Joanne of Arc's blog

By Joanne of Arc for Quebec Life Coalition— Photo : Unsplash.com

QUEBEC - 2023 has been declared the year of "assisted suicide" by Quebec media. 

"Are we about to take the step from medical assisted dying to assisted suicide as if it were the normal order of things?" asks Le Journal de Québec in an article titled "Make way for the year of assisted suicide" by Emmanuelle Latraverse. 

Starting March 2023, patients with mental illness will be able to apply for "MAID" across Canada and changes to bill 38 that are scheduled to take place this year would possibly allow patients with Alzheimer to apply for "MAID" in advance in the province of Quebec. 

"In 2023, we will be living in the land of assisted suicide" reports Latraverse. 

Even though "The College of Physicians promises that it will be able to establish guidelines to avoid abuses" according to Le Journal de Québec, this "new normal" is not accepted by everyone in Quebec.

Physicians Against Euthanasia have been expressing their concerns to the College of Physicians in an open letter, but it has yet to receive a response according to the latest news announced in December 2022 on their blog. 

Another group of doctors demonstrated their resistance in Ontario:

"Physicians Together with Vulnerable Canadians is advocating in Ontario to improve patient protections and promote physicians' conscience rights," reports the Physicians' Collective Against Euthanasia newsletter. 

The Physicians against euthanasia says that requests for euthanasia are increasingly revealing reasons that previously would not qualify, such as poverty or lack of medical and social support.

Instead of curing illness, the health care system is learning to devalue the lives of people with disabilities and is encouraging doctors and health care staff to offer this procedure to people who might not otherwise consider it.

Many cases of patients who have requested euthanasia in Canada demonstrate a real problem with the health care system.

Here are a few cases to illustrate the point above: 

• Alan Nichols (Toronto) a man who had depression and other minor conditions that were not life threatening ended up being euthanized
• Jennyfer Hatch (Vancouver) a woman who was part of the Simon's euthanasia campaign. She had a chronic illness, but wanted to live according to her friends, had she access to a better health care system
• Jacques Commeau (Montreal) a man who requested euthanasia because of the shortcomings of the health care system, but cancelled his request
• Joannie Cowie and Les Landry (Ontario) who requested euthanasia due to disability and poverty 
• Donna Duncan (British Columbia) whose death by euthanasia triggered a police investigation 
• Sathya Dhara Kovac (Winnipeg) who blames the system for her euthanasia decision
• Amir Farsoud (Ontario) who applied for euthanasia to avoid homelessness
• Rod McNeill (Ontario) whose daughter disputes whether her father Rod wanted to be euthanized after only one month in the Ontario hospital for a condition his autopsy revealed he did not have
• Roger Foley a man who was refused health care and was proposed euthanasia by his doctors instead
• Kiano Vafaeian (Toronto) a 23 year old man with depression, diabetes and vision loss in one eye applied to be euthanized without telling his mother
• A Canadian Forces veteran seeking treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury was unexpectedly and casually offered medical aid in dying

"Tim Stainton, director of the Canadian Institute for Inclusion and Citizenship at the University of British Columbia, described the Canadian law as 'probably the biggest existential threat to people with disabilities since the Nazi program in Germany in the 1930s.' " reports AP News.