MAID Concerns - How Will Our Politicians Respond?

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University of Calgary researchers calculated that when euthanasia reaches the level of Belgium and the Netherlands:

The country’s health system could save up to up to C$139 million every year.

MAID could reduce annual health care spending across Canada between $34.7 million and $138.8 million.

'Bean-counters' point out, “patients who choose medical assistance in dying forego resource-intensive palliative care”.

Not only are the relatives spared the pain of looking after their elderly, but the government reaps rich rewards as well!

A win-win all around!

Of course, say the researchers piously, “We are not suggesting medical assistance in dying as a measure to cut costs."

Even if this is true, though, hospitals and relatives might consider the cost savings of early departures from the transit lounge.

It is important to recognize that the savings to specific terminally ill patients and their families could be substantial.

In a dysfunctional setting, immense pressure might be exerted to urge the sick family member to make a quick get-away.

What savings level, if any, would motivate families to pressure patients into requesting a physician's assistance with suicide?

If Canadian trends track Belgium and the Netherlands where between 1 to 4% of all deaths are due to euthanasia:

Eventually Canada will have about 8000 euthanasia deaths a year.

While some patients who seek medical aid in dying are resolute in their choice ...

The choices of others may reflect the failure of our health care system to provide effective palliative care.

Medical journals are already advertising how much money could be saved if people choose euthanasia.

How much incentive will the government have to create a better palliative care system?

"It's just the reality of working in a system of finite resources."

It’s not just palliative care. It’s saving the sociopaths so much money, they want to extend it to minors and people with mental illness. Though, it should be clear from the documentary I posted, it’s not just sociopaths, one doesn’t need to be a sociopath to think this is no problem...one has to be pretty emotionally detached, emotionally absent, to push for minors to be killed, so they probably lead the charge at the top levels, for organizing the voluntary euthanasia campaign (let’s be serious - if the doctor provides it and the patient takes it, it’s euthanasia - it’s a form of homicide not suicide) campaign, but everyone in society can become desensitized to the fact that people are being deliberately killed, and it’s being called compassion. Like the nazis did. Anyone can fall for the idea that it’s compassionately motivated and most Canadians have because most have not thought it through far enough. But i’ve repeated myself so many times. If minds are set, I certainly won’t change them. The courts and the media might. Currently the media is biased to the euthanasia side. Only the Catholic news is reporting the other side, unfortunately(which is doing the other side of the debate a disservice because not everyone who opposes it is religious!)...and every now and then people like Roger Foley - who was in the hospital for 3 years in protest! will get a few minutes of airtime in the mainstream media. Normally, somebody staging a three year protest with their life at stake would get a bit more airtime. But our society has almost gone stone cold. I hope that will change.
 
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It needs to be available to everyone. Doctors should not be obligated.

Again, this is not a black and white issue. The horse has been let out of the barn. It can't be banned easily now. There does need to be safe guards.
I am not sure it should be available to anyone except in palliative care, at the very end. And the onus should still be on the doctors and nurses, if called to, to prove it was the right decision. I don’t think the criminal code should’ve been struck without replacing it with another weighty crime. Because people can too easily lose their conscience. Especially those who have to detach to do their jobs.

But...if it is going to be available the only fair thing is to extend the availability to everyone like elective surgery. That would be objectively fair, but it would also be morally and ethically disgusting, it would be legalized homicide, and could become endemic (in such a cold world)...unless extensive suicide prevention was undertaken and extensive solutions provided first. But we should not need to be telling fellow human beings to help each other not to be suicidal.


Safeguards (there are minimal ones now) won’t work unless there are heavy criminal penalties for not implementing them. I think that is why so many people have “chosen” this “option” in such a short time. The Pandora’s box has been opened. There’s nothing holding the doctor back from thinking, “Well why not? I ‘could’ try harder to save a life but this person’s life will always be a nuisance. And I’ve got a VIP patient to see next.”
 
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It’s still about saving money and cutting services so that money can go to things like war.

That about covers it.

Isn't Ironic ...

Proponents of medical aid-in-dying and residents of the Veterans Home of California-Yountville — the largest in the nation — are protesting a regulation passed last year by the California Department of Veterans Affairs, or CalVet, that requires that anyone living in the facilities must be discharged if they intend to use the law.

The status of terminally ill veterans living in state-run homes will loom large.

A CalVet official said the agency adopted the rule to avoid violating a federal statute that prohibits using U.S. government resources for physician-assisted death.

Otherwise, the agency would jeopardize nearly $68 million in federal funds that helps run the facilities, said June Iljana, CalVet’s deputy secretary of communications.

Three other states where aid-in-dying is legal — Oregon, Colorado and Vermont — all prohibit use of lethal medications in state-run veterans homes.

 
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Now that it’s the patients “choice” it’s no longer the doctors job to try to save a life if they don’t feel like it. I think most of them are good...but my confidence is diminished that they will all advocate for people who don’t know how to advocate for their own needs.
 
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Wesley J. Smith, a lawyer for the International Anti-Euthanasia Task Force makes his case by explaining how the "right to die" has indeed morphed into the "duty to die" in the minds of many individuals and the "duty to kill' in the minds of many health care professionals.

Individual autonomy has given way to decision-making by health care professionals and bioethicists, whose "futile care theory" measures the value of human life according to the financial cost of keeping the individual alive.

The responsibility will fall first upon the individual to chose death even when that individual may prefer to live.

'Duty to die' is increasingly being seen as the right choice for the good of the individual's family and society as a whole.

The elderly and disabled are increasingly urged into this action because they are already seen as giving up less than 'able' individuals.



 
The person I wrote to is a respected academic. I told my parents about it. Today my mother tells me I am not allowed to use their address for any mail that is political in nature, particularly regarding this cause, and if I do she will throw it away. I live here and I kind of thought I was a citizen free to communicate legally with whoever I want to. Somebody outside our family needs to give her a stern talking to. It’s bulls**t. I said I will correspond with whomever I want to, and she said then she wants me out in 2 weeks.
 
Part of the challenge with interpretation lies in this phrase I think - "will live until her natural death". In many places in the world, there is the natural course of events. In other regions, such as North America, medical technology comes into play and prevents "natural death" from occurring. There are many situations in which a person becomes or even starts life as unable to eat or drink, or breathe, or move - but often/sometimes, rather than accept this as the "natural" course of their illness or condition, other methods of feeding, hydrating, breathing are put into place, thus extending life or prolonging death artificially. Discontinuing these interventions, once begun, is difficult on many levels, and must not be seen as a simplistic situation for the patient, their family, or the staff who care for them. I don't judge the rightness of this decision at all, as I see it as an individual choice. Just saying it is a decision point & people make those decisions for many good and heart wrenching reasons, usually after extensive deliberation.
 
Part of the challenge with interpretation lies in this phrase I think - "will live until her natural death". In many places in the world, there is the natural course of events. In other regions, such as North America, medical technology comes into play and prevents "natural death" from occurring. There are many situations in which a person becomes or even starts life as unable to eat or drink, or breathe, or move - but often/sometimes, rather than accept this as the "natural" course of their illness or condition, other methods of feeding, hydrating, breathing are put into place, thus extending life or prolonging death artificially. Discontinuing these interventions, once begun, is difficult on many levels, and must not be seen as a simplistic situation for the patient, their family, or the staff who care for them. I don't judge the rightness of this decision at all, as I see it as an individual choice. Just saying it is a decision point & people make those decisions for many good and heart wrenching reasons, usually after extensive deliberation.
These two people had cognitive deficits. Hannah has Down Syndrome and Dementia. My older second cousin had Down syndrome and dementia, close to 70 years old. I know she lived until her natural death. Her side of the family, siblings and parents while they were alive, were advocates for a normal life for her, and for other developmentally disabled adults, for decades.
 
The person I wrote to is a respected academic. I told my parents about it. Today my mother tells me I am not allowed to use their address for any mail that is political in nature, particularly regarding this cause, and if I do she will throw it away. I live here and I kind of thought I was a citizen free to communicate legally with whoever I want to. Somebody outside our family needs to give her a stern talking to. It’s bulls**t. I said I will correspond with whomever I want to, and she said then she wants me out in 2 weeks.
I spoke to a counsellor on the phone for 20 minutes and i feel better. I would like to get my mother and myself in for a family counselling session one day, if I can, though. And I need to move out as soon as possible. I have the right to a month notice in writing, not willy nilly threats that are just meant to power trip me anyway. I pay rent here. Anyway... It may be pointless to talk to her or counsel her. I need to just ignore her even when she’s being “nice” like she was yesterday, and reserve my energy for what’s important to me. (Side note.)
 
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I know tend to belabour this issue every time I revisit it. ...so here I go some more...

Consider the following:

Trump did not happen out of nowhere. It only seems that way because most of the world didn’t believe he was electable. The prospect of it was too preposterous. Meanwhile, around the world, the far right was gaining prominence...Brexit was in motion, far right emergence was happening in Holland with Geert Wilders, in France with LePenne (who were defeated but reflect a sign of the times that they were even so popular....then there’s Salvino ( who is an active interior minister but not an elected PM) in Italy, Erdogan in Turkey - far right gains in all of Europe - there’s Bolsonaro in Brazil, Duerte in the Philippines. We had Russia roll into Crimea right after their lovely Olympics. What a russe of a thing (pardon the pun) that probably shouldn’t have been as shocking as it was considering their history, and their president being a former KGB leader. And that’s off the top of my head. Oh, well, NK has been an authoritarian dictatorship for much longer than I have been alive. So, has China. There’s a far right leader in Guatemala, and in Columbia. None of this was overnight. We just didn’t know then what we know now. Now Trump courts dictators and/ or they use him. Trump had a strategist who worked with dictators...who is now in jail. He had another one, Bannon, who had a road map for a far right monopoly around the world...and helped change the social media landscape by using pseudo fascist gamer geeks on social media to soft launch the fascist agenda...he recently tried to set up some sort of operations centre/ think tank, but that seems to be failing. Thankfully,for now, his speaking engagements lately have been in nearly empty hotel conference rooms. But...not that long ago he was part of a Munk debate, in Canada, about the future of democracy - with a former speech writer for George W. Bush - because that’s how fasc-bizarro-world apparently works in 2019...when the guy who wrote a lot of the words that came out of W’s mouth is actually called a “moderate”. I think Bannon’s narrative has outlived Bannon’s career, but the far right people he propped up just don’t care about him because they don’t actually care about anyone. They care about power. So...there’s an immigrant crisis on the US southern border and an immigrant crisis in Europe...most of which has to do with failed US foreign policy...from Reagan, both Bushes, Clinton, and Obama. Domestically, however, Obama was the target of a racist smear campaign launched against him which cost him the house and senate. So, the republicans were driving their agenda by blocking nearly all of Obama’s proposals. That doesn’t excuse Obama’s errors. However, Obama did not make dictatorial decisions and demand total personal loyalty from his cabinet and staffers.

Along comes Trump, with a racist base motivated by their vitriolic hatred for Obama, and vitriolic hatred for black and brown people. And really, there is no minority Trump has spared in his taunts...the problem is, his schoolyard taunts get his supporters worked up. And he seems to love that. It’s a cult of personality. And for years his sycophantic “state” TV channel has been promoting him, making s**t up...and trying to paint real journalists as enemies. And Trump says little to nothing about the journalists who have been killed or seriously harmed around the world. Including brushing off the murder of a Saudi journalist who worked in the US legally and who was critical of the Saudi government. Like his buddies Hannity and Limbaugh have ever done any real journalism. But the narrative is “real news is now fake news”, “we took the red pill” , “we have ‘alternative facts’”, “the Q knows”. Ect etc crap and more crap. But it’s really dangerous crap. Make America Great Again was taken from a KKK slogan. There was what happened in Charlottesville, and other acts of violence targeted at minorities, perpetrated by far right Trump supporters.

Today...now there are several thousands of child migrant detainees warehoused in cages along the southern border. Scared, hungry, sleepless, dirty, sleeping on the floor or on benches, under bright light under foil blankets. And in many cases not knowing when or if they will see their parents again. Some are just babies, left to be cared for by older kids in the cages. We have Trump telling 4 elected US congresswomen to “go back to their countries”... despite that fact that 3 of them are natural born US citizens and one came to the US when she was two. This is just more red meat for his racist base.

Canada just has not positioned herself very well politically... 4 years later... we have almost forgotten that Harper and his cronies were into things like the barbaric cultural practices hotline which was code for Islamophobia, and jingoistic war of 1812 celebrations. That just plays well into the global fascist narrative. Harper was no dummy. He seemed soft spoken...but he’s basically a starchier and less eccentric version of Jordan Peterson. Jordan Peterson is the hero myth making guy that gives mythical motivation to the right wing in Canada and elsewhere, capturing attention of young atheist men who need a father figure, and working alongside a well known atheist in a movement called “the Intellectual Dark Web” where they repeat discredited racist “science”...appealing to bigoted impulses in so called moderates. That helps the far right. Now we have a conservative federal candidate who is polling well, but who has shown support for white nationalists. In Ontario, I don’t need to mention Doug Ford. ...Doug Ford.

Anyway...the assisted dying bill was introduced by a conservative MP perpetuating an old ableist narrative - wealthy liberal baby boomers bought it like it was the greatest human rights achievement ever in Canada and cooler than an iced Cappuccino made with certified fair trade beans - while nobody realized any of this was coming into focus yet. First it was about the terminally ill only. Then it was about more and more people who were not dying, but “suffering”. It was pushed as “compassionate”, it was pushed as “easing suffering”, “dignified”, it needed to remove criminality from doctors and other staff, it needed to make the process faster and the paperwork simpler, it needed to marginalize disabled people living in or at risk of poverty by using an ableist interpretation of “disability” placed within the new law, synonymously with illness - running roughshod over our obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities we are signatory to. And many of these were rhetorical tricks used by the nazis to desensitize citizens and medical staff...it has happened before. This time they would use the liberal preference for “personal choice” against them, and combine it with the stirring up of ableist attitudes that never fully went away.


I don’t actually think I am paranoid. I think these are legitimate concerns to be aware of and we need to change the law to protect vulnerable people. Fascist movements always take aim at marginalized groups. Always. There’s always a group they take aim at first. Then on and on until they have a uniform society that falls in lock step with their ideals, gaining near mythical status in their followers’ eyes.


I’m tired of being told this is a silly fear. I wish people would open their eyes, and their hearts, and do more not to leave the those who are already most vulnerable to abuse, more vulnerable.
 
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Be concerned about greatest things ... they may begin to believe they are gods in a weird tyrannical way that will lead to a great story in journalism that is just a lie on the page to weird tyranny that is so far right ... that there is no room (left) for the remaining ... who left in escapism ... creating the myth of men of power that diminish in history ... or like some auto giants of extreme extortive attributes are cast as saviours of the alternate altruism!

The integral human psyche is thus stirred or in turmoil as Nietzsche detailed it all in chaos ... it is the greatest mix-up ... and few can see the disordered state! They believe this crap is order of justice in their own humility towards isolated mercy -- Amos distasteful perspective of total facetiousness appearing as fascist mistruths in Nous! Sometimes this creates nothing out of pain .. and thus neurological symptoms that could turn psychosomatic so the great unknown is realized ... and all that was left was a cloudy mist above the Tun ... Parker & Hart called this image ... SPOOK! Other wise a djinn ...

One must know their car toones and what's beneath the dashboard lights ... is classic as it manifests as ill appearances of russ'n endrocrines derived from internal sources that are labeled endogenous ... the spell may vary depend upon the fiery indoctrination ... thus competition is medically doctored! Opioids and grass roots are part of the eternal bottomline communization ... some ma-nhours required ... for fertility ... these come from the all-round broad-based item ... painful stimulants? May be a simulation ... of synthesis ... such is the abstract's Ide ...

A fortnight slot open for ... well whatever comes of it ... quanta's presentation ... improbable memes ... shaytans relief is devilish as we dance to shamayim ... perhaps Shamans in another tense of ankh ... that search out rights and wrongs as they drift about .. wandering ...
 
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Assisted dying act sponsored by far-right leader in NZ:



...limit euthanasia to people who have “a terminal illness that is likely to end the person's life within six months,” and to state that age, disability or mental illness cannot be reasons to grant consent.

...and even so, with far right backing, it appears, for the time being, far less permissive than ours. They are trying to get a foot in the door there and like us, will probably challenge it, I suspect, to make it more permissive. We blew it. Nobody was paying attention to the geopolitical landscape in the wider world before we passed our MAID laws - despite advocacy groups who know what they are talking about, shouting from the rooftops. The majority of Canadians were ignorant of real social needs and crises, before pushing it through, and it's a shame on us. We are turning into an ignorant public that values colonial entitlement and Victorian good manners over justice. Maybe Graeme is right and we always were just sheeple for the war hawks.
 
I didn’t need anything else to be upset about today.

The survey questions suck. They do not provide for “totally disagree with extending the legislation”.

Putting out a survey of a few questions to ignorant public to broaden MAID powers is DISGUSTING. I swear there is a right wing faction somewhere in the ranks that is promoting the idea that disability is equal to illness and living with a disability is less worth living - starting with the Cons who tabled this legislation before it passed. Not to mention totally disregarding our UN commitments to people with disabilities and the definition of disability. Humanity has nearly lost its humanity.
 
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