Palliative care nursing and moral coherence: Early responses to MAiD as hastened death

Marianne Sofronas, Dimitri Létourneau, Lisa Chan, Mary Ellen Macdonald, David Kenneth Wright, School of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, Palliative Care and Nursing Ethics Hub, Centre for Research on Health and Nursing, University of Ottawa, Faculty of Nursing, Université de Montréal, Department of Medicine, Dalhousie University

Nursing Ethics: An International Journal for Health Care Professionals

Published online on July 30, 2026

Abstract

Nursing Ethics, Ahead of Print.
BackgroundSince its inception over half a century ago, a defining attribute of palliative care philosophy has been an insistence that this approach intends to neither hasten death nor prolong life. A commitment to facilitate a ‘natural’ end-of-life ...