The Canadian Department of Justice is looking at expanding access to assisted suicide. According to their website, “During the development and implementation of MAID (Bill C-14) in 2016, many Canadians voiced their support for broader access to MAID. As a result, the Government of Canada committed to study a wider variety of medical circumstances where a person may want to access MAID.”
As the government moves forward on this, it has put together a questionnaire for Canadians to fill out on this topic, with a submission deadline of January 27, 2020. I found that the phraseology of some questions implied support for assisted suicide (the term I more accurately use rather than the euphemism “MAiD” for Medical Assistance in Dying). I therefore chose to only answer the questions where I could write a paragraph response in comment boxes. As an aid to help others filling this survey out, or who want more information on an apologetic on this topic, I’ve shared my submissions below:
Comment Box 1:
I find it troubling that a country which has not legalized the medical killing of prisoners has legalized, and considering expanding access to, the medical killing of patients. We reject the death penalty but we embrace assisted suicide? Rather than expanding access to suicide assistance, we should only have suicide prevention. If suicide is wrong and if homicide is wrong, blending the two together in a type of suicide/homicide (which is what assisted suicide is) doesn't make them right.
Comment Box 2:
We cannot know today how we will feel about experiences in the future when the future eventually arrives. The thought of becoming paralyzed today could fill someone with despair; however, if that were to actually occur down the road, it's entirely possible the person would adapt. Consider Matt Hampson or Henry Fraser, men from the UK who became quadriplegic and have fulfilling lives where they are happy and help others. People should not be aided in suicide.
Comment Box 3:
Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist Dr. Viktor Frankl said "Despair is suffering without meaning." The job of compassionate people is not to leave someone in despair, it's not to aid someone in despair; rather, it's to help the person find meaning so as to eliminate the despair without eliminating the person. Embracing suicide assistance, and expanding access to it, goes against the search for meaning Frankl wisely wrote about. Civil societies should help vulnerable citizens, not kill them.
*Image source from Unsplash: patrick lanza, @abyss_
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