A quadriplegic, Quebec man opted for medical assistance in dying (MAID) in 2024 after developing severe bedsores at a hospital. In a report released this November, Quebec’s coroner concluded the man had not received appropriate medical care, which ultimately led to his request for MAID.
The case is the latest example of how MAID is often easier for disabled Canadians to access than appropriate care and supports.
Dec. 3 is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. It’s a day focused on disability inclusion in all aspects of social, economic, cultural and political life. Such a day is an opportunity to consider how Canada’s health-care system often devalues persons with disabilities and must do better.
In 2021, Parliament expanded MAID eligibility to include Canadians with disabilities whose deaths are not “reasonably foreseeable.” This change has meant Canadians with grievous and irremediable medical conditions who endure subjective suffering may receive MAID even if they have years or decades to live.
Disabled persons’ eligibility for MAID has dramatically changed their interactions with the health-care system, Inclusion Canada CEO Krista Carr explained to a parliamentary committee on Oct. 8.
“People with disabilities are now very much afraid in many circumstances to show up in the health-care system with regular health concerns because often MAID is suggested as a solution to what is considered to be intolerable suffering,” she said in her testimony. Carr says her organization, which represents Canadians with intellectual disabilities, hears from Canadians with disabilities on a weekly basis who were proactively offered MAID when seeking other services.
Other such stories have emerged in the media. These include stories of veterans being offered MAID instead of necessary services, or a woman in Nova Scotia being asked if she knew about MAID before going in for surgery. Similarly, a woman in B.C. was offered MAID after going to the hospital with suicidal thoughts, looking for help. More such cases will likely occur if Canada moves forward with expanding MAID to people with mental illness in March 2027.
If a health-care provider brings up euthanasia, the patient may feel pressured to consider it or to think that their suffering will be intolerable and that death may be the only way out. Merely raising MAID can be taken as an implied recommendation to consider it.
Multiple members of Parliament recently tabled petitions that claim MAID devalues the lives of those with disabilities and reduces incentives to improve treatment and care. Instead, MAID is presented as a “solution” to suffering. Canadians, through this petition, call on the government to “protect all Canadians whose natural death is not reasonably foreseeable by prohibiting medical assistance in dying for those whose prognosis for natural death is more than six months.”
In other words, stop euthanizing Canadians with disabilities and chronic illnesses and start taking proper care of them.
This call reflects recommendations earlier this year from the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The UN committee recommends repealing what’s known as Track 2 MAID, which is MAID for all individuals whose deaths are not reasonably foreseeable. The UN committee also urged against the further expansion of MAID to mental illness or through advance requests.
The UN committee cited evidence indicating Track 2 is disproportionately accessed by women with disabilities and persons with disabilities in marginalized situations. The UN committee also highlighted that the concept of “choice” for persons with disabilities is misleading if they are not provided the means to live dignified lives.
Though such problems are regularly raised by Canada’s disability community, international jurisdictions and others, the federal government has largely ignored these concerns.
Instead, euthanasia is still scheduled to be expanded in 2027 to permit Canadians with mental illness as their only condition to be eligible for MAID. The government has also indicated it may be considering permitting MAID by advance requests.
Rather than supporting further expansion, our government needs to closely examine Canada’s MAID laws and focus on caring for those who are suffering, rather than offering to end their lives.
I’m looking forward to the “advance requests”! I’m 80 now, and relatively healthy, but strokes happen to people without warning leaving them in a state of helpless, BORING dependency. Let us handle this ahead of time!