16 Comments

I would be wary of the opinion of someone who has "provided MAID" to 400 people. That is a deeply evil individual and you can't be sure they're not carrying out some sadistic fetish through medicine

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Your article is thought provoking, however having a nearly lifelong mentally ill mom I can say, at least here in America that we can’t get our ducks in a row w/current programs (medical/mental). Feels awkward to make such a statement when we here in America do you have care that does not exist in many places around the globe.  I have witnessed many abuses at the hands of “professionals”. So while all the warm open discussion and fuzziness is appreciated, the reality of what is deployed is much much different.  I am sick and to read articles about “the blue whale”, not to mention other efforts to hurt young people. Maybe if someone cared to get a handle on those abuses this “MAID”practice wouldn’t be so hard to digest. For now the systems that are in place are not trusted from this reader.

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My terror is being in hospital in the care of others. Suicide is hard, have tried several times and been saved.

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When a government can coerce you into locking yourselves indoors, pull your children out of schools and cause your business (your livelihood) to close, and people obey, should we really be talking about assisted suicide? I think there may be a time in the future, when the earth’s population has awakened to the levels of corruption in our government and medical/pharmacy institutions, maybe then we can discuss it. We have a lot of waking up to do before we consider this topic.

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What srikes me as an outsider to the Canadian system is that the concept of death in Western psychiatry invites a freudian identified drive, and so perhaps acceleration, daresay, to the point of fear? Herein a boundary,. albeit psychological in nature.

Death is not accounted for, however, by psychological causes, mental illness has to be invisible; so, not a cause of physical death. That's what troubles me about the prescription described from a medical standpoint.

But from a public health perspective it just makes practical sense. The endeavor to pass on one's genes, just like the struggle to survive, has social corroboration involved.

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I'd say this. People may deserve the choice to do it painlessly and supervised to assist in that. In a legal and real world sense people have the right to choose things that others may think are morally wrong.

But there is nothing good that can possibly come from the state having control over this. Canada has socialized medicine. It is not the same as someone deciding this with private physicians and family. The risks of this being a lever of power that can be pulled, with plausible deniability, by the government is too great.

If such a thing is going to exist you can talk about how to do it. How it should work. Like all emphasis being on dissuading people and it being a last resort. But there is a real problem that is structural with Canada or any state that has socialized medicine doing this.

After that there are still issues. If we resolve all of that I've seen the financial incentives play out with what amounts to mutilating children in real time. In a "wave a magic wand" sense I think the option should exist with doctors paid above costs only if they dissuade the person and it sticks a certain amount of time. But that's not really how markets work. Never will.

All I can say with certainty is the government should be nowhere near any of this.

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I have so many thoughts in response to this piece. And I will self identify as the wife of a man who chose MAiD. I will focus on two things.

One ... The MAiD application system is an intense process of checks and balances. If you receive MAiD it is because that is what you truly wanted as an individual. Which leads me to ...

Two ... Our relationship with death is truly individual and not black and white. We do not talk about that enough in society. Death is a part of life, and it is as messy and unique as life. The only people who really know the full picture of the choice of MAiD are the individual who received it and their assessors/provider. Family and friends can think they know, but they do not. We need to normalize conversations about death.

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Thank you so much for sharing, Jana. Although I'm sorry to hear that this was a choice that had to be made, I'm glad that this was a choice that was available and was chosen because of what your husband truly wanted/needed. I'm glad to hear that you feel that the process was indeed full of checks and balances. It seems like some people feel like there are sufficient ones, others do not—and perhaps it comes down to individual experiences with specific practitioners. I think it's important for us to have dialogue about it to ensure that the checks and balances continue to work, while allowing people choice. What you bring up though...death...I think you're absolutely right, we tend to not talk about that much at all, on any level. And I think we do need to do better as a society talking about it. There's even something to that tradition is Mexico, Day of the Dead/Dios los Muertos that feels like it's a healthier way to approach the subject because it celebrates the lives of those who have passed and it embraces death, in a way, rather than fearing it or being quiet about it. As to how someone chooses to pass, it is so deeply personal. Some people might choose to fight til the end, others want to do it on their own terms. I think none of us can judge—we are not them, we are not in their shoes. I just want to make sure that whatever the decision is, it is well-informed, they have all other alternative options to explore, there's not social or financial pressure, and at the end of the day...it's their life.

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So often we are applying our feelings to the life of another, particularly if they are someone we care about. This is where boundaries are so important.

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Yes, this is very true. I think it's best to do what is is right for that person, what they would feel is right for them.

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We really need to bring the MAiD and disability communities together to talk. We forget that it was disability advocates who fought so head to get assisted death on the table. We forget Sue Rodriguez.

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Yes. I see where the concerns are for the disability communities, but also where the common goals might be.

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I don’t trust any institution to have the empathy required to carefully support people through suffering that doesn’t put their economic priorities first.

This is an incredible thought piece Katherine on a really uncomfortable and complex topic highlighting the need for many checks, balances and accountability to prevent abuse of ‘free’ choice lest it be another final solution masquerading as compassionate death.

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All the troubling what-ifs you raise are undoubtedly true, but they trouble me no more than the mess we live with now ... I’m for giving people the choice

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Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. I think it's important to talk about and address the troubling elements so that we can address them while providing people the choice. The real trouble starts when the conversation stops.

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yeah, I agree: the very fact that we’re exploring options is good, even if it’s going to take some time to muck about and get it right.

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