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 am so so so thankful that MAID permitted one of parents to die with dignity. The only alternative was them offing themselves about 6 months earlier. I am forever grateful for those extra 6 months that I had to spend time with them.
ALS
Less than a month ago my youngest brother had MAID relieve him of the torture of ALS. I do not have much charity in my heart for those opposing MAID.
Just do it. The right to have the choice to die should be a fundamental human right.
“Or does it mean that you’re suffering now, and you live in a rural community, Indigenous population, and you can’t get access to care, and society is not willing to provide you access to care?”
And what are your plans to expand care massively to these people? Crickets. Really, they just don’t want to be made to feel guilty about those people existing.
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.
