Understanding MAiD Eligibility - Plain Language Edition
We realized recently that in the year we have been doing this, we have never actually gone through the MAiD eligibility criteria in any meaningful detail. Not just listing them off, but actually talking about them — what they mean, how they work in real world settings, and what they look like in practice.
Let’s be honest, the way they are written — it’s not exactly easy reading. There is a lot of legal and medical language that can make your head spin! So the goal here is to strip all that back and just explain it in simple, tangible language.
We will be following the federal eligibility criteria1, because those apply across the entire country. That said, there are a few small differences in some provinces, so double-check your local MAiD sites for details. And as always, if you have questions, you can message us through our Ask Us Anything page or just send us an email — we really do read them.
We will begin with what is often considered the non-medical criteria, then move into the medical criteria (that’s the big one — the “grievous and irremediable medical condition” part), and then finish with the safeguards, which are the legal checks and balances that are woven through the entire process.
Non-Medical" Criteria
Let’s start with the basics.
The person must be eligible for health services funded by a province or territory, or the federal government
This one’s pretty straightforward — they have to be covered under a provincial, territorial, or federal health plan.
So that could be MSP in British Columbia, OHIP in Ontario, or another version in your province or territory. It could also be one of the federal programs — some examples include people in federal prisons, active members of the Armed Forces, or refugee claimants.
The reason for this one isn’t about who deserves MAiD or who doesn’t — it’s about medical tourism. Canada doesn’t want to become a destination where people fly in from other countries to have an assisted death. This rule essentially means you need to be living Canada and a registered member of the system that funds our health care.
A common misunderstanding is that MAiD is only for citizens or permanent residents — which is not true. Refugee claimants, for example, are typically covered under federal insurance as soon as their claim is accepted.
For new permanent resident, there’s usually a 90‑day waiting period before their provincial health coverage kicks in3; during that time they wouldn’t be eligible for MAiD. That’s the first example of where MAiD has stricter rules than regular medical care. If someone show up at the ER without public health coverage, they’ll still be treated. But for MAiD, no coverage means no go — it would actually be illegal to proceed.