Disability rights group sounds alarm: People are pressured to die 'weekly'

A disability rights group has reported that people with disabilities in Canada are routinely pressured into assisted suicide or euthanasia, even at simple well-check visits.

Key Takeaways:

• Canada legalized assisted suicide and euthanasia in 2016, and quickly became one of the world leaders in what it calls Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID).

• MAID is now the fifth-leading cause of death in Canada.

• People with disabilities have been pressured into dying due to a lack of access to health care.

• Inclusion Canada has warned that people with disabilities are regularly pressured to die, even on a weekly basis.

The Details:

Krista Carr, CEO of Inclusion Canada, spoke at a recent session of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, and warned that people with disabilities are being pressured to die on a regular basis. Carr said the issue has become so widespread that people are being offered MAID even at unrelated medical visits, without requesting to die first.

“Since the bill was brought in around Track 2 MAID … that has certainly changed people’s interactions with the healthcare system,” she said, referencing the expansion of MAID to allow people who are chronically ill, but not dying, to be eligible. “People with disabilities are now very much afraid in many circumstances to show up in the health care system with regular health concerns, because often MAID is suggested as a solution to what is considered to be intolerable suffering."

When conservative Member of Parliament Garnett Genuis asked how often people are being told to consider MAID, she responded, "Weekly."

In one example provided, a man whose ankle and back injuries left him unable to work said a lack of support left him with “no choice but to pursue MAiD.” An obese woman said she felt like a “useless body taking up space,” and one doctor said this qualified as “a medical condition which is indeed grievous and irremediable.”

Zoom In:

MAiD has become so widespread that it now accounts for 1 in every 5 deaths in Canada. Recent partnering with organ donation has made the program even more unethical than it already was.

Assisted suicide and euthanasia have now been touted as a way to save money, with doctors pressuring patients to die instead of offering treatment because it is cheaper. There have likewise been reports of euthanasia being carried out due to poverty, a lack of adequate housing, a lack of disability-friendly housing, and more. 

Euthanasia is even offered to citizens in Canada who are not terminally ill. And despite how lax the laws surrounding assisted suicide and euthanasia are, there are still reports of hundreds of illegal deaths.

The Bottom Line:

MAiD does not provide mercy or compassion to dying people; it encourages those with suicidal ideation and/or depression that their lives are meaningless and it would be better for them to die than to live.