Who can die? Canada wrestles with euthanasia for the mentally ill

[nightwing1240]

Dr Madeline Li can recall the first patient she helped die, about one month after Canada first legalised euthanasia in 2016. "I remember just how surreal it was," she said.

A psychiatrist at Toronto's Princess Margaret Hospital, she recalled checking on her patient that day, asking if she had the right music and final meal, and if she was sure she wanted to go ahead. The patient, in her mid-60s and suffering from ovarian cancer, said she was.

Five minutes later, the woman was dead.

snip

Since 2016, Canada's medical assistance in dying programme - known by its acronym 'Maid' - has been available for adults with terminal illness. In 2021, the law was changed to include those with serious and chronic physical conditions, even if that condition was non-life threatening.

This year, it is expected to change again to include some Canadians with mental illness.

Link - https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64004329
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I was unaware of this Canadian program until just reading this and quite honestly unsure how I feel about it. People have the right to choose of course but if someone is not thinking properly due to a mental health issue, should this really be made an option?

Please share your thoughts, thank you.

[hlthe2b]

1. It really underscores the lack of efficacy for many of our mental health interventions

whether it be therapy, drug therapy, or basic diagnosis. I say "our" because the US system has the same limitations. There is so much to be learned about neurochemical and genetically induced susceptibility to mental illness-- as well as the social and environmental "inciters" that it feels like we've scarcely moved in our understanding of the most pronounced disorders. And with the denigration of education and science--as well as the politicization of medicine, it is hard to be optimistic

Euthanasia for the mentally ill is a really frightening proposition, though. It is hard to think it is an intervention for the patient, rather than a weary society.

[Phoenix61]

2. When you've tried everything...literally everything

and nothing works. Nothing makes the voices or the visions stop. Nothing stops you from descending into the abyss. Nothing stops you from flying too close to the sun just to come crashing to the earth. All of this over and over and over again. Preventing you from forming relationships or holding a job or grasping just the least little bit of happiness out of life. If, in one of those passing moments of stability someone decides they’ve had enough. They just can’t do it anymore. Peace.