussions about improving palliative care, psychiatric support, and treatment access for ME/CFS.
This study does not establish whether MAID is an appropriate option for ME/CFS patients, nor does it prove that unavailable or untried treatments could have changed patients' outcomes or decisions. The data reflects provider perceptions of challenges rather than objective measures of treatment availability. The small sample and voluntary participation may skew results toward providers with particular experiences or perspectives.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Wiebe, Ellen & Kelly, Michaela (2023). Medical assistance in dying when natural death is not reasonably foreseeable: Survey of providers' experiences with patients making track 2 requests.. Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien. https://doi.org/10.46747/cfp.6912853
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-wiebe-2023-medical-assistance,
author = {Wiebe, Ellen and Kelly, Michaela},
title = {Medical assistance in dying when natural death is not reasonably foreseeable: Survey of providers' experiences with patients making track 2 requests.},
journal = {Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien},
year = {2023},
doi = {10.46747/cfp.6912853},
note = {PubMed: 38092447},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/wiebe-2023-medical-assistance},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/wiebe-2023-medical-assistance
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