Insight: She's 47, anorexic and wants help dying. Canada will soon allow it.
Insight: She's 47, anorexic and wants help dying. Canada will soon allow it.
Next year's expansion of the criteria for medically assisted death will allow Canadians like Lisa Pauli, whose sole underlying condition is mental illness, the choice to die in this way.
I am a proponent of MAID, but I find it extremely disturbing that we're opening up MAID to conditions that aren't even covered under our social health system. We are openly saying that we consider mental health issues too expensive to treat and would prefer that people with these conditions just die already. Social supports for people with disabilities and expanding health care to include mental health coverage should absolutely be part of this, or we're just being murderous ghouls as a society.
I agree in principle, but that's not what's happening in the real world.
My husband has ME/CFS. It's a life-destroying disease, even though it doesn't usually kill you. There's no treatment, no cure, and no idea about the underlying cause, after many decades of research.
It's heartbreaking to read messages from people who caught it as a teen, seen all their schoolfriend grow up, experience life, find love etc, all while the sufferer is in pain all day, no hope of improving, relying heavily on what family they have who are willing to support.
This is by no means ideal, but neither is decades of suffering. I err on the side of reducing the constant pain.
To be fair, that's a poor example, as the research on ME/CFS is dogshit. It never gets the attention it deserves and its victims suffer in deafening silence, because it's not some sexy field to research and there's no immediate, highly visible threat to the almighty economy.
We're seeing this mirrored with long COVID. At least 16 million Americans are suffering from it — nearly 1 in 20 — and, even with rates that enormously high, research is moving at a glacial pace. There's no operation warp speed, no coordinated global effort, nobody in world leadership gives a fuck.
Mental illness treatments are often ineffective. Those with mental illness tend to suffer lifelong, even if they can afford care.
I’m not sure it’s as crystallized as that yet, but I agree with your sentiment. Everyone should have the right to choose to die but if the reason is “there was no other option,” then, we should be damn well sure we offered everything we could. Let’s not be taking societal shortcuts to “oh well, we gave it our best shot.”
I support someone’s right to end their own suffering, 100%, but it is very bad form to: be ABLE to help someone, INGORE that they are suffering, but SMILE while helping them polish their gun.
Yep. I believe people should have choices, but after proper care. My daughter has Anorexia, but since she was still not an adult she had access to a counsellor, medication, and programs. It turned her life around. But once you are 19+ there is nothing unless you have lots of money
It doesn't help when a government offical got in trouble for suggesting a veteran apply for MAID when they complained about having chronic pain.
There's a conspiracy theory that the government has rolled out MAID as a way to lower healthcare costs by just killing people instead of treating them and stories like these add fuel to that fire.
Man I wouldn't even be surprised at this point.
I agree with this as long as the solution is more healthcare, not less MAID. The latter is just cruelty.
You could give free mental health to every Canadian and still 3/4 of it would never use it due to stigma, so it wouldn't even cost as much as they think
Yeah, like I think the option should exist once you've passed certain qualifiers. But being mentally ill has so many consequences from capitalism. I myself struggle with metal health at times, and those times are always at their absolute worst financial problems come up. And our society is extremely difficult to get started in. Most people my age are only one paycheck away from desperation. When you're mentally ill poverty is a symptom, you're that much less capable of working. And society refuses to help you in the long term. You'll always have to face your own unreliability as an existential threat, which worsens how unreliable you are.
It is morally wrong to euthanize people because capitalism has decided they have no worth, and because they can never have a life worth living without society changing. But thats almost never what people want to talk about, they want to talk about how it's just wrong to let the unwell die. Never about how they can prevent us from becoming so unwell we cannot function.
If people wanna die, they'll die.
Our choice is whether it's humane, or super cruel and messy. It's a binary choice; you pick.
The key issue is this. While we should allow death with dignity, we should also support life with dignity. We are failing badly in that category for far too many people.
Unfortunately, as soon as offing yourself becomes an easily accessible option, we are less motivated to help people. We've already had too many scandals of people looking for help being asked if they've considered medically assisted suicide.
I am 100% in support of the personal choice to end your life. I don't want it to become a government offered solution to solvable problems.
Allowing death with dignity on a person's terms is fantastic. I just hope we continue to support them until thr very end to ensure dignity the whole way
Wait for the Jesus freaks with a saviour complex to tell you how they can save literally everybody
There's nothing so evil as someone thinking they're doing good as per some arbitrary belief structure.
They tend to shut up when you ask them to actually help in any meaningful, concrete way. They'll sure protest though.
There's nothing so evil as someone thinking they're doing good as per some arbitrary belief structure.
Most people don't want to die; it's just the least-bad option society has chosen to offer them.
The title of this article is deplorably sensationalistic, but the article itself isn't bad. I guess they couldn't fit this into the title:
It requires a written application and assessments from two independent medical practitioners, including at least one specialized in their condition if the applicant is not near their natural death.
The article also notes:
Even after the change in the legislation [to allow non-foreseeable death applications], about 98% of the assisted deaths in 2021 were people deemed near their natural death, according to Health Canada data.
My Grandfather in law just went through this.
94, came down for a vacation, had been having trouble eating more months. Went from ER to CAT scan in 6 hours, to a diagnosis of esophageal cancer.
Requested MAID, took 5 days, and he was very thankful to receive it.
"[...]Canada will soon technically allow it but that person won't be eligible anyway." doesn't lead to as many clicks...
MAID prevents messier suicides.
The fact that it's necessary is a disappointing condemnation of our healthcare system, but it's better than blowing your brains out or jumping off of a bridge.
I knew someone who threw themselves off a bridge. Well, I knew their sibling. I was there when the call came through from the RCMP that they were missing. Then the call that the body was found. To say that it destroyed that family would be an understatement. I remember that my friend had to go down with their mother and identify what was left of the body. They were (understandably) never quite the same after that.
I don't know if I support expanding MAID to people with mental health issues or not. I have a feeling their sibling would've found a way to kill themselves one way or another. Maybe something more dignified would've been easier on the family? I don't know.
She can apply but it doesn't mean she'll get it. It's being expanded to allow consideration for mental conditions. There's still a ton of hoops and second opinions needed to get approved.
There is way too much misinformation and sensationalism over MAID
If you want to die and are found competent, then who the hell are we to deny you?
I'm all in favor for life termination by choice.
As someone with a medical condition I am afraid assisted suicide could become the expected solution. The same for old people or people with complex mental health issues or symptoms that aren’t curable yet. I wonder how it can be prevented to go down that path.
I agree with the disability rights advocates that we need to provide better access to social services. However, in either a world where we have sufficient access to social services, or the current world, I think expanded access to MAID is beneficial. I don't think expanded MAID is in lieu of expanded social services, nor do I think expanded MAID will discourage expanding social services.
If the religious advocates are pushing back on this, maybe they could actually push for better access to social services so less disabled people wanted to die?
I can only think of the suicide cabin from Futurama
I'm still more concerned the potential of harm for peole could've recovered if they had better medical access, since the damage is irreversible.
Everyone should have the right to end their life when they see fit - and the reality is people do it whether it's legal or not - but it's so sad when someone with treatable mental health issues can't see any light or hope because the issues are untreated. I've known so many people over the years who talked of ending things because of depression, who were eventually able to get to a better place and were so happy that they pushed through it.
Honestly I don't fully trust myself in this regard, so I don't really think it's a good idea. People who are very determined can just order a suicide kit online or whatever.
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