Canada Will Legalize Medically Assisted Dying For People Addicted to Drugs
Canada Will Legalize Medically Assisted Dying For People Addicted to Drugs
Some drug user activists have likened the move to "eugenics" and say Canada should be funding more harm reduction.
If you're wondering how fun this could get, here's an article from the National Post arguing that poverty should be a qualifier for assisted suicide
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/canada-medical-aid-in-dying
Here's another where a woman with sensitivities to various chemical smells chose to die because she couldn't find an apartment that was affordable and didn't reek of noxious chemicals
The people who are worried about this aren't worried about people who genuinely want to die committing suicide. It was always nearly impossible to stop them anyway, and there's no way to change that. What we're worried about is people being pushed toward MAID because they've been systemically denied things they need to live that are absolutely available. We're worried about mentally ill people being told "do the right thing, don't be a burden" when they want to live. We're worried about suicide becoming the answer to problems that are caused by social and legislative conditions. We're worried about becoming the kind of society where, rather than help one another, it's expected that anyone who needs help just off themselves.
This is all coming from someone who tried twice and will be eternally grateful that I managed to fuck it up both times.
Your comment brings up the most relevant point against MAID and it's clear we can be a better society than one which pushes people over the edge, or let's them fall despite their pleas.
I too am glad that you managed to fuck it up and that you're here with us.
Glad you pushed through this.
As someone with a disability, this is one of my biggest fears: Social pressure to seek assisted suicide.
I think everybody deserves the right to end their life in a humane way.
I think you should never have to feel that suicide is your only option because material conditions outside of your control suck so hard.
Within reason.
But if the reason given is because classists don’t want you dirtying up their sidewalk with a wheelchair ramp, that’s just unreasonable.
Having people kill themselves because they can't afford to live is the opposite of humane.
I'm glad you made it here.
As a mental health professional, the slow leaning towards mental health issues being a qualification for MAID is terrifying.
I got close to trying several times. I suffer from anxiety and depression, I'm obsessive but I love life. I just wish I could solve my mental issues. Offing yourself is not a solution. It's like I have a math question in front of me and I rip up the paper and toss it in a can.
This is the best answer.
This is what the anti-suicide crowd fucking told you would happen if you legitimized or legalized suicide, and now that it's happening, you're once again refusing to connect it with supporting bad policies with no thought or consideration for the consequences.
But you're not the one who's gonna suffer so why should you give a shit, amirite? 🤷
This just sounds like a convenient way to get rid of homeless people
"Addicted to drugs? Sounds like you want to die. Here, we'll help."
WCGW?
2024: "Canada has approved medically assisted death for people who are late on their rent"
2025: "Canada has approved medically assisted death for unhoused persons"
2026: "Canada has approved medically assisted death forsocial parasitesthe disabled"
2027: "Canada has approved medically assisted death for adults and children with autism"
2028: "Canada has approved medically assisted death for those suffering from the effects of institutionalized racism"
2029: "Canada has approved medically assisted death for any First Nations, black, non-land-owning, or poor people who aren't already dead yet, and it's optional through 2030"Yeah I support the right to a comfortable death, but there’s a hard line here of only for people who will die in the near future with or without intervention of a disease they’re suffering from a sufficiently advanced case of. And it needs strict controls including oversight by disabled people.
I’ve watched a person slowly and painfully waste away to a disease. But I’ve also seen people say my life isn’t worth living.
Choices still matter in drug addiction and it shouldn’t receive the final mercy we may choose to offer to the terminally ill who are unable to even end their own life. If they want to die then they should have to do it themselves without help.
Maybe assisted becomes recommended, and recommended becomes prescribed?
we should start offering this in us cities
For the police? Agreed.
People say the same thing up here. Most people see it as a cynical form of population control.
Wow that’s… actually kinda fucked.
It's Canada. We aren't the smiling plucky canucks that the international community thinks we are. We're tired, boss. We have some of the worst incidence rates for opioid addiction in the world, the most expensive real estate, politicians that actually don't do anything except self-deal and play culture war games, a massive overpopulation crisis, a jobs crisis, a grocery cost crisis (all told, they call it a cost of living crisis). They literally invented MAID so that people with terminal cancer can take the painless path out, but now it's being discussed for literally anyone who is feeling mentally unwell.
They literally invented MAID so that people with terminal cancer can take the painless path out, but now it’s being discussed for literally anyone who is feeling mentally unwell.
The people opposed to medically assisted death used this as an argument against it. I disagreed with them, didn't expect that to really happen.
I still don't disagree with its use here. If a person's life is not their own to take then they have no autonomy at all, but still.. it's jarring to see it actually being used this way.
will be expanded next March to give access to people whose sole medical condition is mental illness, which can include substance use disorders.
So not drug use, but mental health conditions which the government considers drug addiction to be.
This will never be used by a drug addict. It will be used by people with untreatable and severe schizophrenia or similar afflictions. If you don't want to live in a nightmare world with no hope I think it should be your right to end it peacefully.
I get suicide makes people uncomfortable, but you're uncomfortable with it in a cozy apartment and good health. You think your protecting vulnerable people from a big scary government, but you're just forcing them to suffer needlessly.
Given that the intent here is to make assisted suicide legal for people who by definition are not of sound mind what protections are in place for people who would qualify for assisted suicide by way of mental health issues but also might not be fully competent to make this decision themselves? Who can step in and say that the patient actually is competent, and by what standards is that judged? Who can step in and say a patient that wants assisted suicide is not competent, or has been manipulated? I'm not worried about people who are genuinely suffering, the fact is we've never been able to stop them from killing themselves and we never will be. I'm worried about someone putting poison in the ear of someone with a treatable disorder, convincing them to "do the right thing and not be a burden".
Fight to make these services easier to access then. If they are easier to access, the poison wont take. If you waste all your pooitical energy fighting this, and then dont have enough to fight for better social supports and easier access to them, well then you've just made things worse
Edit: I've chosen life, I know how dark depression and hopelessness gets, but I've also been abandoned by my family and original community, and have spent almost a decade now being my own support network in a metropolis where I cant keep a community for very long. Our social support systems are GARBAGE right now and if I ever DID end up chosing death, I wouldnt want some bleeding heart like you who's going to fight this instead of making community supports easier to access blocking me from ending my suffering. Living alone with multiple different conditions that prvent you from being stabily employable is fucking hard, and if it's not something you've chosen its cruel to leave someone with no way out if it
Edit 2: I like the downvotes with no comments, really shows that people want to just be against something to feel good about themselves without having to think about the consequences of denying said thing
Not many really ever look into safeguards of these programs and let their imaginations take the reins. Here's the basics of MAID.
The things you need to get the process started is sign off from two doctors or nurse practitioners from two completely independant medical practices who are not directly involved in any long term care planning for the patient and are not experiencing any financial incentive. Doctors are allowed to refuse participation for any reason. They also must have demonstrated expertise in treatment of the condition for which someone is using as their reason for seeking MAID.
In the event of a non terminal illness one also needs a witness to back up your decision to pursue MAID to sign off on all the papers. There are some restrictions about who can count as a witness but in addition to those this person cannot :
-benefit from your death -be an unpaid caregiver -be an owner or operator of a health care facility where you live or are receiving care
The law requires all other potential services and harm reduction strategies be discussed as options and made available and stress is to be put on that you can opt out of the process at any time.
Once the paperwork is signed it begins a 90 day minimum assessment period. Witnesses found to be in violation of any of the witness or doctor restrictions are liable to be criminally charged.
People without decision making capacity are ineligible to apply for MAID. If their case is degenerative they can waive their final consent requirements but people can legally specify under a different program in palliative care a pre-determined termination criteria to pick what level of mental degeneration activates the order and it must be signed off on while the person is of sound mind or else your only choice is a naturally occuring death.
Lastly the final assessment requires active consent and cannot be in a state judged to be mentally incapable of decision making authority unless they previously waived that requirement. The person must be given every opportunity to opt out.
Finally the assessment request now requires a mandatory sign on for data collection for posterity. This is for purposes of determining if the system is being potentially exploited requiring the data in regards to identifying whether race, Indigenous identity and disability seek to determine the presence of individual or systemic inequality or disadvantage in the context of or delivery of MAID. The data regarding everyone who seeks the program, the doctors and the witnesses who signed on and those who decided later not to pursue then is referred to an investigative inquest body and the presence of the program has to be occasionally reviewed by federal Parliament and actively renewed over a predetermined cycle.
Good to see at least someone around here has some fucking clue regarding the purpose of this law...
- Just "feeling mentally unwell", as another commenter put it, is not enough to qualify. The law specifically requires the applicant "experience unbearable physical or mental suffering from your illness, disease, disability or state of decline that cannot be relieved under conditions that you consider acceptable" and "be in an advanced state of decline that cannot be reversed"
- If someone makes a "request for medical assistance in dying, 2 independent medical practitioners (physicians or nurse practitioners) must assess it."
And that's just a couple of the high bars one must clear to qualify.
But, I can say this about Lemmy: given the quality of the discussion on this post, this place really has turned into an excellent replacement for Reddit!
Exactly.
It's a hard argument, but untreatable depression can technically be terminal.
If mine weren't treatable, it would be.
Assisted suicide and euthanasia are messy subjects, but it's just so awful to not allow this for situations where we'd consider it cruel if an animal were in the same situation.
We can provide a "good death" to people who have nothing but suffering left in their life.
If my time comes, I'll take it in my own hands, but the fear is that something will happen where I can suddenly no longer make that decision.
You think
No, people against assisted suicide are likely the same types that say "life begins at conception" or "the death penalty is perfectly fine the way it is". I don't think they think beyond how they can control other people's lives.
It's totally different information from the OP.
It's probably reasonable for untreatable patients who suffer to no end.You don't fucking know that. Stop supporting bad policies you know are harmful.
How this works in real life:
Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) is a process through which a doctor or nurse practitioner assists an individual, at their request, to intentionally end their life[2]. The process for MAID in Canada involves the following steps:
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Eligibility: To access MAID in Canada, you must meet specific eligibility criteria. You must be at least 18 years old, capable of making decisions with respect to your health, and have asked for MAID yourself without any pressure from others. You must also have a grievous and irremediable medical condition, which means that you have a serious and incurable illness, disease, or disability, you are in an advanced state of irreversible decline in capability, and your illness, disease, or disability causes you enduring physical or psychological suffering that is intolerable to you and cannot be relieved under conditions that you consider acceptable[5].
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Request: If you wish to request MAID, your health care provider will ask you to complete and submit the Request for Medical Assistance in Dying form. By submitting this form, you are formally asking for MAID and stating that you believe you meet all the eligibility criteria[2].
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Assessment: Two independent medical practitioners must assess your eligibility for MAID. They will review your medical history, conduct a physical examination, and discuss your options for care. They will also discuss your decision with you to ensure that you are making an informed choice[2].
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Final Consent: You must provide final consent immediately before receiving MAID. You can withdraw your request for MAID at any time and in any manner, even if you are found eligible for MAID[4].
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Procedure: MAID can happen in one of two ways: a doctor or nurse practitioner gives a drug to the patient that causes the patient’s death, or a doctor or nurse practitioner prescribes a drug for a person, at the person’s request, that the person can swallow and cause their own death[5].
The 2021 revisions to Canada’s MAID law enhance data collection and reporting to provide a more comprehensive picture of how MAID is being implemented in Canada, including under the new provisions. The monitoring regime is important to supporting transparency and public trust in how MAID is being delivered[1].
Citations: [1] Canada's medical assistance in dying (MAID) law - Department of Justice https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/cj-jp/ad-am/bk-di.html [2] Medical Assistance in Dying - Provincial Health Services Authority http://www.phsa.ca/health-info/medical-assistance-in-dying [3] Medical assistance in dying: Overview - Canada.ca https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/health-services-benefits/medical-assistance-dying.html [4] Get the facts on MAID | Dying With Dignity Canada https://www.dyingwithdignity.ca/end-of-life-support/get-the-facts-on-maid/ [5] MAiD - End-of-Life Law and Policy in Canada http://eol.law.dal.ca/?page_id=2472 [6] A medically assisted death - Canadian Virtual Hospice https://www.virtualhospice.ca/maid/articles/a-medically-assisted-death/
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It is a bit unfair that only drug addicts get this. Assisted suicide should be available for the general population.
The article says that the mentally ill also get this option.
Though only after a consultation with a philosopher
Yes definitely
Just to make extra sure it isn't eugenics, have everyone asking for assisted suicide, provide proof of having reproduced, or get enrolled into forced reproduction first... /s
This feels very click-baity. As far as I can tell, the assisted suicide law is being extended to include people in unbearable pain from mental health problems, not just physical ones. Because substance abuse is classified as a mental health problem, people with drug addictions would have the right to request assisted suicide under this extension to the law.
The objections being raised speak to the same fears many disabled people have about legalising assisted suicide: that people struggling with their health might be, or feel, pressured to end it for the convenience of others, not because it is the best thing for themselves. I assume that the existing law attempts to address this properly, with safeguards against external pressures.
Assisted suicide is most valuable for people who do not have the physical capacity to do it themselves, and do not want to put a loved one at risk of a murder charge. In practice, most people with a serious drug problem can quite easily end it themselves if they want to. Access to assisted suicide doesn't seem particularly likely to change much, except perhaps offer a more peaceful, dignified death for those who want it anyway.
This article seems to be pushing the conservative narrative. They make a leap from mental health to eugenics, which is a stretch. I call BS
Denying the people the right to die with dignity is a sick perversion of morals.
Vice isn't exactly a reputable news source.
Sort of, but it's basically state assisted suicide not because of terminal illness, or horrific physical impairment. It's for people with who are depressed, or otherwise mentally ill, including addicts.
Yes, I know they say they're safeguards and assessments, and that it's for people that treatment has failed, but who knows how that'll actually be implemented, or practically be enforced.
Chronic depression and your wife just divorced you? You're in luck, the state can help end your pain, permanently.
Lose your home and job because of your addiction? We'll kill you, no problem.
Should they be allowed to kill themselves? Sure, I don't think suicide should be illegal, but extending state sanctioned assisted suicide to a junkie, who's bottoming out, or someone with chronic depression, seems like the pendulum swinging way way way to far outside what should be acceptable for this type of state intervention.
But I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on the nuances of this law, or how it will be implemented, just proving my take on the information I read in the article.
It's not an easy one, at all. My answer is the same as that for severely physically disabled people who may feel pressured for reasons external to themselves. And that is funding. People must have the support they need, whether it's professional care for support with daily living, or adequate treatment programmes, or secure housing from which to rebuild a liveable life.
That is not the world we live in, sadly. I understand why people fear that assisted suicide could be used to disappear a problem by a heartless state, and it's a reasonable fear, no matter how good the original intentions. This law can only be a good one if real safeguards are in place, with generous collective provision for those of us who find ourselves struggling for whatever reason.
Fucking up a suicide can make your life so much fucking worse than it was before you decidee to end things, and quite possibly less likely to be able to attempt it again. I'd rather people use their fear of those scenarios to fight for better social support networks and mental health services, because right now what we have is atrocious. I've chosen life, but because I lost ALL of my support networks and the trauma that left me with, its been 7 years since that incident and I've struggled to be able to maintain a job or a community, losing job after job and friend group after friend group is hard enough as it is (while I watch my debt spiral) if I hadnt CHOSEN this struggle
Honestly just seems like a tee up so the government can "persuade" these people to kill themselves. It's a bold strategy, Cotton.
Could be a dry run for when life gets so bad in the next few years that people just look for the exit.
"Kill em all". Canadian here. Disabled folks like myself have been taking this route for a while now simply because they can't afford to live any longer. That's pretty fucked. Canada doesn't want anything to do with us or the "junkies". They'd rather we die.
Like, truly, where was legality ever an issue if you were really considering suicide? Maybe that's just my lense
Bingo. The health administrator just wants to go “hey I don’t want to give this person naxolone but I also don’t want to face any consequences.”
The “legality” side of committing suicide in a drug addicts case is a red herring. It’s incredibly easy to kill yourself on fentanyl even accidentally. with or without legality.
This is only okay if the client asks for it under lucid understanding. And I support it. "Pushing" this from any government agent should be illegal. I will take this route when I reach a certain quality of life threshold.
It hasn't been pushed on anyone from a Healthcare provider(the only people legally allowed to recommend and administer)
Considering that just two weeks ago the canadian government for cheering for actual SS Nazis, that should be a surprise for no one.
Why is there always such a shitshow when it comes to these laws? In Switzerland we have EXIT which is also assisted suicide. Nobody cares that it exists, it is just a reasonable system.
Because the conditions applied always seem to be revolving around removing undesirables within Canada. This example makes people fear that Canadian hospital workers will begin pressuring drug addict patients to kill themselves, or even darker, signing them up for euthanasia without their knowing or consent.
Healthcare worker here.
There is a long list of steps that have to be put into place before someone is even elected for MAiD recommendation by a doctor.
Then there is a 3 step consent process in which the patient must be lucid. Maybe people who want MAiD are unable to successfully give the last step of consent unfortunately. I myself had to watch my grandmother die slowly rather than though MAiD like she wanted because she lost lucidity.
Between those steps either a doctor or a pharmacist will get in touch with the patient to go over the steps of MAiD again.
The drugs for MAiD aren't over the counter. After all of the above steps are done then the pharmacist does up the compounds. Every Pharmacist I know triple checks their paper work and thier medications.
Then they would either provide MAiD in hosiptal or make a home visit. At the moment handing off the compounds to the family is not allowed here.
There are so many steps and checks and paperwork that no one is getting MAiD signed up against thier will.
Hey so just to give you some context assisted suicide already exists in Canada for the terminally ill.
This is not that.
I don’t think the thing you are comparing to is the same situation is where government is purposely leaving behind depressed and people with disabilities or really any negligible problem and then offering them death as the only option. How do you get out of feeling guilt of not building a ramp for someone with a wheelchair? Oh just tell them to go kill themselves as their only option.
It’s a situation where you just don’t have a doctor to help you stay healthy but you have a doctor to help you die.
The great passive aggression of political classism Canada 2023.
They are actually making Britain look like the compassionate ones. That’s saying something.
I'm all for this, but when the reason someone wants to go is because of an arguably temporary mental health condition, that is hard to justify.
That also makes it more difficult for mental health professionals, when an easy way out is there for the patient.
Drug addiction, in my opinion, comes dangerously close to a mental health disorder.
It is a symptom of many disorders. That’s what is wrong with this thing entirely. It lets everyone off the hook of helping someone who could be helped but instead they just want to sit back and judge them for taking the painkillers some doctor put them on.
The bad is that they're making categories of people with helped death on the table for those specifically detested.
The government: Can’t function well enough to perform tasks that increase the GDP? We have a drug for that.
That sounds fucked-up, no? Is it an uncureable condition?
Addiction isn’t a condition which can, generally speaking, be cured. It’s a chronic condition and is often genetic. While many choose a lifetime of treatment, it’s a constant struggle, and the quality of life varies widely.
Yeah, it's fucked up. It's being presented under the guise of equality too lol
I'd be worried that this will be used as a screen to kill "undesirables" without scrutiny.
It does say it requires counseling before it is done, so you would have to fake that part.
Not hard for medical professionals to put blanket symptoms on mental illnesses. Just look at history. The mentally unwell haven't been treated kindly by pretty much anyone throughout history. All this positive talk about it is modern as in the last 30 years. Before that it was all taboo
No you need bad counselors. And not explicitly evil ones even. Just ones who think they’d want to die if their life was pretty bad. I see people say they’d kill themselves if they were deaf, if they were blind, if they were in need of a wheelchair, etc, but disabled people do live happy and complete lives, often to the astonishment of therapists.
Drug addicts are capable of recovering and having better lives. That’s the fundamental difference between them and the terminally ill. Mentally ill people can find their miracle treatment or a regimen that works or something.
These two groups are easily manipulated when at their worsts and counselors are frankly terrible at seeing the difference between a really bad period of life and a life that can’t improve. The last thing a mentally ill person at rock bottom needs is a medical professional to agree death is an option
It's already happening, and the eugenics apologists have been falling all over themselves to say "OH UHHH THOSE WERE JUST DOZENS OF ISOLATED INCIDENTS PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE FASCISTS BEHIND THE CURTAIN"
Canada is several months away from medically assisted "suicide" for people who don't support currently elected politicians
Found the right wing, nutjob.
Lord have mercy. Canada has lost their minds.
Be careful, they may expand who is "eligible".
Long time ago, so I heard but it seems they are still "sinking" deeper.
I do hate this, but at least dying is not an illegal thing to do to oneself, but at the same time, I don't want people to die, even if they decided to. On top of that, there has to be a better way to deal with addiction than allowing someone to just die. Plus, there is a stupid loophole brewing where people who decide not to die could be documented as wanting to die by some powerful individuals. All around, a bad thing to legalize and the administrative problems it would bring
I don't want people to suffer even if they decided to. There's this stupid loophole where people are convicted of crimes they didn't do because the government is theatre.
All around, people should maintain their own propriety.
This feels like it crosses a line.
I just don't know how I feel about it. They do go through an assessment before they're allowed to end their life this way. Maybe if you really want to die because your life is just generally unbearable, you should be allowed to? I get that there are methods to beat addiction, but they don't always work. If you just can't stop smoking meth and you just can't live that way anymore, maybe let that person die like they want to? I honestly don't know if those are yes answers for me.
I think you should be allowed to, and I’ve been vocally pro right to die for a long time, but I think this is bad. Medically assisted suicide isn’t meant to be done like this because doctors are better at it, but because they’re the ones with access to lethal drugs whom the terminally ill who are unable to end their life by their own hand will interact with that have the least to gain from their death.
Medically assisted suicide needs to emphasize assisted over suicide. Drug addicts have the capacity to obtain and administer a lethal dose of a drug. I might be ok with them being allowed a safe place where a DNR order that they set up for that experience will be respected so they can OD.
But the general rule in medically assisted suicide is the patient should have to prove that they are terminally ill with no hope of recovering and a sufficiently painful decline and then once approved they should have to do every part of the act that they are physically capable of. Furthermore the final “go” signal should require the patient to explicitly trigger. The physician should be as hands off as possible.
It needs to be treated with this weight. It needs to require a person dying of cancer to fight for it. Otherwise able people might begin dispensing “mercy” where it is less than enthusiastically wanted.
Yes, it does. People addicted to drugs have mental issues: addiction. That will warp their judgement. Medically-assisted dying is something that needs to be legal. But the doctors involved need to be sure that the dying properly consents and that is going to be MUCH harder when they have to judge it through a lens of addition.
To me this reads just shy of saying medically assisted dying is now legal for people with mental health issues. Which would 100% be compared to what the Nazis did to the mentally and physically disabled.
In my opinion, those addicted to drugs so much as to need help commiting suicide are not in a clear enough mental state to make such a decision.
That’s why it is required for them to have multiple interviews with medical professionals before they qualify for state assistance.
Just roll out the suicide booths already
Might as well, eh?
This opens some uncomfortable doors for people who have a severe negative and abusive view towards drug addicts.
I know multiple doctors involved in the panels that make these decisions and the people that have negative and abusive views towards drug addicts don't really get input into this process.
If you can find a panel of doctors stack full of fucking assholes who want addicted people to die. That's a different story, but I would argue the people I know involved in this processing. Canada albeit just a few of them are genuinely good people who don't judge you for the issues you're going through and just want you to be helped and at peace.
Yeah the risk with panels: look at the SCJ right now. Its supposed to be an ethics committee but almost all of them got in there doesn’t have a shred of ethics.
So if you’re relying on a panel of voted doctors It’s just a bribe away from complete negligence and apathy to human life over a slight inconvenience and $$.
It’s not exactly prime objective material.
For the last two months I’ve been seriously considering taking my own life. What holds me back is that I’ll severely fuck up my loving family, my mum, dad and brothers and my girlfriend/ex-girlfriend (it’s complicated). It would hurt them so much. If it wasn’t for them I would have already done it.
So what I want to know is why shouldn’t I just end my 33 year old Swedish life right now when there’s just too much stuff to battle. Before I wanted to battle my way through this. But I can’t take this anymore. I’ve never posted something like this before. Sorry everyone. I don’t know why I did it.
I hope you have someone to talk to about this. Your life is worth living, the people who you don't want to hurt love you and want you in their lives even if it's complicated.
Wishing you all the best.
I'm not qualified to answer this even though I want to help you. If you are considering suicide please don't. Please find a helpline and talk to someone who can help you so much better than me.
Hey there, I'm sorry to read about these thoughts you're having. I urge you to consider using one of the services available to you in Sweden and talk to someone about it here : https://mind.se/chatt/
Wish you all the best get better man life is worth living it's all we have.
Hey thanks for posting this. I understand you are feeling the fight is too long and too big. With everything going on in the world it can feel pretty defeating. You have a lot of people around standing through it with you. Please reach out to anyone close by.
I think the brain can go through waves of defeat and sometimes it’s the feelings we might have we just want to have a break from it. Can you workshop a bit with these feelings? Do you have a workbook maybe you can write out everything that is happening right now that you just hate and bringing up these feelings, places, people and things. You don’t have to worry about showing it to anyone. It’s purely just for you. No shame. It’s to just put it somewhere so you don’t feel like you’re abandoning it but just like file it so you can have a break from it.
After that :write out how you feel about your family and girlfriend and the ex(and however it’s complicated) and write out how you feel about them. Maybe write out why you want to stick around for all of them.
After that: write out as if you’re someone who isn’t you but as a witness to yourself. Like a summary or just a separate entity, maybe you from the future or past (or both) or a role model, what would you say to you to help you?
I can see you’re doing it here already. So keep doing it. Write it all out.
I've been in a very dark place myself a few times. Knowing that my wife is and will always be there for me is the only thing that gave me hope for the future, even when I was at my lowest. I don't know what you're struggling with but I can tell you from my own experience, the darkness is not permanent.
As other commenters have said, please take advantage of the help that's available. Your life is valuable, you are worthwhile, and the present is not the future.
California and Canada have similar populations and both allow medically assisted suicide. Canada last year performed this on 20x more people. It’s well documented that many would prefer treatment to death but it isn’t provided as an option due to cost. This is eugenics
Agreed. Medically-assisted suicide cannot be offered to anyone who doesn't have all of the health care they need without bankrupting themselves. Therefore I don't think it's ethical to ever offer it in a country where health care is a financial transaction for the patient.
Otherwise the government might as well be handing the patient a huge bill in the left hand and a gun in the right.
From a patient perspective, though, it might make more sense in a society where healthcare is limited to allow people to choose to just die. Without it they’re forced to live a life of suffering and pain based on a taboo.
I think there’s a case to be made that medically assisted suicide is always an ethical option to have available to anyone.
Got a source for these numbers?
"In Canada, which has a smaller population than California, physicians or nurse practitioners directly ended the lives of 31,664 people between 2016 and 2021. That compares to just 3,344 in California."
This is an opinion piece article and I'm not sure where they're pulling numbers (I only had time to skim through it)
But if true, let's add a loose and relatively subjective term like "addiction" to the legislation and these numbers will go up.
Maybe this is how the government was planning to tackle the housing problem lol
No since this isn't currently a covered condition so these people wouldn't be eligible for this completely voluntary program currently.
Both have state-provided rehab.
This is eugenics
How so?
Huh. In the UK, they just put them on waiting lists until they die.
That's fucked
I honestly think this would not be a bad way to go once I retire. Just develope a fentanyl addiction and move to Canada for a medically assisted OD. A lot better than dealing with the coming water wars and dying like an animal while desperately fighting for survival.
If you've already made it to fentanyl just take two of them. No need to be buried in Canada.
Nah, I'd have my worm nutrients sent back to family in the US, or be cremated.
Also, what's with the hostility?
This seems reasonable. Lucid only, there's a big talk about it, gernerally seems in-line with how other countries handle it. If you were slowly dying of rabies, prions, ebola, rat-lungworm, or other terrible maladies/injuries, I could see this being beneficial.
This is already in place in Canada. They want to take it further and just off the people who inconvenience the upper class but without getting their hands dirty doing it themselves. Just want the ‘unwashed to go away’
When you really consider it, anyone with an addiction can easily commit suicide. It’s not exactly something they need ‘help’ with if that was a conscious intent. So a law to allow this is a misnomer and a bit on the nose of what it really is about: class war.
Does caffeine count?
This is Burgsys type shit TNO can't make this up
What? Why not legalize their forced detox and give them another chance at life? Guess make them sleep is easier at budget or something ??
This seems very odd when the data indicates we are entering a period of breakthrough medical discoveries thanks to AI. I suspect addition will be something we will be able to address sooner than later. Seems unnecessary too given how many deaths are already happening thanks to fentanyl. So very odd.
This is completely bullshit about what it really is about. Anyone with an addiction can easily commit suicide. It’s not exactly something they need ‘help’ with to do. Passing a law about just allowing that seems suspect. Suspect in that I don’t think it’s about ‘allowing’ but more ‘encouraging’ or just not injecting someone ODing for the umpteenth time with naxolone and not facing any legal consequences with corrupt/inept lawyers. They should just come out and fuckin say it. It’s a class war. Nothing to do with empathy.
Fuck Canada
All the depressed Marijuana users: Welp..... I guess its time to get outta here. Bye world.
But let me smoke one more joint real quick.
(Get stoned, forget you were going to commit suicide, get depressed because you're not dead yet, decide to commit suicide)
But let me smoke one more joint real quick.
Canada, can you stop doing eugenesics for 5 seconds?
