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Assisted dying now accounts for one in 20 Canada deaths

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271–280 of 870 posts

Re: Assisted dying now accounts for one in 20 Canada deaths

#271

After 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's ethically childish that we use roundabout measures like that instead of just putting someone out of their misery overtly. It creates a drawn out process where the family has to wait around until they pass at some unknown point instead of coming together in one moment, making peace, saying their farewell, and witnessing the finality together. It took my girlfriend's vegetative mother a week to die as she struggle…

> It's ethically childish that we use roundabout measures like that

Dogmas and tabus might be there for a reason. Culturally I think we need to pretend thing we don't think are true.

Re: Assisted dying now accounts for one in 20 Canada deaths

#272

After 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.…

We're in a weird spot where the secular world asks us to simultaneously cause death (the euthanasia folks) while also asking us to evade it altogether (the Brian Johnson types).

Catholicism embraces natural death, which is what your family member (RIP) chose. Interventions that hasten death are fine. Just can't cause it.

Re: Assisted dying now accounts for one in 20 Canada deaths

#273

During the recent debate around the Assisted Dying Bill in the UK, I listened to a radio phone-in in which a palliative care doctor explained that it wasn't possible to relieve all suffering for all patients. They relayed an example of a person who had spent their last days vomiting fully-formed faeces. If we can prevent five, ten or perhaps twenty percent of people having gruesome deaths, then not doing so feels lik…

Right, but there's a problem - the UK is in a real mess! Social services, medical services, all the services are underfunded and crumbling. There is a cost of living crisis as wages have barely moved in 15 years, food banks are everywhere, and now "multibanks" are popping up. Our country first needs to ensure that people can choose to live , and if needed be cared for; nobody should feel pushed into assisted dying be…

What if we triple your pain?

Re: Assisted dying now accounts for one in 20 Canada deaths

#274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 d…

Thanks for that information. I have some major disagreements with the Catholic church but more knowledge and understanding is always a good thing. Appreciated.

Re: Assisted dying now accounts for one in 20 Canada deaths

#275

Before people start acting like "let's not kill old people to save money" is somehow right-coded, here's Jacobin on the matter: https://jacobin.com/2024/12/uk-assisted-suicide-maid-canada-...

Yes, that article was sober and wise. I'm in Canada and I really hope other countries do not follow us down this path. I have fears grounded in facts based on what is continuing to unfold here in a relatively short number of years that very soon the sick, disabled, and elderly will be targeted by MAID, and I fear that after that the marginalized, (temporarily) impoverished, and even non-terminally injured may come into view. Human life is worth more than this!

Re: Assisted dying now accounts for one in 20 Canada deaths

#276
post #7

I find it overall very unnerving how quiet this is and how the Canadian press never really finds issues with this. I often saw Japanese media moving lock-step with the police (in terms of vocabulary to use for certain crimes, how to report certain issues), and thought it was creepy as hell. However, the complete lack of questioning of the purpose behind a sudden legalization of euthanasia (in a country with public he…

Mainstream media globally shifted from critizing governments to being their mouthpiece so absolutely no surprises here.

Re: Assisted dying now accounts for one in 20 Canada deaths

#277

What is the steelman argument for why it's okay to help people kill themselves a la MAID, but not okay to execute murderers? (Assuming the argument against capital punishment is that mistakes are often or sometimes made)

Consent.

Re: Assisted dying now accounts for one in 20 Canada deaths

#278

My 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…

My dad (age 75) got diagnosed with ALS and within a month of the diagnosis opted for MAID. He had only just lost control of one leg, but he knew what was coming. As much as we begged him for more time, he didn't want any of it.

Till his dying breath he kept repeating how thankful he was that he lived in a country that didn't force him to live on when he didn't want to.

He was a clear Track 1 case, and I realize Track 2 cases are more complicated, but just wanted to add my story as reporting on MAID spins out of control in our culture war milieu.

Re: Assisted dying now accounts for one in 20 Canada deaths

#279

After 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…

We need to be clear on terms here.

Killing someone with a drug intended to stop the heart / prevent respiration is unequivocally euthanasia.

Withholding treatments is not euthanasia. Nor is pain medication that hastens death. Those are things we can have an ethical discussion about.

As for IV drip.. that's another discussion. I personally would not ever do that. Water is a basic thing for humanity, and should be provided. Unless he explicitly refused the water. Then, that's his choice.

I think I ultimately reject the idea that this is not well-understood, because the largest organizations opposed to euthanasia (the Catholic church for example) has given endless thought to this, and explicitly accepts the situation you described. Opponents of euthanasia are not ignorant.

Re: Assisted dying now accounts for one in 20 Canada deaths

#280

IMO, the key quote: > The vast majority – around 96% - had a death deemed "reasonably foreseeable", due to severe medical conditions such as cancer.

I'm wondering who the 4% are whose death was not reasonably foreseeable. What exactly are their secrets to eternal life?
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