<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1654798309957,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000017a-8cb2-d416-ad7a-beb7278f0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1654798309957,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000017a-8cb2-d416-ad7a-beb7278f0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_54006990", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1022927"} }); ","_id":"00000181-49aa-d590-a5f1-cbbb524f0000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedThey’ll shut down churches and institute public transit bans to protect healthy people from COVID, but if you desire to end your life due to chronic illness or difficulties accessing medical care, the Canadian government may give you the green light to seek a medically assisted death, also known as MAiD.
Two recent cases out of Canada are drawing attention to the country’s dangerous euthanasia policy.
Sophia, a 51-year-old woman from Ontario, was approved for a MAiD after two years of failing to find housing that would accommodate her severe and chronic chemical sensitivities. The Ontario woman died in late February, CTV News reported.
A 31-year-old Toronto woman, whom local media are referring to as Denise, is close to securing final approval for MAiD. Her reasons are similar to Sophia’s: The chemicals used in her apartment building trigger her chronic illness, causing rashes, difficulty breathing, risk of anaphylactic shock, and headaches that induce temporary paralysis, according to CTV News. Applying for MAiD, Denise told the Canadian outlet, was easier than relocating, as 10 Toronto agencies failed to help her find suitable housing.
Four doctors familiar with Sophia’s situation sent a letter to government officials prior to her death. One said it should have been an “easy fix.”
“We physicians find it UNCONSCIONABLE that no other solution is proposed to this situation other than medical assistance in dying,” the doctors wrote.
Canada’s lax requirements for assisted death began with a 2016 Supreme Court ruling legalizing the practice and were worsened by Bill C-7, which removed the stipulation that natural death must be “reasonably foreseeable.” In March 2023, it will also be opened to those with mental illness.
Now, a new bill filed in the Canadian Senate, S-248, allows medical practitioners to waive the requirement for final consent when a person declares his or her wish for an assisted death before losing the mental capacity to do so.
Many of these changes happened amid Canada’s harsh COVID lockdowns and restrictions, which stripped citizens of basic freedoms to supposedly save lives. It seems the government does not apply the same standards of concern about saving lives to those contemplating death. Instead, it gives suffering patients who have lost the will to live the legal OK to die — even when conditions making their lives painful could be reduced.
Euthanasia, as the AMA Code of Medical Ethics says, is “fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer.” But given the high suicide ideation rates, many triggered by lockdowns and isolation, it’s entirely indefensible.
Ontario doctor Ramona Coelho warns that MAiD harms the most vulnerable and says that offering it during a “period of known suicidality would lead to premature deaths of those who would have recovered.” She notes that assisted death can be approved for those who must wait a long time for medical care, even when they are not terminally ill.
Legalizing assisted death “may also lower societal taboos against suicide,” according to a 2022 study that found assisted suicide laws increase suicide rates by 18% overall and 40% among women.
Nations considering assisted suicide must reckon with the disastrous implications of Canada’s policy. Already, many countries are following the same path. All of Australia’s states now permit assisted suicide for terminally ill patients. New South Wales became the final state to approve it by passing a bill last month. Colombia also legalized it in May through a constitutional court ruling. Ten U.S. states, along with Washington, D.C., have legalized the practice for those with a terminal illness.
Those who believe it will be limited to the terminally ill are fooling themselves and ought to take Canada’s descent into state-sanctioned death on demand for innocent individuals as a warning.
Katelynn Richardson is a Summer 2022 Washington Examiner fellow.
