Canada’s laws against assisted suicide are getting looser.
In February 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada, in the case Carter v. Canada, ruled that section 14 and paragraph 241(b) of the Criminal Code were unconstitutional because they banned physicians from assisting in the consensual death of another person. In 2016, the country introduced Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID), a process that allowed someone found eligible by being terminally ill to be assisted by a medical practitioner in ending their life.
But in 2021, the need to be terminally ill was removed, and by March 2027, MAID may be used by people suffering from mental illness, but no physical illness.
In 2023, Canada had 15,343 MAID deaths, roughly one in every 20 deaths in Canada, one of the highest percentages in the world. According to the BBC, roughly 96% of MAID deaths occur as “reasonably foreseeable,” such as someone suffering from cancer whose death is imminent or someone with Alzheimer’s, while the other 4% stem from people whose suffering is intolerable to them.
“I wouldn’t even call it a slippery slope,” Dr Ramona Coelho, who serves on a Maid Death Review Committee in Ontario, said. “Canada has fallen off a cliff.”
“When people have suicidal ideations, we used to meet them with counseling and care, and for people with terminal illness and other diseases we could mitigate that suffering and help them have a better life,” she continued. “Yet now we are seeing that as an appropriate request to die and ending their lives very quickly.”
Australia, New Zealand, Spain, and Austria have all implemented assisted dying laws since 2015. In the United States, assisted suicide is legal in 10 states and Washington, D.C. The way was paved by in Oregon in 1997. Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg also permit assisted suicide.
The Canadian government states, “If the medical practitioners assessing your request for MAID determine that your death is not reasonably foreseeable, there are extra safeguards that must be met before medical assistance in dying can be provided.” It adds:
One of the 2 medical practitioners who provides an assessment must have expertise in the medical condition that is causing your unbearable suffering. If neither of them have this expertise, they must consult another practitioner with expertise in the medical condition during the assessment process. You must be informed of available means to relieve your suffering, and offered consultations with professionals who provide services including, where appropriate: palliative care, community services, counselling services, and mental health and disability support services.
You and your practitioners must have discussed reasonable and available means to relieve your suffering, and all agree that you have seriously considered those means. Your eligibility assessment must take a minimum of 90 days, unless the assessments have been completed sooner and you are at immediate risk of losing your capacity to consent. Immediately before you receive medical assistance in dying, the practitioner must give you an opportunity to withdraw your request, and ensure that you give express consent to receive medical assistance in dying.
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[[{“value”:”
Canada’s laws against assisted suicide are getting looser.
In February 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada, in the case Carter v. Canada, ruled that section 14 and paragraph 241(b) of the Criminal Code were unconstitutional because they banned physicians from assisting in the consensual death of another person. In 2016, the country introduced Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID), a process that allowed someone found eligible by being terminally ill to be assisted by a medical practitioner in ending their life.
But in 2021, the need to be terminally ill was removed, and by March 2027, MAID may be used by people suffering from mental illness, but no physical illness.
In 2023, Canada had 15,343 MAID deaths, roughly one in every 20 deaths in Canada, one of the highest percentages in the world. According to the BBC, roughly 96% of MAID deaths occur as “reasonably foreseeable,” such as someone suffering from cancer whose death is imminent or someone with Alzheimer’s, while the other 4% stem from people whose suffering is intolerable to them.
“I wouldn’t even call it a slippery slope,” Dr Ramona Coelho, who serves on a Maid Death Review Committee in Ontario, said. “Canada has fallen off a cliff.”
“When people have suicidal ideations, we used to meet them with counseling and care, and for people with terminal illness and other diseases we could mitigate that suffering and help them have a better life,” she continued. “Yet now we are seeing that as an appropriate request to die and ending their lives very quickly.”
Australia, New Zealand, Spain, and Austria have all implemented assisted dying laws since 2015. In the United States, assisted suicide is legal in 10 states and Washington, D.C. The way was paved by in Oregon in 1997. Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg also permit assisted suicide.
The Canadian government states, “If the medical practitioners assessing your request for MAID determine that your death is not reasonably foreseeable, there are extra safeguards that must be met before medical assistance in dying can be provided.” It adds:
One of the 2 medical practitioners who provides an assessment must have expertise in the medical condition that is causing your unbearable suffering. If neither of them have this expertise, they must consult another practitioner with expertise in the medical condition during the assessment process. You must be informed of available means to relieve your suffering, and offered consultations with professionals who provide services including, where appropriate: palliative care, community services, counselling services, and mental health and disability support services.
You and your practitioners must have discussed reasonable and available means to relieve your suffering, and all agree that you have seriously considered those means. Your eligibility assessment must take a minimum of 90 days, unless the assessments have been completed sooner and you are at immediate risk of losing your capacity to consent. Immediately before you receive medical assistance in dying, the practitioner must give you an opportunity to withdraw your request, and ensure that you give express consent to receive medical assistance in dying.
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