The issue of Medical Assistance in Death (MAiD) is at the forefront and many experts, patients and advocates have testified to a special committee that the elderly, the chronically ill and the disabled are at risk of feeling stressed or choosing to die under extended legislation – this exactly as described by “Cat”.
The woman in her thirties asked to be referred by a pseudonym and has no definitive diagnosis, but is in constant pain and now suffers from organ failure due to complications from Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, so she applied to Fraser Health for assisted death in the hope that she would led to more medical or social support.
“If I can not access health care, can I access death care?” she said about her thought process. “My suffering has been validated to the extent that it has been approved for MAID, but no additional resources have been opened.”
Disabled Canadians who have organized marathon roundtable discussions on MAiD and its consequences for the vulnerable reported her condition the day after Kat’s speech.
“We raise our voices because Kat and many others like Kat need us in their corner,” said Disability Filibuster participant Catherine Frazee. “We are still outraged and upset by any new reports that one of our relatives has submitted a MAID application.”
Others use social media expressing similar concern and frustration over the details.
Let ‘s wait to hear those who zealously support #MAID as an almost inherently useful practice explain it again w “the solution is not to prevent MAID but to increase support”, ignoring that the mere availability and promotion of #MAID causes immediate harm and removes the motivation to do more
– Trudo Lemmens 🧏♂️ (@TrudoLemmens) June 8, 2022
How do people find this acceptable? More than 7,000 people died from #MAiD in 2020, there are no numbers for 2021 yet. How many of them have been forced out of legal poverty and denial of care?
– Hazie ME / Long Covid (@haziethompson) June 8, 2022
NUMBERS IN THE SERVICE ARE INCREASING
There is no doubt that since the laws changed to allow medical staff to help people who are suffering to end their lives, there has been a steady increase in the number of people who choose to do so.
Of the three most populous health authorities, Island Health has the highest number of deaths per capita and has the highest MAiD rate in the country. The Department of Health says that in 2016, 80 people had MAiD compared to 683 in 2021. At Fraser Health, there were 26 and 361, while Vancouver Coastal Health had 57 and 445 in those years, despite the much larger populations in these two areas.
CTV News has asked the ministry for the number of applicants for each of these years, but one spokesman claims they are not collecting that data.
A peer-to-peer support network that provides guidance and information to those thinking about MAiD says it has tripled its online traffic, engagement and subscription since they launched their volunteer service when MAiD launched in 2017.
“Every week we get more and more requests where people say ‘I just need to talk to someone,'” said Bridge C-14 CEO Lauren Clark, who confirms that some of these people do not want to die but feel they have. a few other options in the midst of poverty, disability and lack of access to resources.
“There are people whose experience this is,” he said. “They are navigating on their own and trying to fight a system that did not support them.”
WHAT’S FOLLOWING?
As the special committee of deputies and senators begins to draft its recommendations to the government, observers say it may be the public pressure that has the greatest effect.
“My sense is that members of the public may not have appreciated how legislation would affect people with disabilities living in poverty,” said Kerri Joffe, a lawyer at the ARCH Disability Law Center in Ontario.
He noted that the expansion to include people suffering but without reasonably predictable death occurred during the pandemic, when COVID dominated everyone’s lives. Representatives of the United Nations have already expressed concern about “satisfactory assumptions about the inherent ‘quality of life’ or ‘value’ of a person with a disability”, noting that the disability is not a burden or a defect.
“Unfortunately these warnings have come true and that is what I think is really shocking,” Joffe said. “It really has to make us all stop (before we expand further).”
For its part, Fraser Health insists that it does enough for people with serious health problems living within its jurisdiction.
“Our role is to support people in accessing appropriate resources and health services that best meet their care needs,” one spokesman wrote. “If a person is low-income and has financial barriers to accessing care, we will support them to understand how they can access health support or services not covered by the MSP, if funding is available.”
