Link: “Canada will soon allow medically assisted dying for mental illness. Has there been enough time to get it right?”
I think the article makes the case pretty convincingly that Canada has NOT got it right. Canada currently provides grossly inadequate access to mental health care – wait times of 5 years to access treatment are mentioned in the article – and there seems to be this idea that if someone can’t wait five years, they should just die. This should also be seen in the context of very physically disabled Canadians being pressured into the MAID scheme if they can’t secure accessible housing, because the Canadian state wants to wash its hands of the responsibility to ensure everyone has suitable housing.
The article does make reference to the Netherlands as having a better scheme with more safeguards (and also a much better mental healthcare system, apparently). We’ve also had a voluntary euthanasia scheme here in Victoria for a few years, but ours is restricted to terminally ill people with a life expectancy of less than 6 months (or 3? I don’t remember). Seems HIGHLY disturbing to have a scheme that ISN’T limited in such a way.
Posted by 
Jessica Smith on .