Justice Minister Arif Virani says Canada is still weighing the options on whether or not to expand medical assistance in dying to people suffering solely from mental illness.
Justice Minister Arif Virani says Canada is still weighing the options on whether or not to expand medical assistance in dying to people suffering solely from mental illness.
I’d say Gaind’s statement isn’t quite accurate. Because healthcare is the provinces’ jurisdiction, it’s really up to them to provide reasonable healthcare access to their residents. It’s not society that is not willing to provide those populations with access to care, it’s the provincial governments.
I would agree though, MAID is not a replacement for inadequate mental health or addictions resources.
Provincial governments are elected. I’m not sure that’s a distinction that exists.
To be clear, I would certainly like to see better resources. Actually, I spent the morning on advocacy for it. I also would like MAID to be an option, even if it’s down to societal failures; if we’ve inflicted so much pain on someone they would rather die, stopping them just seems like an added layer of cruelty. I don’t buy that social support is more than an excuse for the anti-MAID people.