MAiD In Canada

How Medical Assistance in Dying is not only legal, but a growing industry!

What Is MAiD?

If you're like me, you may be surprised to find out that Canada, since 2016, has legally allowed doctor assisted deaths.

They don’t call it euthanasia anymore though, at least not in the public literature. Since Bill C-14 came into law in 2016, Canadians just get to call it Medical Assistance in Dying, or MAiD.

Long gone are the days of Dr. Kevorkian, who spent years in prison for his assisted suicides. These days, not only are they legal, but they're encouraged to an ever broadening group of people... and ages.

Within a year of it’s passing into law, the CBC did a really touching story on why MAiD is the right choice for Canadians:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/medically-assisted-death-could-save-millions-1.3947481

Nice, guys. Super tactful.

We all know how hard it is to balance the books at a hospital, right? Think about how much more economical it would be if — now hear me out — instead of keeping people alive, per say… we kill them.

The Shark Tank people would all invest. What a cost savings.

How’s MAiD Going So Far?

Well, to say that it’s a booming industry wouldn’t be overstating it. In 2021 alone, over 10,000 Canadians used MAiD to legally, medically commit suicide. That’s a 32% increase over the 2020 numbers.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/more-than-10-000-canadians-received-a-medically-assisted-death-in-2021-report-1.6025922

Over 3% of all Canadian deaths in 2021 were through the MAiD system. Some outliers like Quebec and BC nearly topped 5%!

But these must all be elderly, chronically suffering individuals who’d all be better off dead, right?

Not Necessarily…

Just like all good progressive ideas, after adoption, they tend to… um… progress away from the original case points.

A, now infamous, case earlier this year of a Veteran’s Affairs worker who suggested a Vet (who called their help line for depression) should apply for euthanasia through MAiD.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-veterans-affairs-maid-counselling-1.6560136

What could be more appalling than a help service, meant for physically and mentally damaged war fighters — when said war fighters call it — to say “Go kill yourself”.

That’s a hard one to top… but, I just may be able to do it.

Think Of The Children

Since we’ve already ‘progressed’ away from the dying into the not-dying-but-sad, what if we added into that mix a ‘progression’ towards younger applicants?

https://www.dyingwithdignity.ca/blog/pr_mature_minors/

The above progressive advocacy group for assisted suicide thinks it’s not fair that just adults get to legally kill themselves. Think of all the young’ns who also might have horrible diseases, or disabilities, or sad feelings. What about the children?!

“DWDC (Dying With Dignity Canada) acknowledges that Canadian society will likely expect a minimum age for mature minors in the legislation, even though the emphasis at common law is on capacity and maturity and not chronological age. For this reason, DWDC asks that Parliament amend the existing age requirement of 18 years of age to extend it to persons: “at least 12 years of age and capable of making decisions with respect to their health.” As with adults, there should be a presumption of capacity for these minors.”

Remember being 12? How mature were you, really?? Mature enough to call it GG at that point? These people think so.

But wait, it gets worse:

https://globalnews.ca/news/3826108/assisted-death-canada-children/

Why stop at 12 when human suffering is human suffering. And humans start a lot younger than that.

Thirty-five pediatricians said they had “exploratory discussions” with a total of 60 patients under the age of 18 in the preceding year. Nine pediatricians received “explicit requests” for assisted death from a total of 17 minors.

Another 118 pediatricians said they had exploratory discussions about assisted death with the parents of sick children, involving 419 kids in all.

Forty-five respondents said they had received explicit requests for assisted death from parents, involving a total of 91 children. More than half of the requests involved a child under a year old.

Where Is This Heading?

I’m no soothsayer, nor do I have the capacity to divine a particular outcome, but I’ve seen this story in enough progressive tales before to know it’s not going to stop once it gets progressing.

If I had to wager a guess, based off what I’ve learned about normalization of highly abnormal things within a society, the progression will look something like this:

Normalization:

1. The idea of medical suicide is accepted

2. The age restrictions drop

3. Reasons for its use blur and expand

4. Sole individual consent, without a guardian, is the norm

And if you want somewhat of a comical, but maybe all too possible future, leave it to my man Fry from the 2000s series Futurama:

---

I’ve started an account with “Buy Me a Coffee”!

Buy Me a Coffee is a platform that allows fans and supporters of content like this to send some loose change to their favorite content creators. Basically saying “Thanks for what you do, have a coffee on me.”.

Clearly, they don’t send me actual coffee, but if you feel the urge, the link below makes it extremely easy to casually send $5 my way as a thanks.

Every penny is deeply appreciated by me and my family, and god bless everyone who has the means and inclination to do so! (click the image below)

~ Drew Weatherhead

Listen to the full podcast episode below:

The Social Disorder Podcast: MAid in Canada - Legal Euthanasia