MAID Concerns - How Will Our Politicians Respond?

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Ritafee said:
I agree with that statement.

What happens if a person such as yourself goes to the Doctor now and asks for MAID?

Are safeguards put in place for you ... ie extended home care or financial assistance?
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Financial assistance is too low to cover the cost of living if a person can't or doesn't have the opportunity to work to the allowable earnings limit. It's not commensurate with the real cost of rents now. Average 1 bedrooms are $1300 or more per month. Bachelors even, if you can find any, are around $1100. Accessible housing is in very very short supply. Landlords charge whatever the market will bear. It's gone up about $100+ per month in four years as far as I can tell. Accessible housing is really hard to find - it narrows options considerably. Extended home care - no, not easily available to the majority of people.

I think of Roger Foley. That's exactly why he protested by taking up a hospital bed for many months. His home care was abusive and contributed to his injuries from dragging him out of bed, across the floor, and not doing safe transfers, and further illness from giving him spoiled food, that put him there. He demanded that he be allowed to hire his own care team and not be appointed whoever they gave him whenever, who were negligent. He had expressed suicidal inclinations when he first got there because he was fed up...but not because he wanted to die. He should've received suicide intervention. Doctors put pressure on him to choose MAID and he recorded it. The public scoffed at him for taking up space and "beggars can't be choosers and all that". He managed to get a lawyer, and eventually the international UN Rapporteur on disability rights came to visit him and reviewed other areas where Canada is behind, and gave Canada some bad marks - and now including "disability" in the legislation is going to continue to be under scrutiny and advocated against by major groups. Roger Foley's a fricken hero as far as I'm concerned.

I would do the same thing. I am terrified though, that if ever I am going through dark days for any reason - especially circumstantial like living arrangements and finances - and I ask for it, it would be too easy to get two doctors to agree with me because of my pre existing disabilities. It might be much easier for me to get them to agree with me than to help me. Now far easier with removing the only (weak) safeguard of foreseeable death ( did they think potential death from illness and injury in addition to his disability - because of negligent home care - counted?) ...doctors can be pretty cynical about the healthcare and support systems too, too cynical to try to find the right help.
 
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He won his case for qualifying for the program for hiring his own home care as far as I know. The battle he's fighting, in the bigger picture, continues.
 
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It's a strange strange world we live in ...

OTTAWA -- NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh won't rule out the possibility of Canadians footing the bill for Prince Harry and Meghan's security costs when they're in Canada.

Harry and Meghan’s status as internationally protected persons is in flux, so the assessment of the couple's security needs is ongoing.

An assessment will be done by officials with "responsibility to maintain safety for people who may be vulnerable within our society,"
 
Ritafee said:
It's a strange strange world we live in ...

OTTAWA -- NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh won't rule out the possibility of Canadians footing the bill for Prince Harry and Meghan's security costs when they're in Canada.

Harry and Meghan’s status as internationally protected persons is in flux, so the assessment of the couple's security needs is ongoing.

An assessment will be done by officials with "responsibility to maintain safety for people who may be vulnerable within our society,"
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What, what? Where'd you find the article (can I read it)? Is the last line from that article?

Agreed, they can afford to pay their own security staff, should they wish to have them. I don't begrudge them, I think they need it. But they can pay for it themselves. Meghan does seem interested in helping vulnerable Canadians. Don't write off the possibility that the two of them could be helpful to vulnerable Canadians. Her mom was a Social Worker working with street people in LA.
 
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Ritafee said:
It's a strange strange world we live in ...

OTTAWA -- NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh won't rule out the possibility of Canadians footing the bill for Prince Harry and Meghan's security costs when they're in Canada.

Harry and Meghan’s status as internationally protected persons is in flux, so the assessment of the couple's security needs is ongoing.

An assessment will be done by officials with "responsibility to maintain safety for people who may be vulnerable within our society,"
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with "responsibility to maintain safety for people who may be vulnerable within our society,"

Actually I am glad Blair made that comment to reporters, worded that way.
 
Peer reviewed article from a medical ethics journal about concerns regarding MAID expansion concerns.

bmcmedethics.biomedcentral.com

Disability, vulnerability and assisted death: commentary on Tuffrey-Wijne, Curfs, Finlay and Hollins - BMC Medical Ethics

This paper builds on the work of Tuffrey-Wijne et al. and explores the issue of vulnerability and persons with disabilities in relation to Euthnasia and Assisted Dying (EAS). The commentary draws on both the literature and on case examples from Canada. Specifically, it considers the issue of EAS...
bmcmedethics.biomedcentral.com bmcmedethics.biomedcentral.com
About the author:

socialwork.ubc.ca

Tim Stainton - School of Social Work

Tim Stainton is a Professor at the UBC School of Social Work, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
socialwork.ubc.ca socialwork.ubc.ca

About the peer reviewers:
www.researchgate.net

Manuel Trachsel

Manuel Trachsel (MD, PhD) is a senior research associate at the Institute of Biomedical Ethics at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. He graduated in human medicine, psychology, and philosophy/ethics at the University of Bern, Switzerland. His main research interests are ethics and philosophy...
www.researchgate.net www.researchgate.net

www.research.manchester.ac.uk

Iain Brassington

www.research.manchester.ac.uk

Susanne Ries — Institut für Ethik und Geschichte der Medizin

www.igm.uni-freiburg.de www.igm.uni-freiburg.de
(Institute of Medical Ethics at Freiberg University, in Germany)

(
 
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Thus the dark mere encompasses ... and mortals didn't wish to be cognizant ... cause intelligence is a pain or requires payen into ...

The wisdom of death remains a myth ... some institutions will claim to have ability to tell you all about it for a price ... the AD Vert for green horns!

Moor to ponder as the pede is deep ...

It too goes round ...
 
I've been saying the same things for years and I'm :mad::cry: that most responses to me here were really disrespectful or condescending - and that's a big reason why I am angry and sad. Lametti says he intends to take foreseeable death out of the law - following Quebec's lead - without taking it to the Federal Supreme Court. That's f'd up.

The survey was flooded with 150,000 responses. But it was written from a position of supposing this was going through anyway.
 
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Kimmio, that's a good article and raises some legit concerns. HOWEVER, there's not a mention of informed consent.

The entire Canadian law is built around informed consent. So much of the article talks about intellectual disability, and I'd have to say that ID is totally off the table here, so let's be reasonable about risks.
 
BetteTheRed said:
Kimmio, that's a good article and raises some legit concerns. HOWEVER, there's not a mention of informed consent.

The entire Canadian law is built around informed consent. So much of the article talks about intellectual disability, and I'd have to say that ID is totally off the table here, so let's be reasonable about risks.
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THIS!
 
Thanks for the article @Kimmio Laughterlove It helps the discussion because it breaks down the issue in a way that helps me see the issues more specifically. I know you have been expressing the same concern. Sometimes it sounded like you wanted all MAID dismissed because of the way people with disabilities are treated. While that may be what you believe or it may be my misunderstanding, having smaller issues in the big issue helps me process it better.

I was struck by how unbearable suffering and disabilities were connected, and the idea that people with disabilities can be seen as the canary in the coal mine in this issue. I was also struck by the idea that people with psychiatric issues are among the fastest growing population for "mercy killing". What an awful term. To me mercy killing is done to someone else, and the individual has no say in the matter. If that's the case, it's wrong. Mercy killing is not assisted death as I can accept the concept.

I also noted that Foley was essentially told that if he did not accept assisted death or discharge, he would have to pay $1500+ per month to stay in the hospital. Blackmail has no place in the discussion. Ever.

Perhaps we need to reassess the notion of "unbearable suffering". Health professionals ideally (which often isn't reality) need to reflect on what they consider unbearable suffering and consider how that impacts their work. After all, being aware of biases and their impact is part of being a professional.

This concerns me:

• The UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, after her visit to Canada, was “extremely concerned” about the implications of assisted dying legislation on people with disabilities after hearing multiple complaints. In her report she states: “I urge the federal government to investigate these complaints and put into place adequate safeguards to ensure that persons with disabilities do not request assistive dying simply because of the absence of community-based alternatives and palliative care [10].”

It also concerns me that assisted death guidelines "...include little or no requirement for meaningful psycho-social assessment of the persons situation and what may be leading to their request for EAS. Additionally little attention is paid to, and there is no requirement to provide, support alternatives that would lessen the suffering which in Tagert’s case would have precluded his accessing EAS."

We know that when people have adequate supports, they do better overall. This is particularly important for people who may need more or more specific supports in order to live and function. MAID should NEVER be a replacement for alternatives like decent home care support, palliative care or whatever is important for the individual to live or maybe die with dignity.

I am concerned that informed consent is not discussed in the article. I hope that is only because they were focusing on other issues for the purpose of this paper.

Maybe disabilities do need to be excluded in MAID discussions, or given their own category. This would include what happens in the situations where an individual is unable to provide consent. I'm thinking of those with severe intellectual disabilities. Maybe @DaisyJane can comment on this too.

I do see that people who have degenerative conditions such as Alzheimers need to have a way to express their wishes while they are still intellectually intact and when death is not imminent. It has to be what they want, not what others want for them.
 
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