With the discussion of whether assisted dying should be allowed in Scotland befing brought up again, I was wondering what other people thought of the topic.
Do you think people should be allowed to choose when to end their own life?
What laws need to be put into place to prevent abuses in the system?
How do we account for people changing their mind or mental decline causing people to no longer be able to consent to a procedure they previously requested?
We have that in Canada. I think dying with dignity is important and why suffer in agony when you can plan it out if you’re terminally ill?
But it made Canada show how poor its social supports are for this guy: https://ottawa.citynews.ca/2022/10/14/ontario-man-applying-for-medically-assisted-death-as-alternative-to-being-homeless-5953116/
When this news broke everyone came out of the woodwork to help him and he is no longer applying for MAID.
My coworker’s husband has end stage COPD and has been in and out of hospital a lot lately. She says she felt pushed for him to accept MAID, but they didn’t and he is doing somewhat better now. It’s temporary obviously but I also understand not wanting to lose him. There have been other stories where some people feel the decision was made irresponsibly, this is a good article about it: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/06/22/the-death-treatment
I don’t know what I think about MAID for mental health conditions. Not that I don’t think they are debilitating, but I wonder how sound of mind someone who is suffering so much is in. I really don’t know the answer to that.