I agree in principle, but that's not what's happening in the real world.

My husband has ME/CFS. It's a life-destroying disease, even though it doesn't usually kill you. There's no treatment, no cure, and no idea about the underlying cause, after many decades of research.

It's heartbreaking to read messages from people who caught it as a teen, seen all their schoolfriend grow up, experience life, find love etc, all while the sufferer is in pain all day, no hope of improving, relying heavily on what family they have who are willing to support.

This is by no means ideal, but neither is decades of suffering. I err on the side of reducing the constant pain.

I’m not sure it’s as crystallized as that yet, but I agree with your sentiment. Everyone should have the right to choose to die but if the reason is “there was no other option,” then, we should be damn well sure we offered everything we could. Let’s not be taking societal shortcuts to “oh well, we gave it our best shot.”

I support someone’s right to end their own suffering, 100%, but it is very bad form to: be ABLE to help someone, INGORE that they are suffering, but SMILE while helping them polish their gun.

Yep. I believe people should have choices, but after proper care. My daughter has Anorexia, but since she was still not an adult she had access to a counsellor, medication, and programs. It turned her life around. But once you are 19+ there is nothing unless you have lots of money

It doesn't help when a government offical got in trouble for suggesting a veteran apply for MAID when they complained about having chronic pain.

There's a conspiracy theory that the government has rolled out MAID as a way to lower healthcare costs by just killing people instead of treating them and stories like these add fuel to that fire.

Right! This is just assisted suicide. What our government is saying is basically that they prefer you go and die instead of giving you treatment.

What the fuck.

I agree with this as long as the solution is more healthcare, not less MAID. The latter is just cruelty.

Yeah, like I think the option should exist once you've passed certain qualifiers. But being mentally ill has so many consequences from capitalism. I myself struggle with metal health at times, and those times are always at their absolute worst financial problems come up. And our society is extremely difficult to get started in. Most people my age are only one paycheck away from desperation. When you're mentally ill poverty is a symptom, you're that much less capable of working. And society refuses to help you in the long term. You'll always have to face your own unreliability as an existential threat, which worsens how unreliable you are.

It is morally wrong to euthanize people because capitalism has decided they have no worth, and because they can never have a life worth living without society changing. But thats almost never what people want to talk about, they want to talk about how it's just wrong to let the unwell die. Never about how they can prevent us from becoming so unwell we cannot function.

You could give free mental health to every Canadian and still 3/4 of it would never use it due to stigma, so it wouldn't even cost as much as they think

The key issue is this. While we should allow death with dignity, we should also support life with dignity. We are failing badly in that category for far too many people.

Allowing death with dignity on a person's terms is fantastic. I just hope we continue to support them until thr very end to ensure dignity the whole way

Wait for the Jesus freaks with a saviour complex to tell you how they can save literally everybody

Most people don't want to die; it's just the least-bad option society has chosen to offer them.

My Grandfather in law just went through this.

94, came down for a vacation, had been having trouble eating more months. Went from ER to CAT scan in 6 hours, to a diagnosis of esophageal cancer.

Requested MAID, took 5 days, and he was very thankful to receive it.

"[...]Canada will soon technically allow it but that person won't be eligible anyway." doesn't lead to as many clicks...

I knew someone who threw themselves off a bridge. Well, I knew their sibling. I was there when the call came through from the RCMP that they were missing. Then the call that the body was found. To say that it destroyed that family would be an understatement. I remember that my friend had to go down with their mother and identify what was left of the body. They were (understandably) never quite the same after that.

I don't know if I support expanding MAID to people with mental health issues or not. I have a feeling their sibling would've found a way to kill themselves one way or another. Maybe something more dignified would've been easier on the family? I don't know.

Capitalism needs meat for the grinder. This is the heart of forced birth as well. Dying means you're escaping.

As someone with a medical condition I am afraid assisted suicide could become the expected solution. The same for old people or people with complex mental health issues or symptoms that aren’t curable yet. I wonder how it can be prevented to go down that path.