Man with long COVID seeks MAID
A Montreal man with long Covid is trying to get permission for medical assistance in dying.
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Kate
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Ephraim 10:32 on 2024-08-15 Permalink
The article is thought-provoking but raises a complex question: Should society have a say in prolonging someone’s suffering based on our valuation of life? This echoes the abortion debate: Do we possess the right to dictate the continuation of a life marked by suffering due to our perception of its worth, or should that decision ultimately rest with the individual?
MarcG 10:41 on 2024-08-15 Permalink
Should society have a role in reducing someone’s suffering? People wouldn’t choose to die if there were better supports in place. This person wants to die because we’ve failed them twice (not doing our best to prevent them from becoming ill in the first place and then abandoning them afterwards).
MarcG 10:48 on 2024-08-15 Permalink
A large percentage of abortions happen because the family can’t afford the child, so those deaths are the result of an unjust economy. “Freedom to choose” is great but not always what it seems when you look at the bigger picture.
Kate 11:21 on 2024-08-15 Permalink
MarcG, is that a fact? I would’ve expected more abortions to happen because the woman had sex with someone casual or unsuitable, and decided she didn’t want her life upended by a child that resulted. And of course there are some abortions because a woman gets raped. I didn’t think of abortion as predominantly a family decision but I don’t know the statistics.
MarcG 11:38 on 2024-08-15 Permalink
I did some quick Googling before making that statement and there seems to be consensus that it’s a major reason, e.g. https://www.arcc-cdac.ca/media/position-papers/26-Why-Do-Women-Have-Abortions.pdf
jeather 11:52 on 2024-08-15 Permalink
I think the article is tragic. I think some people would choose to die no matter what supports were in place, but many times the lack of support is a last straw.
Curious where stats are for Canadian abortion reasons — I found one in an anti-abortion website, which isn’t exactly trustworthy. But I also wouldn’t call abortion a “death” either.
MarcG 11:54 on 2024-08-15 Permalink
I didn’t realize the implications of using the word ‘death’ to refer to an abortion. I’m not pro-life.
MarcG 11:56 on 2024-08-15 Permalink
Err, ‘anti-abortion’, just realized ‘pro-life’ is a euphemism. Today is for learning.
Ian 12:29 on 2024-08-15 Permalink
My Mum always corrects people to “pro-choice/ anti-choice”.
Ephraim 12:45 on 2024-08-15 Permalink
But as with abortion, this should be more of a personal choice that is guided. I don’t know if I have a right to tell anyone what they can and can’t do with their body… the same way I can’t tell someone who they can and can’t love or can or can’t vote for. I think voting for Maxime Bernier is stupid and should automatically require the ministry of education to rethink your high school leaving certificate, but do I have a right to tell you to not vote for him?
MarcG 13:09 on 2024-08-15 Permalink
I’m not debating the freedom to choose, I’m suggesting that we consider what motivates decisions and what limits the scope of choices. You phrased the original question as “Should society have a say in prolonging someone’s suffering?” and I’m trying to point out that it is society itself that is choosing to make their suffering worse. If I punch someone in the mouth and take away their dental insurance – are they really choosing to walk around with busted teeth?
Joey 13:28 on 2024-08-15 Permalink
What a sad story. What’s the best case scenario? They place him in a long-term care home and hope that treatments emerge in the coming years to at least stop the bleeding, so to speak? Even that seems like a stretch as the ‘system’ won’t even support his most basic needs. As someone in the same age category, I can’t imagine being bedridden, relying on elderly parents and teenage kids to feed and clean me; I also can’t fathom living out what could be many years in one of our CHSLDs.
Ephraim 19:13 on 2024-08-15 Permalink
@MarcG – Society can’t afford to cover every need of every person with on consideration of the cost of society. The Americans showed us that with their want of trying to imprison everyone. But if the man is suffering, there should be people there for him to discuss this with and it shouldn’t be in the public at all. We don’t have a right to know. The same as we don’t have a right to know who chooses abortion and for what reason and we don’t have a right to know who chooses gender reassignment surgery. We have to trust that the system has the social workers and psychologists along with special system access in order to help these people either find the help that they need or find the end that they want. At some point, we may all be Sol Roth and wanting to go when we want to go.
Chris 20:25 on 2024-08-15 Permalink
>But I also wouldn’t call abortion a “death” either.
“Death” is quite correct. The foetus is alive. Fruit flies are alive too. Both can die, both can be killed. When something dies, it’s called “death”. (This is not a pro- nor anti-abortion argument.)
Ian 13:07 on 2024-08-16 Permalink
Again, you are lacking nuance and making false equivalencies. Until a foetus is viable it is not considered “alive” any more than an early term miscarriage. This is not the same thing as a fruit fly being alive, at all.
jeather 13:52 on 2024-08-16 Permalink
We don’t have a “right” to know about which people with what diseases want MAID, but certainly those people have a right to choose not to keep that info private — Verret has clearly been involved in getting his story out and wants us to know that the system doesn’t have the people or support available to find the help that they need.
Whether or not death is scientifically accurate wrt abortion (I don’t think there is an unambiguous answer), it has strong political implications that I think are inaccurate.
EmilyG 12:58 on 2024-08-17 Permalink
Not necessarily the case in the article, but – It makes me sad that people are choosing MAID because of mental illnesses, and/or a lack of housing.
I myself am depressed and autistic (I don’t think autism is a bad thing, but our society is very unfriendly to autistic people.) I can’t get help for that. I also can’t find housing. I think it’s terrible that people in situations like that are choosing MAID – but at the same time, I plan to talk to my doctor about it at our next appointment.