#tw: medically assisted suicide

[disagigglebilities]

Anyway since it's disability pride month I'd like to remind everyone that Canada's MAID program is hostile and insurance companies will and have rejected treatment options to chronically ill Canadians and with the same hand let those same patients be medically killed because it's considered cost effective.

Cost effective has no place in healthcare and is quite literally eugenics wrapped up in prettily packaged words

[yardsards]

living in america is literally just like. yeah i could probably benefit from inpatient mental health services but honestly the resulting medical bills would just make me want to kill myself even more

[allthecanadianpolitics]

The governments of Manitoba and Saskatchewan say they are concerned about the potential risks of allowing Canadians to seek medical assistance in dying solely on the basis of a mental illness.

Provinces have expressed fears that the country may not yet be ready for the change to take effect in March, federal Health Minister Mark Holland recently acknowledged.

The federal Liberal government passed legislation last year to delay the expansion for 12 months, and will soon have to decide whether to do so a second time.

Full article

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[anonymous-witness777]

“Most Eugenists are Euphemists. I mean merely that short words startle them, while long words soothe them. And they are utterly incapable of translating the one into the other, however obviously they mean the same thing. Say to them "The persuasive and even coercive powers of the citizen should enable him to make sure that the burden of longevity in the previous generation does not become disproportionate and intolerable, especially to the females"; say this to them and they will sway slightly to and fro like babies sent to sleep in cradles. Say to them "Murder your mother," and they sit up quite suddenly. Yet the two sentences, in cold logic, are exactly the same. Say to them "It is not improbable that a period may arrive when the narrow if once useful distinction between the anthropoid homo and the other animals, which has been modified on so many moral points, may be modified also even in regard to the important question of the extension of human diet"; say this to them, and beauty born of murmuring sound will pass into their face. But say to them, in a simple, manly, hearty way "Let's eat a man!" and their surprise is quite surprising. Yet the sentences say just the same thing.” - G. K. Chesterton

[normal-with-adhd-is-a-joke]

I've seen some people argue that using quality of life to talk about disabled people was a mistake and I don't agree. I do, however, think that how we look at quality of life in humans needs to change. Unlike animals, humans can deal with significant pain and illness if their other needs are met fully.

What should happen when a patient is determined to have poor quality of life (QOL):

If the patient is a minor, they should be isolated from their parent or guardian briefly to determine if proper care is occurring or if abuse is taking place. Verbal, emotional, and financial abuse should be considered. Abuse and arguing taking place in the home but not directed at the patient should be considered as a possible cause of stress and reduced QOL.

If the patient has a full-time caretaker, they should be isolated from that caretaker briefly to determine if the patient is happy with the care, if they are being abused, or if they would prefer a different caretaker (i.e. one of the same gender as them). A switch should be done quickly if the patient expressed that they need or would prefer a different caretaker.

Need for a caretaker should be assessed if no caretaker is currently present. Can the patient bathe, prepare and eat a complete diet, clean their home, etc?

Nutrition should be assessed. Does the patient have access to food that is both nutritious and enjoyable?

Housing should be assessed. Is it accessible? Is it clean, and if not, do they need help cleaning it? Are heating and air conditioning present, working, and easily controlled? Would the patient benefit from voice automation or other accessibility features? Is there an irritant nearby, like dust from construction?

The patient should be asked if anything else is bothering them or aggravating their condition that they know of.

Therapy with a therapist who specializes in disabled clients, group therapy with other disabled people, and/or peer therapy should be offered.

A social worker should be offered to help identify and utilize local and federal assistance programs.

All of the above should be required covered by insurance or a government-funded program.

What should NOT happen when a patient is determined to have poor quality of life (QOL):

The patient is told they should kill themself or offered euthanasia without assessing the above issues.

The patient is discouraged from having children because their condition is "too cruel" to pass on to someone else.

The patient is sent out of the office without any suggestions on improving their life.

[catkin-morgs-kookaburralover]

can't kill myself until at least the first narnia film by greta gerwig is released amirite

[trans-axolotl]

Sorry that this topic is heavy, but your posts are always very well thought out and I value your insight and antipsych perspective. What are your thoughts on some countries (now possibly including canada) allowing medically-assisted euthanasia for young mentally ill people if they request it? There was a story recently about a belgian terror attack victim being euthanized at 23 at her request. I personally believe that committing suicide is a right that every person should have because I think that punishing suicide attempters is the worst thing you can do for them, and ultimately, it’s their life and they deserve ultimate autonomy over it. Not that I think suicide should be encouraged, either, and having a specific government-endorsed suicide program seems sort of bad…? Like euthanizing young people comes with a lot of ethical complications — but I don’t know how to express why it feels weird given my personal beliefs about suicide being a right. (additionally, it feels even weirder because I do support these types of programs for the elderly (although i know what an ethical minefield those are too)). What are your thoughts?

Hey, anon. Thanks for bringing this up!

I have a lot of mixed thoughts about MAID (Medical assistance in dying) and also about what it means to consider suicide a right and in what ways I think that should play into mad organizing.

Firstly, I think the way that Canada's bill C-7 was written and the way it's being put into practice is just blatant eugenics. The rhetoric while legislators were debating and passing the bill made it clear the way they saw disabled lives as unworthy. In a context where many disabled people are forced to live in poverty, where treatment is often impossible to reach, where accessible affordable housing is often nonexistent, where the medical system is filled with ableism and stigma--it is incredibly fucked up to add suicide as an option on the table when there are so many coercive factors at play. Instead of working to make society more accessible and do things that improve the quality of life of disabled people of any age, the government and doctors are using MAID as a way to completely ignore structural ableism and spread narratives that disabled lives are not worth living. I am incredibly, incredibly infuriated about the way MAID was expanded in Canada. I would recommend that people check out the amazing work of the Disability Fillibuster to learn more about MAID in Canada.

Although I don't think every instance of MAID is inherently unethical, I am VERY wary of any bills that expand MAID like Bill C7 because I think that in the context of an ableist society that already doesn't consider disabled lives worth living and tells marginalized people every day millions of reasons why they wish we were dead, MAID bills will come with dangerous levels of coercion that cannot be safeguarded against. For example, the American medical system, with a long history of eugenic sterilization, medical experimentation on Black Americans, and widespread institutionalization, is not a system I ever trust to be able to handle the power of MAID without treating marginalized people's lives as disposable. (Link to read more about the history of medical experimentation: content warning for antiblack racism, sexual exploitation, slavery, and medical abuse of many types. )

At the same time, I am deeply invested in noncarceral approaches to suicide, and I believe that in order to effectively fight against psychiatric incarceration, we have to expand our understanding of the right to autonomy. The psych system, like many institutions of total control, weaponizes a fake concept of safety to justify depriving people of autonomy. In the context of prison abolition, Mariame Kaba and Andrea J. Ritchie use the phrase "carceral safety" to talk about the ways that police use the rhetoric of "safety" to continue perpetuating a violent system of incarceration:

"The state’s carceral safety robs our communities of the conditions and nutrients that would allow true safety to grow, forcing us into the position of constantly reaching for more security from the very institutions that make us collectively less safe." (from Reclaiming Safety, August 2022).

Similarly to police and prisons, the psych system wants us as mentally ill people to believe that the only way safety and suicide prevention can occur is within institutions where autonomy is deprioritized and any kind of abuse is acceptable if it can be explained as a "life-saving" measure. So part of noncarceral suicide prevention involves rethinking the way we think about autonomy, and prioritizing autonomy and freedom as inherent rights, regardless if people are making risky or harmful choices about their own wellbeing. Suicide should never be criminalized and I think that a step towards decarcerating suicide requires us to embrace the importance of autonomy.

Rethinking autonomy to include the right to harm ourselves is something that I think is an important topic to grapple with in noncarceral suicide prevention, but I think it's one we also have to be careful with and approach with a lot of nuance when talking about it publically. Approaching suicide prevention with a bodily autonomy framework does not mean that we need to support government-sanctioned suicide, does not mean we need to advocate for eugenic policies, does not mean that we should advocate suicide for marginalized people who are already so used to being told that the world wants them dead. Suicide prevention is incredibly important to me, and it will never feel liberatory to me if I'm using my understanding of bodily autonomy to promote suicide in any way. Liberatory suicide prevention includes more than just noncarceral crisis response and helping people map through their distress. It also includes advocating for the material conditions we need to survive in our everyday life, and in my mind, that includes things like advocating for disabled people to have our basic needs met so that we don't have to live in poverty, inaccessible housing, and aren't coerced into suicide through eugenicist bills like Bill C7 in Canada.

Definitely think there is a LOT more to say on this topic and that my opinion is not the only way of looking at this, so I absolutely encourage followers to jump into the discussion.

[mournfulelegy]

𝑯𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒐, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑾𝒆𝒍𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒚 𝒑𝒂𝒈𝒆.

I’ll be going by “𝑺” here, and I’m a 23 year old woman, burdened by the weight of existence.

For as long as memory serves, I’ve never understood why I was alive.

In the crucible of hardship, I have tasted the bitter dregs of suffering, endured the relentless onslaught of pain and disillusionment. Every setback, every shattered hope, has served to deepen the chasm of despair within me, until I find myself teetering on the brink of oblivion.

Exhausted and weary, I’ve decided personally that existence simply is not for me. Suicide beckons as a beacon of hope amidst the encroaching darkness—a flicker of light in the vast expanse of despair. With a heart heavy with sorrow yet resolute in purpose, I have chosen to embark upon this solemn journey, to seek solace in the embrace of death’s gentle embrace.

In this digital sanctuary, I lay bare my thoughts and struggles, a testament to the torment that has brought me to this precipice. I am not merely a victim of circumstance, but a woman who wishes for autonomy and dignity in the face of suffering.

Forever hoping for Legal assisted suicide which beckons as a beacon of hope amidst the encroaching darkness—a flicker of light in the vast expanse of despair. And so, with every ounce of strength that remains within me, I shall raise my voice in defiance against the oppressive forces that seek to deny me this final act of autonomy. I shall fight, tooth and nail, for the right to choose my own destiny, to chart my own course towards the shores of eternal peace.

If you are sensitive to this type of content / information I advise you to stay weary of my page and seek your entertainment elsewhere. However if you find yourself down the same path as me, let’s travel this journey together.

[myqueenmarceline]

You have to love it when someone makes huge leaps about your opinions and then calls you the histrionic one... Putting this here in case anyone wants a free block.

[thestarlightforge]

This morning, I’m thinking about how when Canada designed their medically assisted suicide laws, they didn’t do so with terminally ill people desiring hospice in mind, but rather because they are aware of the poor quality of life the West’s piss-poor anti-discrimination laws afford disabled people, and they would rather just kill us—and disguise it as a “kindness”—than even think about improving things

[demon-princess13]

being chronically ill is being able to stay stonefaced while a doctor explains that the only thing they can do for you is offer you MAID (medical assistance in dying)

this has happened ~three times~ since we introduced the stupid policy.

i want you to find a way to help me that doesn’t involve a surgery w/ a 1-2 year recovery time. not help me kill myself.

but no; denying a major 16 hour operation means I must wanna jus die loooooool

I hate it here!!

[marxism-leninism-meowism]

ngl I wish MAID was legal here. at some point you just have to realize that there’s only so much better healthcare and disability legislation can do for someone with untreatable chronic physical or mental illnesses. you can have the most spectacular policies and disability care in the universe and people will still be suffering, and your care and hope and prayers won’t change that. people should be allowed to die if they want to. for any reason. people should have the right to painless life and the right to painless death.

[rue-rue-thebestever]

"My life is so much worse than yours"

i can legally get a medically assisted suicide.

[tinyredpoppies]

okay wtf did i like to be shown a pro-lifer requesting funds for medically assisted death?

[piplupod]

love opening tiktok and not clicking on the following page fast enough and this is what i get:

i love canadian doctors and MH professionals (sarcasm). i knew it was being suggested to ppl but i had not seen it myself yet so. terrifying.

i love living in a country with a govmt and healthcare system that are actively suggesting for ppl like me to kill ourselves rather than give us ways to live :))))

[kamari2038]

Unusual political post... the MAID (medical aid in dying) situation in Canada

(TLDR skip to links at bottom) This is not a blog where I usually discuss political things, mostly because (1) off-theme for a fandom sideblog and (2) most of you are more politically active and well-educated than I am, so I don't see a need. So I'm just gonna make one singular post about this, not becauase it's the single most pressing issue (ongoing genocide in Gaza, rampant global warming, imminent threats to American democracy, continued LGBT discrimination, etc....) but because I knew absolutely nothing about this, and now that I've heard I'm very upset about it.

I always thought Canada had a great free universal healthcare system, which I think on some level it does. But apparently this is funded in part through cutting costs by encouraging their most underprivileged to end their lives rather than improving their quality of life. I'm not talking about terminally ill patients. They expanded MAID to include those with disabilities, and are soon set to expand it (though thankfully it's been delayed) to both mentally ill people and "mature minors".

I'm not going to back and forth with anyone about whether or not, in theory, this policy could be good if it were applied equitably and with effective safeguards. But that is NOT what is happening in practice (*at least not 100% of the time, exact proportion is difficult to assess, as could be debated what constitutes effective safeguards and/or appropriate circumstances). People with disabilities who are not receiving the care or support necessary for basic quality of life will go to a hospital and be offered as a choice of "care" to simply be euthanized. Meanwhile the government cuts costs and finds MAID subjects in general to be a great source of organ donors.

I'm not really an expert about this but just wanted to call attention to it, these links have more information:

How poverty, not pain, is driving Canadians with disabilities to consider medically-assisted death - National | Globalnews.ca

Quadriplegic Quebec man chooses assisted dying after negligence during a 4-day ER stay leaves horrific bedsore | CBC News

'Disturbing': Experts troubled by Canada’s euthanasia laws | AP News

Who can die? Canada wrestles with euthanasia for the mentally ill (bbc.com)

Assisted suicide in Minnesota? Critics point to Canada as cautionary tale. (startribune.com)

27-Year-Old with Autism and ADHD applies for MAID and her father can't prevent it

Number of assisted deaths jumped more than 30 per cent in 2022, report says | CBC News

About the coming (delayed) expansion of the law:

In Canada, Assisted Death May Soon Be Available for the Mentally Ill - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Opinion | Canada considers a risky expansion of doctor-assisted euthanasia - The Washington Post

Canada’s assisted dying regime should not be expanded to include children | Opinions | Al Jazeera

Some Motivations (besides autonomy):

Medically assisted deaths could save millions in health care spending: Report | CBC News

Health-care costs in Canada dropped after assisted dying became legal - National | Globalnews.ca

14% of Quebec's organ donors in 2022 were people who chose medically assisted death | CBC News

Who should get your organs? How assisted death raises hard new questions - National | Globalnews.ca

I'll include this more positive one for a balanced perspective, there is some valid discourse about it so I don't want to minimize that:

Slippery Slope Or Wise Demise? The Pros And Cons Of Medically Assisted Dying (forbes.com)