People seem to forget that any able bodied person can end their life at any time they choose. Denying MAID is only denying this right to people who want to exercise it with dignity.
Assisted dying now accounts for one in 20 Canada deaths
241–250 of 870 posts
Re: Assisted dying now accounts for one in 20 Canada deaths
#242My Canadian parents are in their 80's so naturally a lot of their friends of the same age are dying. And two of them have been via MAID. In one case, which was surprising to me, a man who had survived cancer - he was not terminal but certainly wasn't getting any better - elected to die via MAID after his wife died. She passed, he called his doctor and less than a week later he was also dead. He got a chance to visit…
To be honest, my grand parents both died in their nineties and their last two years were really sad. It was not so much the physical decline but the mental one. At the end, while technically alive, so little of who they were as persons remained, they might as well have been dead. I fully understand someone in their 80s knowing the end is near choosing to leave on their own term.
I appreciate you sharing your perspective. I wondered, when you described feeling "really sad" and the sense that people "might as well have been dead," I'm wondering if you're speaking about your own emotional response or trying to convey how the individuals themselves felt about their situation?
Edited to sound less harsh
Re: Assisted dying now accounts for one in 20 Canada deaths
#243Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would’ve expected at least a waiting period longer than a week after a traumatic event. Of course I don’t know all the circumstances around it.
>Of course I don’t know all the circumstances around it. And that's the point. The person expressing the wish (and expressing it before the death) did. People make choices. We should let them, wherever possible. Yes, there are consequences - but we also let people fly wingsuits and base jump, and those have known consequences as well. Would you also enjoin people from doing that after a traumatic event? What about mo…
Flying a wingsuit out of an airplane as part of a skydive is not particularly dangerous. It's the base jumping, wingsuit or no, that is extremely dangerous.
Re: Assisted dying now accounts for one in 20 Canada deaths
#244I consider it a blessing to have a choice in how I go, rather than leaving it up to nature and the medical system.
Re: Assisted dying now accounts for one in 20 Canada deaths
#245After watching my father die with COPD, it because obvious that euthanasia happens in the US all the time. He opted out of lung-reduction surgery and was ready to die. So the hospital withheld IV hydration and provided a morphine drip and he was gone in 36 hours. How long can one live without water, a few days max? So that's what killed him. My sister-in-law who's a physician told me that's how it's typically done. I…
it because obvious that euthanasia happens in the US all the time [...] So the hospital withheld IV hydration and provided a morphine drip and he was gone in 36 hours I had a family member with late-stage terminal COPD opt out of further treatment. They were in respiratory crisis and were going to be intubated for the nth time with no real hope of recovery, and so they said "fuck it" and delined further intervention.…
I have, thanks. I'll always remember his last words to me, "You're a prince."
Re: Assisted dying now accounts for one in 20 Canada deaths
#246Here is the report - released 16 hours ago - that this news piece comes from: https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/publications...
Re: Assisted dying now accounts for one in 20 Canada deaths
#247Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Of course I don’t know all the circumstances around it. And that's the point. The person expressing the wish (and expressing it before the death) did. People make choices. We should let them, wherever possible. Yes, there are consequences - but we also let people fly wingsuits and base jump, and those have known consequences as well. Would you also enjoin people from doing that after a traumatic event? What about mo…
If someone became extremely risk taking after a traumatic event, putting their life at stake at several occasions, it's not unreasonable to believe that - at least in some countries - the person would be forced to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, possibly through a temporary involuntary commitment
one line that is crossed is putting others at risk or pulling them into their actions. I can't think of many scenarios where I'd support involuntary commitment when it was just the individual and their actions.
Re: Assisted dying now accounts for one in 20 Canada deaths
#248My Canadian parents are in their 80's so naturally a lot of their friends of the same age are dying. And two of them have been via MAID. In one case, which was surprising to me, a man who had survived cancer - he was not terminal but certainly wasn't getting any better - elected to die via MAID after his wife died. She passed, he called his doctor and less than a week later he was also dead. He got a chance to visit…
This! People feel like they cannot live alone or they cannot want that someone else be caused hardship (time or money) because of their difficulty. I feel like I will get downvoted to oblivion just because people vehemently disagree, but THIS CANNOT be the meaning and choice behind death. It is simply immature, arrogant, and selfish. But more plainly, it is suicidal / self-relentment.
Let's loop back around on this comment when you're in your 80s, alone, and dying a slow death.
Re: Assisted dying now accounts for one in 20 Canada deaths
#249After watching my father die with COPD, it because obvious that euthanasia happens in the US all the time. He opted out of lung-reduction surgery and was ready to die. So the hospital withheld IV hydration and provided a morphine drip and he was gone in 36 hours. How long can one live without water, a few days max? So that's what killed him. My sister-in-law who's a physician told me that's how it's typically done. I…
it because obvious that euthanasia happens in the US all the time [...] So the hospital withheld IV hydration and provided a morphine drip and he was gone in 36 hours I had a family member with late-stage terminal COPD opt out of further treatment. They were in respiratory crisis and were going to be intubated for the nth time with no real hope of recovery, and so they said "fuck it" and delined further intervention.…
> The hospital (a Catholic hospital, even) provided a morphine drip and they were gone within an hour.
FWIW, Catholic ethics are actually fairly well thought out on this issue. You're not allowed to withhold basic nourishment (food, hydration, non-invasive breathing support), but you are allowed to opt out of invasive procedures such as intubation and provide pain management if the patient or the patient's guardian decides that it would significantly affect quality of life and the patient doesn't have long to live. Obviously there is discernment involved in the last bit, but Catholicism is all about discernment.
Here's the National Catholic Bioethics Center on the topic: https://www.ncbcenter.org/resources-and-statements-cms/summa...
Re: Assisted dying now accounts for one in 20 Canada deaths
#250A more enlightening statistic, but obviously harder to collect, would be what percentage of missed life-years could be attributed to MAID. I suspect it would be a much smaller percentage.
It's also worth noting that for every MAID horror story in this article, there is probably at least one horror story about a needlessly painful and drawn-out death that could have been avoided if MAID had been legal.