Assisted Dying and Euthanasia

International News

Better Off Dead? References on assisted dying around the world. (Open University)

Back to contents.

Netherlands

Cathelijne Verboeket-Crul wants the end of life to be more bearable. (In Dutch, Jun, NRC)

Dutch woman, 29, granted euthanasia approval on grounds of mental suffering “Zoraya ter Beek, who has chronic depression, anxiety, trauma and unspecified personality disorder, expected to end her life soon” (May, the Guardian)

Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide in people with intellectual disabilities and/or autism spectrum disorders: investigation of 39 Dutch case reports (2012–2021). “Reasons for the EAS request included social isolation and loneliness (77%), lack of resilience or coping strategies (56%), lack of flexibility (rigid thinking or difficulty adapting to change) (44%) and oversensitivity to stimuli (26%).” (2023, BJPsych Open)

Back to contents.

United Kingdom

‘I’m fighting for the right to live’: Liz Carr on acting, friendship and her campaign against assisted dying. (May, the Guardian)

Liz Carr says assisted dying would pose a threat to disabled people - is she right? Disabled academic Tom Shakespeare counters that the UK discussion is limited to those that are terminally ill. “Assisted dying allows them control over the manner and timing of their death.” (May, Express)

Back to contents.

Canada

Canadians with disabilities remain locked in ‘legislated poverty,’ and many want to die. (Jun, Ricochet)

Father of Calgary woman starving herself to death abandons court fight 14 days after she stopped eating and drinking. (Jun, CBC)

The Canadian State Is Euthanizing Its Poor and Disabled

“Canada boasts one of the world’s highest assisted-death rates, supposedly enabling the terminally ill to die with dignity. However, this suicide program increasingly resembles a dystopian replacement for care services, exchanging social welfare for euthanasia.” (May, Jacobin)

New Canadian Bill Would Kill More Disabled Patients in Euthanasia “Amending Canada’s federal euthanasia law based on Bill C-390 would expand euthanasia enabling it to be decided by an advanced request, by causing federal legislation to be changed when a Province changes it’s provincial legislation.” (May, LifeNews)

The people lifting the lid on Canada's euthanasia regime. (May, Gript)

Why are 15 times more Canadians than Californians choosing assisted death?

“In 2022, MAID accounted for 4.1 per cent of all deaths in Canada, compared to 0.27 per cent of all deaths in California. In the Netherlands and Belgium, which legalized assisted dying 22 years ago, 5.1 per cent of Dutch citizens and 2.5 per cent of Belgians die by MAID.” (Apr, National Post)

Quebec man chooses assisted dying after 4-day ER stay leaves horrific bedsore. "Medical assistance in dying is more easily available and on a more regular basis than some of the most basic care." (Apr, CBC)

Reality, not religion, is the reason people need MAiD-free health care “The only MAiD-free spaces left are in faith-based facilities. This is a result of vigorous lobbying by well-funded and privileged groups, and the abandonment of disabled people.” (Apr, Policy Options)

Canada’s MAID policy is facilitating death by poverty. “A 56-year-old Vancouver woman says she will die this month because British Columbia’s provincial government is refusing to cover essential health costs for her disabling illness.” (2023, Ricochet)

Ontario quadriplegic mother applies for MAID over lack of access to disability supports. (2023, Global News)

Have Assisted Dying Laws Gone Too Far? “The title of the act is ‘medical assistance in dying,’” says Virginia Duff, a disabled psychiatrist. “But these aren’t people who would otherwise be dying. We’re not just assisting them. We’re actually making it happen, which is very different.” (2023, The Walrus)

I am a MAID provider. “Canada’s MAID laws are missing fundamental safeguards for vulnerable people. That needs to change.” (2023, Maclean's)

Warnings from experts that a lack of safeguards in Medical Assistance In Dying (MAID) mean it might be suggested to people who would not have otherwise considered the procedure, and of instances where “people have sought to be killed because they weren’t getting adequate government support to live.” (2022, AP News)

Death shouldn’t always be the sentence for suffering Canadians. “As our Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) laws expand, even supporters of MAiD have become alarmed at how widely the net is being cast. [...] We have not witnessed a slippery slope in Canada, we have fallen off a cliff.” (2022, National Observer)

Reactions from activists. to Canada's supported for assisted dying. (2022, Bio Edge) One woman in her late 30s asked “If I'm not able to access health care am I then able to access death care?” (Jun, CTV News).

Back to contents.

Peru

Ana Estrada died the first woman to get euthanasia in Peru, after a years-long campaign. (In Spanish, Apr, Yo También)

Back to contents.