spoiler
"... when the Canadian parliament enacted Bill C-7, a sweeping euthanasia law which repealed the ‘reasonably foreseeable’ requirement – and the requirement that the condition should be ‘terminal’. Now, as long as someone is suffering from an illness or disability which ‘cannot be relieved under conditions that you consider acceptable’, they can take advantage of what is now known euphemistically as ‘medical assistance in dying’ (MAID for short) for free.
Soon enough, Canadians from across the country discovered that although they would otherwise prefer to live, they were too poor to improve their conditions to a degree which was acceptable..."
"A woman in Ontario was forced into euthanasia because her housing benefits did not allow her to get better housing which didn’t aggravate her crippling allergies. Another disabled woman applied to die because she ‘simply cannot afford to keep on living’. Another sought euthanasia because Covid-related debt left her unable to pay for the treatment which kept her chronic pain bearable"
"When the family of a 35-year-old disabled man who resorted to euthanasia arrived at the care home where he lived, they encountered ‘urine on the floor… spots where there was feces on the floor… spots where your feet were just sticking. Like, if you stood at his bedside and when you went to walk away, your foot was literally stuck.’ According to the Canadian government, the assisted suicide law is about ‘prioritis[ing] the individual autonomy of Canadians’; one may wonder how much autonomy a disabled man lying in his own filth had in weighing death over life."
:doomjak:
Wasn't able to post this bit, due to running out of time on my break at work, but I wanted to share a little about my personal connection to this.
Prior to this bill, my stepfather (who I still consider more of a father to me than my actual father, who always prioritized the highest paying job he could find over time with my family and still bases his worth of my sister and I on how much money we make) committed suicide seemingly out of nowhere. My mom, who had always been upfront and open with me, gave me the option to read the note he left for her, partially because there was a section addressed directly to me, and partially because she didn't want me to wonder if I had been part of the reason. I couldn't make it to that section because I was so shocked that one of the reasons he stated for doing it was being unable to provide for us as much as he wanted to and seeing no other alternative than "relieving" us of the "financial burden" he saw himself as that it broke me. I was 14.
Just over a year later this bill passed, and I happened to be in an ethics class when the news broke. Our teacher had us choose our own sides debate it, and even then I could see where it was headed. The autonomy argument many of my classmates made resulted in me being sent to the office for getting into such a rage that the whole top floor could hear me yelling, and they thought it to be unreasonable because I wasn't willing to get personal enough in class to say that I knew and loved someone who probably would have opted for it in part due to financial stress. What other choice did he see himself having? How was that "autonomy"?
He literally unknowingly saved me from my own attempt when I was 13. The aftermath made me promise myself I would never go through with it no matter how bad things got. I couldn't understand back then, but I now know what it's like to weigh the finances of not existing anymore. It's a hellish low to be rationalizing suicide like that, because in a lot of cases under capitalism it's a logical conclusion you can't rationalize your way out of. I wish he hadn't felt like he had no other option. It's been nearly a decade, but I still really miss him.