Perhaps the reader might wish to hear a rendition, in their mind’s eye, of Schubert’s Death and the Maiden while reading this report.
On Oct. 16, Associated Press published an article: “Private Forums Show Canadian Doctors Struggle with Euthanizing Vulnerable Patients.” It states that “Canada has the world’s fastest-growing program for euthanasia.... Canada broadened its law in 2021 to allow people with incurable, but not terminal, conditions—including disability alone—to seek a way to die. This vastly expanded the number of people eligible.... Poverty and homelessness are two of the major reasons why people seek Medical Assistance in Dying, or MAiD. In 2023, three-quarters of the people euthanized in Ontario, when their death wasn’t imminent, were on disability support, according to the province’s chief coroner, Dirk Huyer. Of people killed in Ontario, when they weren’t terminally ill, nearly 29% lived in the poorest parts of the province.”
Though government officials insist that applying euthanasia for financial reasons is strictly forbidden, doctors and other medical professionals have expressed dismay over exactly this. In open fora, they cited examples of:
• An injured worker, who said that lack of government financial support for disabilities, left him “with no choice but to pursue MAiD.” His doctor said that he met the criteria.
• A man who was euthanized after rejecting the degrading prospect of a nursing home.
• A woman with severe obesity who described herself as a “useless body taking up space” and said she had “no purpose.” One physician reasoned that euthanasia was warranted in her case, because obesity is “a medical condition which is indeed grievous and irremediable.”
