Assisted Dying and Euthanasia

International News

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

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India

Differently-Abled Woman Of Balasore Seeks Odisha CM's Permission For Euthanasia. “[An accident and insufficient treatment] coupled with her disability, abject poverty and lack of support from society has made life miserable for her, she said.” (Jun, Odisha Bytes)

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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)

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United Kingdom

A group of disability rights campaigners urge MPs to back assisted dying bill, “in solidarity with terminally ill people who want to have the option of an assisted death”. (Oct, Guardian)

‘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)

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Canada

The Cautionary Tale of Canada’s Euthanasia Regime: An Interview with Alexander Raikin. “In an ordinary country, in an ordinary time, this would be considered a national crisis”. (Oct, The European Conservative)

MAiD and marginalized people: Coroner’s reports shed light on assisted death in Ontario.

“People in the lowest 20 per cent of the population with the worst housing instability made up 48.3 per cent of Track 2 MAiD recipients [those whose death is not reasonably foreseeable], compared to 34.3 per cent of Track 1 recipients [those whose death is reasonably foreseeable].” (Oct, The Conversation)

Disability advocates launch legal challenge to Canada’s law:

“The groups allege that the “track two” provision added to the law in 2021, which describes eligibility criteria for people who are suffering but not faced with imminent death, is discriminatory to people with disabilities and has resulted in premature deaths.” (Oct, BMJ)

Disabled women are more at risk for assisted suicide:

“In 2022, the overall number of MAiD deaths [was] relatively equal between men and women (51.4% and 48.6%, respectively).” But when disability became a permitted reason to access MAID, “the ratio of women to men [was] significantly skewed: 59% of those who died by MAiD were women and 41% were men.” (Sep, Live Action)

From Exceptional to Routine. Report on the Rise of Euthanasia in Canada, which has is now tied with cerebrovascular diseases as the fifth leading cause of death in Canada:

“MAiD in Canada is the world’s fastest-growing assisted-dying program.” (Aug, Cardus)

Spina bifida patient says Montreal hospital staff twice offered MAID unprompted. (Jul, CTV News)

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).

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New Zealand

Disturbing Data In Latest “Assisted Dying” Report 5% increase in assisted deaths in last twelve months and 12% of applicants had a disability:

“What is most disturbing is that one in four applicants weren’t receiving palliative care.” (Sep, Scoop)

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Peru

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

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