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Canada to indefinitely bar mental illness as sole reason for access to euthanasia (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 3 days ago by to c/canada@lemmy.ca
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[–] 4 points 3 days ago (7 children)

If our gun laws here were like those in the states, I truly would not be here right now.

The same would be of MAID if it was supplied for those with mental illnesses.

It is insane to me that people are just casually blowing this off as if it means nothing. You have no room to regret a permanent decision, and no hope to hold out on.

If my attempts were successful I would have never found myself in this spot where yes, things are still rough, but I can at least say it's better. I'd have never predicted where things would have gone ten years ago when I was still depressed and feeling suicidal then, by giving people the option to do this, you rob them of the potential for a better life forever.

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  • [–] 11 points 3 days ago (6 children)

    You're presenting assisted suicide as if it's just a "willy nilly" decision. People don't "just" go to a physician and stick a needle in their arm. It's a long process that involves careful evaluation.

    Going "I didn't kill myself and I'm happier for it" doesn't make you the spokesperson of thousands of other people who are still here, suffering, and wishing they weren't here anymore. You aren't in their bodies. You aren't them. They should be able to decide for themselves and if that means suicide, they should be able to do it with dignity, not by jumping in front of a car and messing up multiple lives in the process, or running amok and getting shot by a cop, or jumping from a building and traumatising those around them.

    You shouldn't get to make that choice. They should. That's the discussion here.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 days ago (3 children)

    Part of the evaluation is determining whether someone is terminally ill. You are misrepresenting what MAID is by presenting it as a valid choice for someone who has a treatable mental illness.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 days ago (2 children)

    That is not what I'm presenting at all. Suicide is the the greatest freedom a single person has. That does not mean somebody else has to participate in that act. If somebody requests that help, the process should determine whether the person can be helped before granting that request.

    You're twisting the debate into something it's not about. This isn't a "let's get rid of all the mentally undesirables" act.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 hours ago (1 child)

    As someone who works in medicine the idea of allowing someone with something like TRD to access MAID is totally antithetical to what medicine is about and I'd be very suspicious of any doctor who does anything but argue against it. The Hippocratic oath basically forbids an MD from assisting someone with a treatable illness to kill themselves.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 hours ago

    And what about untreatable illnesses? And what about treatable but incurable illnesses that make life hell for the patient? Do you make a distinction between livable and unlivable anguish? Is "treatable" a binary that determines patients' wellbeing?

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  • [–] 2 points 3 days ago (1 child)

    Or, and hear me out here, instead of giving the government a cop out to say "your well-being is not our problem, have fun killing yourself", we have them do their jobs of governing and providing people with basic living standards and human dignity.

    If they didn't suspend this and went ahead with this, what's preventing them from basically saying "it is what it is, if you can't function in the society we made inaccessible, here's your way out, not our job to coddle you"?

    Disabled and mentally ill people killing themselves to suit society's needs will become the norm when it should be the opposite. This is basically systemic eugenics.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 days ago

    I agree with you: we do not do enough for our citizens. We should be doing way more. Where I disagree with you is preventing those who genuinely want to leave this world from doing so with dignity.

    This isn't a "fuck the ill, kill 'em".

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