Canadian Euthanasia laws may be extended to minors and mentally ill

25Avalon

Wyllow3 it will be law come next March that the mentally ill will be able to have assisted dying. This is not scaremongering but what is going to happen. There is also talk of children as young as 12 being able to choose for themselves without parental consent. That is what is concerning.

"the mentally ill" is a term that includes at one end of the spectrum those who have gone to their GP for Anti-Depressants to those who have lived lifelong with desperate untreatable psychosis like voices telling them to kill themselves hence untreatable levels of depression and self hate.

I'm not going to speak up against people in the latter category and similar conditions being assessed by those responsible.

Currently, only those with considerable means can afford to travel to get the help they want. So unfair.

And any family who helps, even with travel arrangements, are immediately in trouble with the Law.

I read this thread a bit late. I have not ever seen anything in the media regarding extending assisted suicide to anyone under 18. There is an amendment, but it seems to extend the eligibility to those that are not imminently dying, to allow for more consent before getting to a stage where consent is hard to communicate.
I had a look at the government site regarding this and the laws seem quite careful to include only those that are of sound mind, and have an irremediable medical condition, and has to go through the correct procedures for approval.

www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/medical-assistance-dying.html

I am glad that we have such laws in place; it can bring relief
to those suffering. My father had MS, and we had to watch him have a slow death over an 8 year period, the last 4 of which he was very incapacitated. If he could have had assistance with dying, I know he would have done it.

Hi CanadianGran thanks for checking in. Can you tell us a bit more about this new amendment to include the mentally ill which is supposed to be coming in on 17th March next year?

BlueBelle

Exactly allsorts
May I add another level but about the same thing who decides …….in Iceland downs syndrome babies are aborted
Iceland has a tiny number of Downs ‘that have slipped through the net’ but on the whole it is almost ‘downs free’
Is this not all genetic selection by the state

In the UK women can choose to abort a Downs baby. It may be unpalatable to some, but were I a young woman and I found out my baby was Downs, I would choose an abortion.

I found it a bit difficult to find details about the change starting march of 2023.

This from the government website (MAID = Medical Assistance in Dying):

After March 17, 2023, people with a mental illness as their sole underlying medical condition will have access to MAID if they meet all of the eligibility requirements and the practitioners fulfill the safeguards that are put in place for this group of people.

So from what I gather, their condition would have to be grievous with no cure, and be assessed by two different medical practitioners. Not easy hoops to jump through.