Oczkowski Simon J W, Ball Ian, Saleh Carol, Kalles Gaelen, Chkaroubo Anatoli, Kekewich Mike, Miller Paul, Dees Marianne, Frolic Andrea
Division of Critical Care, Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.
Hamilton Health Sciences, Hamilton, Canada.
BMJ Open. 2017 Aug 11;7(8):e017888. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-017888.
Medical assistance in dying (MAID), a term encompassing both euthanasia and assisted suicide, was decriminalised in Canada in 2015. Although Bill C-14 legislated eligibility criteria under which patients could receive MAID, it did not provide guidance regarding the technical aspects of providing an assisted death. Therefore, we propose a scoping review to map the characteristics of the existing medical literature describing the medications, settings, participants and outcomes of MAID, in order to identify knowledge gaps and areas for future research.
We will search electronic databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, CENTRAL, PsycINFO), clinical trial registries, conference abstracts, and professional guidelines and recommendations from jurisdictions where MAID is legal, up to June 2017. Eligible report types will include technical summaries, institutional policies, practice surveys, practice guidelines and clinical studies. We will include all descriptions of MAID provision (either euthanasia or assisted suicide) in adults who have provided informed consent for MAID, for any reason, including reports where patients have provided consent to MAID in advance of the development of incapacity (eg, dementia). We will exclude reports in which patients receive involuntary euthanasia (eg, capital punishment). Two independent investigators will screen and select retrieved reports using pilot-tested screening and eligibility forms, and collect data using standardised data collection forms. We will summarise extracted data in tabular format with accompanying descriptive statistics and use narrative format to describe their clinical relevance, identify knowledge gaps and suggest topics for future research.
This scoping review will map the range and scope of the existing literature on the provision of MAID in jurisdictions where the practice has been decriminalised. The review will be disseminated through conference presentations and publication in a peer-reviewed journal. These results will be useful to clinicians, policy makers and researchers involved with MAID.
医疗协助死亡（MAID），这一术语涵盖了安乐死和协助自杀，于2015年在加拿大被合法化。尽管C-14法案制定了患者可接受医疗协助死亡的资格标准，但并未就实施协助死亡的技术方面提供指导。因此，我们提议进行一项范围综述，以梳理现有医学文献中描述医疗协助死亡的药物、环境、参与者及结果的特征，从而识别知识空白和未来研究领域。
我们将检索电子数据库（MEDLINE、EMBASE、CINAHL、CENTRAL、PsycINFO）、临床试验注册库、会议摘要以及MAID合法的司法管辖区的专业指南和建议，检索截至2017年6月的数据。符合条件的报告类型将包括技术总结、机构政策、实践调查、实践指南和临床研究。我们将纳入所有对已提供MAID知情同意的成年人实施MAID（无论是安乐死还是协助自杀）的描述，原因不限，包括患者在丧失行为能力（如痴呆）之前就已同意接受MAID的报告。我们将排除患者接受非自愿安乐死（如死刑）的报告。两名独立研究人员将使用经过预测试的筛选和合格标准表格对检索到的报告进行筛选和选择，并使用标准化数据收集表格收集数据。我们将以表格形式汇总提取的数据，并附带描述性统计信息，并用叙述形式描述其临床相关性，识别知识空白并提出未来研究的主题。
这项范围综述将梳理在该实践已合法化的司法管辖区内，关于提供MAID的现有文献的范围和领域。该综述将通过会议报告和在同行评审期刊上发表进行传播。这些结果将对参与MAID的临床医生、政策制定者和研究人员有用。
