My brother John and I published this a year ago, but it is still a very current and important topic.
MAiD Changes Deny Suicide Prevention Help
In case you are prevented by a paywall from accessing the article, here it is:
Bill to expand euthanasia effectively denies suicide prevention help to
those who need it most
By John Van Popta and George Van Popta
As brothers living with chronic and progressively debilitating diseases – one with
Parkinson’s disease and one with multiple sclerosis – we are closely following
the developments around Bill C-7, which seeks to expand euthanasia to people
like us. We both live with the realities of a progressive disease for which
there is no cure, but which will not significantly shorten our lifespans. A
common symptom of both our diseases is depression.
Under the current medical assistance in dying (MAiD) legislation, we are
protected from being offered MAiD because our deaths are not reasonably
foreseeable, and mental illness (including chronic depression) is not grounds
to be granted access to euthanasia. But as we have watched Bill C-7 move
through the House of Commons, and then the Senate, and now back to the House of
Commons again, we have reason to fear for our lives.
Able-bodied, financially stable Canadians with benefit plans, housing
security, and easy access to both physical and mental health care are leading
the charge to open up assisted death to the vulnerable. We are retired pastors
and have worked with many for whom these benefits are not a given. We are
blessed to be surrounded by loving family – spouses, siblings, children, and
grandchildren – who express their love for us and their willingness to care for
us as our health deteriorates. But we know that many Canadians do not have this
kind of support and will legitimately wonder who will be there when they need
significant care.
The reasonable foreseeability of death criterion in the current MAiD law
is a crucial safeguard. It precludes offering MAiD to everyone and anyone who
is suffering, and it holds our medical professionals to a continued expectation
of caring for, not killing, their suffering patients. If a doctor can suggest
MAiD to every patient with a chronic condition (which will be possible since
the restriction of waiting for MAiD to be brought up by the patient is also
being pushed aside), doctors will offer death as an option alongside other,
legitimate treatments – and euthanasia is the only option with a 100%
guaranteed result.
The exclusion of mental illness as a sole decider for MAiD is another
fundamental safeguard in a society that values suicide prevention. The Senate
is suggesting this safeguard needs to be removed, and that it is wrong to
prevent those with mental illness from having this “choice” to die at the hand
of a doctor. That linking of personal freedom with “choice” in matters of life
and death is already dangerously misused in our society. We need to recognize
limits on both someone’s capacity to choose and their right to choose.
Suicide prevention efforts are primarily targeted at people facing
intense mental distress. We tell them they should not choose to die – that
suicide is the wrong choice, that there are reasons to live regardless of how
hopeless they are currently feeling. We know that not all choices are equal
and, even in a tolerant society, not all choices are good. How can we possibly
balance suicide prevention with offering to help suicidal people to die?
In the course of debilitating chronic illness, many patients face dark
moments and struggle to find medication that relieves their mental suffering as
well as their physical suffering. Some turn to suicide. If someone offers
MAiD at these vulnerable times, it might well seem like the best option.
Mental illness, whether on its own or as a symptom of another disease,
does not have the same predictable trajectory as physical illness often does,
and to use it as a basis for granting MAiD is to take advantage of a vulnerable
person by addressing what would likely have been a temporary state of mind in a
permanent and lethal way.
We are horrified by the direction Parliament is taking Canada’s
euthanasia legislation. The idealization of doctor-assisted death as a
peaceful, easy solution to the existential problem of life’s challenges is
cruel. The proposed changes will further disadvantage the socioeconomically
vulnerable, the marginalized, the disabled, and the chronically and mentally
ill.
As Christian pastors we dedicated ourselves to teaching that all perons
are created in the image of God, and therefore have intrinsic value regardless
of their abilities, physical or mental. Bill C-7 will mandate a type of ableism
that will ultimately lead to the "abled" suggesting to the
"disabled" that they should choose MAID because their lives are of
less value and worth.
The government’s obligation is not to kill its citizens, but to protect
them. This discussion needs to end, Bill C-7 needs to die, and those of us with
disabilities need to be given the opportunity to live our
lives with the limitations we’ve been given.
John and George Van Popta are brothers, retired pastors, and advocates
for disability rights. They live in Burlington, Ontario and Hamilton, Ontario
respectively.
