Gently Suggesting End-of-Life

One of Canada's leading death causes in 2021? Why, euthanasia! Only it's not called that, it goes by a much gentler, persuasive term: Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID). As in; maid, at your disposal. To make life easier by transiting into death. So thoughtful. A report by the Parliamentary Budget Office in 2020 gave n estimation of a saving of about $17,000 in medical care and costs ("end of life costs") through each MAID death.

In the year 2021 there were 10,064 euthanasia cases representing 3.3 percent of all national deaths. Representing a 32.4 percent increase compared to the previous year in assisted deaths. Health Canada reported: "All provinces continue to experience a steady year-over-year growth". This is a bonus to health care in an atmosphere prevailing of health-care-worker shortages. Shortages that have led to emergency rooms closed as a result of understaffing.

Ergo, the federal government identifies euthanasia as a potential cost saving enterprise.

 

The health-care practitioner-patient relationship  (Shutterstock)

In 2016, Canada became one of a handful of jurisdictions globally legalizing doctor-assisted suicide. Initially access to MAID was limited to Canadians with terminal illnesses whose death was "reasonably foreseeable". Until a Quebec Superior Court ruled that the "reasonably foreseeable" proviso was unconstitutional and it was struck down.

Green-lighting the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau to enact a series of 'reforms' effectively giving Canada the most permissive euthanasia standards in law globally. Euthanasia in fact will become available from the coming March to patients with mental illness and no other conditions of a physical nature. 

A veteran attempting to find help in his recovery over a traumatic brain injury suffered during his military service, including combat deployment, was confronted by a Veterans Affairs Canada service agent suggesting the man could choose to opt for a medically assisted death. Entirely not what the veteran was looking for, or expected. The encounter demoralized and disgusted him, derailing his gradual positive shift toward recovery.

Other patients have reported unsolicited, unprompted offers of euthanasia to 'cure' their medical problems. When one man suffering from a degenerative brain disorder, spoke of euthanasia regularly being offered to him. He recorded those recommendations by hospital staff. One of the recordings showcased a hospital ethicist informing the man his care cost the hospital "north of $1,500" daily, asking whether he has "an interest in assisted dying".

"While we have been advocates of death by Medical Assistance in situations where there is a terminal diagnosis or death is imminent, we had no idea that Canada's laws leave considerable room for interpretation by activist doctors", wrote a family who lost a family member approved for medically assisted death after years of declining mental health along with a chronic inability to access psychiatric care. She was put to death without her family's knowledge until the event was done.

A patient in British Columbia was euthanized days after his family brought him to hospital to recover from a psychiatric episode. He had been approved for death by health authorities after four days in the hospital's psychiatric ward.

Several factors ranging from personal spiritual beliefs to patient relationships to medical legal issues can influence whether a health-care practitioner participates in providing medical assistance in dying (MAID). (Shutterstock)