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Assisted suicide offered to homeless people in Canada

296 replies

gnarlynarwhal · 20/12/2023 15:07

I came across an article online about this earlier today and I’m shocked this is seen as acceptable by so many people in Canada. It’s advertised on the tv over there as if it’s a perfectly acceptable thing to do. The National Post is claiming that one third of Canadians think that it’s perfectly acceptable to approve medical assistance in dying ‘MAID’ to healthy people purely because they are impoverished. I find it really saddening.

OP posts:
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VickyEadieofThigh · 20/12/2023 15:08

I grow ever more disgusted by what I hear of Canada.

2mummies1baby · 20/12/2023 15:09

Are you going to provide a link to this article...?

ReTrainTheBrain · 20/12/2023 15:10

One third?? I'd like to see where they took this sample from and how they worded the question.

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Skimm · 20/12/2023 15:12

Thats why I don't agree with assisted suicide at all.

The boundaries of what becomes acceptable gets pushed and people start looking at who is an asset and who is a drain on society.

A lot of 'for the greater good' like HotFuzz.

OhmygodDont · 20/12/2023 15:12

If someone’s wants to die they should be legally allowed to die. Don’t care if they have 2mil in the bank or 2p if they want to end their life they should be allowed to access the help required to do so.

kirbykirby · 20/12/2023 15:13

Wouldn't be surprised if they start doing that here soon.

ReTrainTheBrain · 20/12/2023 15:14

OhmygodDont · 20/12/2023 15:12

If someone’s wants to die they should be legally allowed to die. Don’t care if they have 2mil in the bank or 2p if they want to end their life they should be allowed to access the help required to do so.

Wouldn't it be better to access support for whatever was driving them to think suicide is the answer?

DinoDays · 20/12/2023 15:14

What the Fuck is wrong with Canada!! They get worse every month.

SwingTheMonkey · 20/12/2023 15:15

It’s a disgrace.

It has also been offered to people with suicidal thoughts who attempt to seek help.

I really want to support assisted suicide as an option for people but I guess this is the risk with it being legalised.

ComtesseDeSpair · 20/12/2023 15:15

OhmygodDont · 20/12/2023 15:12

If someone’s wants to die they should be legally allowed to die. Don’t care if they have 2mil in the bank or 2p if they want to end their life they should be allowed to access the help required to do so.

I agree with this. We should all have the right to choose how and when we die, without having to have other people decide that we don’t know our own minds and don’t have a good enough reason. If somebody doesn’t think their life is worth living because of their living circumstances, who is anyone else to force them to continue on?

gnarlynarwhal · 20/12/2023 15:15

OhmygodDont · 20/12/2023 15:12

If someone’s wants to die they should be legally allowed to die. Don’t care if they have 2mil in the bank or 2p if they want to end their life they should be allowed to access the help required to do so.

So if a teenager suffers with depression would you agree with allowing them to have a medically assisted suicide? I went through a period of depression in my teens. I’m not depressed now.

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kirbykirby · 20/12/2023 15:16

OhmygodDont · 20/12/2023 15:12

If someone’s wants to die they should be legally allowed to die. Don’t care if they have 2mil in the bank or 2p if they want to end their life they should be allowed to access the help required to do so.

I don't think most of them do want to die, they don't really have a choice as the alternative is often living in poverty/on the street if they don't get the appropriate help from the Government which begs the question - why is it better to encourage people who want to live to end their lives than just give them appropriate support?

MrsTerryPratchett · 20/12/2023 15:16

OhmygodDont · 20/12/2023 15:12

If someone’s wants to die they should be legally allowed to die. Don’t care if they have 2mil in the bank or 2p if they want to end their life they should be allowed to access the help required to do so.

Wanting to die because they can't get healthcare, or a home, or decent food, or freedom from addiction or a place to be is different to not having money.

No one should be offered MAID until they have been offered variously treatment, healthcare, counselling, a home, enough to eat.

I heard of a trauma-impacted teenage girl being offered it. No doctor, no counselling, no group. Straight to death,

Laiste · 20/12/2023 15:17

Among Research Co. respondents, 43 per cent backed MAID for the mentally ill against 45 per cent who did not.

MAID for the mentally ill was supposed to become legal in March, but in one of the only instances of Canada pulling back on its rapid expansion of assisted suicide, that date was ultimately pushed forward into 2024 in order to “prepare for the safe and consistent assessment and provision of MAID in all cases.”

How on earth does this work? The fact a person is ''mentally ill'' surely precludes them from being able to be assessed as able to make ration decisions about suicide?

gnarlynarwhal · 20/12/2023 15:18

ReTrainTheBrain · 20/12/2023 15:14

Wouldn't it be better to access support for whatever was driving them to think suicide is the answer?

Exactly. It will be seen as the easier option when really the authorities should be doing more to reduce homelessness.

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tescocreditcard · 20/12/2023 15:18

I wouldn't hold Canada up as a beacon of good care when it comes to assisted suicide.

They have made the biggest clusterfuck of it I've ever seen.

ohdelay · 20/12/2023 15:19

They'll be putting the Futurama 25 cent suicide booths under bridges, in hospitals and instead of soup kitchens soon. Oh Canada.

WhatsInStoreFor2024 · 20/12/2023 15:20

kirbykirby · 20/12/2023 15:13

Wouldn't be surprised if they start doing that here soon.

Me either!!

I think our government might make it into an attractive little package!

Sparklesocks · 20/12/2023 15:20

Is Canada actually ‘offering’ it as your title suggests or is it just the results of an (albeit grim) opinion poll where people support the idea?

2jacqi · 20/12/2023 15:21

@gnarlynarwhal this is exactly what will happen here in UK is the euthanasia law is passed!!! you are all warned! people in countries which have passed this law can demand euthanasia for depression nowadays. the countries cannot stop it because it then has to be the same law for everyone! equality!!

LampLamp · 20/12/2023 15:22

When I was very, very depressed (at one point I was admitted for a long period), if this was an option I would have done anything to make myself homeless in order for this to become available to me.

Which is awful.

My mental health is in the pits most days, one bad event and I’d easily be pushed to finding ways to seek this out.

MorningSunshineSparkles · 20/12/2023 15:23

I used to admire Canada as a country quite a lot but over the last decade the news coming out of there is horrific. They all ought to be so utterly ashamed of themselves.

telestrations · 20/12/2023 15:23

They're also offering it to people while they wait up to and over a year for a cancer diagnosis, disabled people waiting for adjustments to their homes and veterans.

After an initial furor when these stories first started to get published it's not been in the news here very much if at all . And you risk getting accused of being an alt-right-anti-vax-trump-maga-trucker if you bring it up.

Like lots of things the Canadian government has done or does most Canadians don't actually know about it or believe it, or try not to, or convince themselves it right.

PurpleChrayne · 20/12/2023 15:23

Canada, along with Australia and the Republic of Ireland, is living proof of the absolute failure of modern Western democracy.