> The process is "cruel and unusual" when it's done to criminals but the same process is fine when you request it.
Because consent matters.
Many things work this way, they're wonderful or useful or helpful when you request/consent to it, but are despicably evil when done against your will.
Children are incapable of consent. In the same way, people who are having big mental burdens are not capable of consenting to this. It’s a system as ripe for abuse as allowing children to consent to sex.
I’ve had my dark moments, but I learned to deal and I’m sooo glad I didn’t end it.
You know, you always hear about people who survive a suicide attempt often find out after they’ve jumped that they really didn’t want to die! It’s an irreversible choice, and something about realizing that changes people.
>You know, you always hear about people who survive a suicide attempt often find out after they’ve jumped that they really didn’t want to die
You don't just walk into a building and say "I would like to die please" and then get assistance on the spot.
The two people I know who chose assisted death both had to go through various evaluations (over a period of several months) to determine that they thoroughly understood the decision they were making and that they had the mental capacity to make the decision.
The comparison to a child 'consenting' to sex is completely nonsensical.
Of course that’s not how it works. People will doctor shop. If one doctor rejects them, they go to the next and learn the right things to say to get the doctor to say yes. It’s just ripe for abuse.
What they really need is help, not death.
Someone who is determined enough to go through several years of doctor shopping to kill themselves will find a way to kill themselves whether there are assisted death programs or not.
I agree that those (hypothetical) people need help. Though, to be honest, I'm not really convinced this is a real issue. Some of these programs have been around for multiple decades, and I've not seen any evidence that there is a pattern of abuse. Let alone the programs being apparently "ripe for abuse".
Disallowing assisted death programs is not help, though. It is a punishment to people who deserve a death of dignity instead of months or years of unbearable suffering.
If abuse of the medical system is a concern of yours, I feel like a much more prominent cause ( millions more preventable deaths) worth fighting is over-prescription of opiates. That's just my opinion, though. (And, for all I know, you're already fighting that fight too. If so, godspeed)
You are sharing an important perspective. 1 in 20 people die from assisted suicide in Canada today. You can't tell me the process is sound every time. That's a huge number.
It's false dignity, and false compassion. Dignity does not come from control over one's life, and it does not come from the absence of suffering. Dignity comes from being made in the image and likeness of God. If anyone reading does not agree, well, that's fine, but I feel compelled to say it that someone might read it.
How many people will we lose to despair that could have been helped? I say this both as a Catholic and someone that has suffered and recovered from mental illness.
MAiD is not available for people whose only condition is a mental illness [1]. I'm saying this not for you but for anyone who may read this, particularly non-Canadians. It's not about "despair".
[1] https://www.camh.ca/en/camh-news-and-stories/maid-and-mental...
Yes that is the official stance. I do not believe that is being followed on the ground and is in any case a temporary condition. In 2027 it will be officially available with only a mental health issue.
I had a lot to say to this comment. I think your comment is gross. But it will just end up in a debate about god, so I'm editing it out.
However:
>How many people will we lose to despair that could have been helped?
Assisted death is not something reserved for mental illness, and it's dishonest to frame your comment like it is. Terminal, painful diseases are the leading reason for assisted death. In fact, many assisted death programs do not consider mental illness alone to meet the criteria of acceptance.
The whole point of these programs is that there is no other help possible. Except, maybe, enough drugs to make the person basically dead anyways. Which, in my opinion, is not "help".
I'm leaving my other comment despite your edits, as I believe it represents an answer to an important question.
Nothing in my comments is dependent on assisted suicide being available or not for any purpose or another. I am arguing against it in all cases to be clear.
>I am arguing against it in all cases to be clear.
Yes, reading your other comment, I now understand that you truly believe that suffering is a good thing and that, if you had it your way, my father would have had to be bedridden, in extreme agony, for several more months than he had already suffered. A cruelty beyond imagination.
We will never, ever agree on this, so I wish you a good day.
This is an age-old question. All I can do is share the Catholic perspective on this which you may or may not like or agree with.
God allows suffering to bring about a greater good, His plan. He endows us also with free will, which sometimes means we make choices that cause suffering for ourselves or others. Free will doesn't mean all or even most suffering in a given life is because of our choices. Sometimes it is though.
Satan's playbook is all about denying these things, denying the cross, denying redemption. Satan is the one whispering that life isn't worth it, that it would be easier to end it, come down from the cross.
For a even better discussion of these things, I always recommend Life is Worth Living which is an old program hosted by Bishop Fulton Sheen. It is as relevant today as it was when he recorded it. Many of the episodes are on YouTube.
EDIT: many seem to be taking this as an anti-painkiller stance which it is not. Reducing pain until natural death is a great kindness.
I think that’s an entirely reasonable stance to take if I can reframe my anguish as in the case where I’ve been dumped and am feeling sad. But if my heart is dying and my life can only be prolonged through great and endless suffering, I think choosing death is entirely reasonable, and demanding that someone live a few more miserable weeks is cruel. And I don’t think those parables about Satan considered the difference between those two situations. What lesson is there to absorb to become a better person?
If tomorrow I invented a machine that could keep us all alive indefinitely but also required us to be immobile and in great pain, who would choose that outcome?
Not against reducing pain for terminal patients - I made an edit above because it seems I was unclear on this point.
Many of us don't believe in god, Catholic or otherwise, and so we shouldn't have this point of view enforced upon us.