As an autistic Canadian, I worry about my country’s support of assisted suicide
Mathieu Vaillancourt
Eligibility for “medical assistance in dying” under Canadian law seems to expand every day. The concept of assisted suicide for people with incurable diseases has grown more and more permissive, up to the point at which, akin to Belgium, people will soon be able to ask for euthanasia simply for mental health conditions.
There is even talk of permitting euthanasia for minors in certain situations, and Canadian armed forces veterans were recently ”advised” to use assisted suicide. Of course, this decision was viewed with disgust by a lot of politicians in Canada, but the irony is that its politicians and judges themselves are responsible for this situation.
WATCH: FORMER PARALYMPIAN CLAIMS CANADA OFFERED ASSISTED DEATH AFTER REQUESTING RAMP
I am a Canadian. I have a neurological condition called autism, and it’s sometimes challenging to do basic tasks because my brain is wired differently. Just like the vast majority of people with autism, I have issues related to my mental health. People with autism also sometimes have very limited social skills, and they do a lot of things alone.
The problem with Canada is that enacting permissible euthanasia rules and normalizing the concept creates a society in which decency for the most vulnerable people is substituted by something as radical and inhumane as euthanasia.
The Canadian healthcare system has major problems, and it was unable to cope with the pandemic. Waiting times are horrible, the Canadian social care system is also in bad shape, and social assistance for disabled people is not super generous. Like in many Western countries, more and more people are alone, and a lot of people have limited social capital. This creates a perfect storm for euthanasia policy to become more common in the future if people cannot get the help they need and run out of solutions.
Canadian lawyer Chris Considine has been involved in the issue of medically assisted suicide for three decades. Considine is not against medically assisted suicide in some cases, but he said in a recent article that “there has been a dramatic increase in mental health illnesses, but not treatment” and that “there are underlying causes for mental health which are not strictly organic. There may be depression caused by poor housing, poor job prospects and other issues, which will drive people into a deep depression. Those issues could be solved, and therefore, there may not really be a need for MAiD.”
The paradox with recent Canadian euthanasia laws is that by pursuing a “liberal” policy, Canadians are destroying liberal democratic values piece by piece, creating a society in which instead of finding solutions to help people in need, we normalize the ”nuclear option” more and more. The large scope of the Canadian law will create a lot of new problems, and it will slowly but surely disvalue good social care and policymaking.
We know where the policy starts, but we don’t know where it will end. Based on what we have seen up to now, I fear that it won’t end in a good place.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Mathieu Vaillancourt is a writer with a degree in international development and globalization from the University of Ottawa.