In the eight years since Canada legalized physician-assisted suicide, it has become the “fifth leading cause of death in the country,” and some critics say the government continues to loosen restrictions on assisted suicide. He denounces this as “turning it into euthanasia.'' On Demand,” the Telegraph reported last week.
In 2016, Canada passed legislation allowing medical assistance in dying (MAiD) for terminally ill patients. Five years later, Ottawa liberalized the law to allow patients with simple incurable illnesses to obtain MAiD.
“They basically turned medical assistance in dying into euthanasia on demand,” University of Toronto law professor Told Lemens told the Telegraph.
As a result, “Canada now has the fastest growing assisted dying program in the world.”
The third time is a warning.
The Telegraph detailed the story of a 51-year-old Nova Scotia woman with breast cancer. She was offered MAiD three times during treatment, before her first and second mastectomy, and while recovering from her second mastectomy. Understandably, the woman was appalled by this, saying, “I felt like it was a burden on the doctors, and that others in my position would be better off dead.''
“I felt like a problem that needed to be removed, rather than a patient that needed treatment,” she said.
She also pointed to socialism as being responsible for the country's precipitous decline in euthanasia.
“The wheels of benefits and assistance are turning too slowly, but the wheels of MAID are turning too fast,” she said. “That's exactly the situation we're in right now as a society that considers itself progressive.”
The Telegraph claimed that MAiD is being “used to hide the cracks in Canada's crumbling health system.”
Statistics show that about a quarter of Canadian adults do not have a primary care physician. Palliative care space is also severely lacking, with hospices having just over half the number of beds needed.
The cancer patient, who was offered the program before her mastectomy, had been waiting for an appointment at a specialist pain clinic for the past year. “But if you call the MAID hotline this morning, you'll probably be talking to a doctor tomorrow afternoon,” she said.
Dr. Leonie Harkes, a palliative care consultant in Calgary, says some Canadian hospitals are so severely understaffed that patients who are not at immediate risk of death are offered MAID before seeing a palliative care consultant. He said there was. .
welfare case
Meanwhile, Canada's welfare state is doing a substandard job of supporting the poor and disabled, resulting in an increasing number of applications for MAiD for non-terminal illnesses and often being granted. According to the Associated Press:
In Ontario, more than three-quarters of people will be euthanized even though their death is not imminent and they will require disability assistance before they die in 2023…
Dr. Dirk Heyer, Ontario's chief coroner, said people who are euthanized due to non-terminal conditions are “likely to live in areas with high levels of residential instability, high levels of resource deprivation, and high levels of dependence on government support.” “It's very sexual,” he said.
The Associated Press obtained content from a private internet forum where Canadian doctors and nurses discuss MAiD cases.
Discussions about poor, disabled, and lonely patients illustrate the difficult process by which medical professionals test the limits of the conditions that justify euthanasia.
For example, a doctor posted: “A middle-aged worker who was unable to return to his previous job due to ankle and back injuries told his doctor that with little government support, he was left with no choice but to pursue MAiD.” said this: The article said doctors were hesitant to euthanize the animal, although “the patient met legal criteria and had severe pain, strained social relationships, and an inability to work.” However, other participants on the forum “agreed” that he was a candidate for MAiD and “assured the doctor that the man was clearly in pain.”
A homeless man with lung disease who feared living in a nursing home was euthanized. One person who responded to a post about his incident said the situation, “staring at the walls and ceiling, waiting to be fed…to have a diaper changed” was painful enough to warrant MAiD.
The Associated Press further reported:
One health care provider said the suggestion that patients should be offered better housing options before offering euthanasia during a national housing crisis is “totally unrealistic and therefore cruel.” .
Other doctors debated the legality of euthanizing obese patients. One person said he had never even heard of diet or exercise, but said it was “irreparable” and therefore subject to MAiD.
At least some doctors consider blind and grieving patients to be eligible for MAiD, with one commenting that “it is so easy to euthanize a grieving widow that there is no objection from coroners.'' There was none,” he claimed.
A little more MAiD?
Despite this, some believe that obtaining an MAiD should be even easier. After the government postponed the planned extension of MAiD to mentally ill people, euthanasia advocacy groups say it is “discriminatory” to deny people who are clearly not thinking straight the option of dying by a doctor. filed a lawsuit alleging that. Quebec, which already has one of the highest euthanasia rates in the world, is considering allowing doctors to issue advance directives to kill patients if they cannot consent.
Unfortunately, between the culture of death and the failures of socialism, the push for more euthanasia is not going away. Britain, whose National Health Service is running a $48 billion deficit, is considering its own assisted suicide law.
Labor leader Kim Leadbeater introduced the bill in the House of Commons on Wednesday, saying the bill would only apply to terminally ill patients and not disabled or mentally ill people, because “protections and guarantees” to prevent this would apply '', he assured the people.
Of course, that's exactly what Canadian politicians said in 2016.
