I recently came across an article entitled ‘Why is Canada euthanizing the poor’? I had to re-read the title. Surely that ‘slippery slope’ that began is 2015 hadn’t really ‘slipped’ this far? But yes, in fact it has. For those reading this that may need a refresher on euthanasia in Canada, I will outline a brief history.
On February 6, 2015, in a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the country’s ban on assisted suicide. Canadian adults who were suffering with a terminal illness and whose death was already looming, say a terminal cancer patient for example, now had the right to a doctor’s assistance in dying. From that point, it took ONLY 5 years for Canadian parliament to enact Bill C-7 – to repeal the requirement of the condition to be ‘terminal’. Now you don’t need to be dying, but you do need to have a ‘grievous and irremediable’ medical condition or disability – something that cannot be fixed – physical or after March 2023, mental – to take advantage of ‘medical assistance in dying’ (MAID). Canada will be one of a very few countries which will allow euthanasia for schizophrenia, depression, PTSD or other mental illnesses as a primary disorder.
And now many of the most vulnerable in our society are choosing euthanasia as a result of poverty. Many who feel they are ‘too poor’ to improve their conditions. Some need mental health care, but sadly that is expensive and not always available. The reality of this is that healthcare is expensive for those with chronic conditions and the alternative of MAID provides a huge cost savings in comparison. Reread that last sentence. Is this how Canada treats the marginalized? What happened to compassionate care? The dignity of human life?
This is the deception of euthanasia.