Assisted Suicide for Girl With Autism and ADHD?

I have always understood and sympathized with the argument for assisted suicide for people facing terminal disease near the end of life.

I think hospice care is the appropriate path, but most people can at least understand the impulse to ease the path for a suffering loved one.

But I have also feared that the slippery slope would lead us to this point: assisted suicide for anyone at any time for any reason. And, eventually, outright medical murder, as happens in some Nordic countries where doctors sometimes decide for patients without consent.

Canada is at the second stage after legalizing assisted suicide for terminally ill patients near the end of life in 2015. Since that time, so-called “Medical Assistance in Dying” has rocketed to become the 5th-leading cause of death in the Great White North.

Considering the zeal by which some MAID providers glorify MAiD as a universal solution for ‘suffering’, we ought to be deeply deeply concerned by this judgment #euthanasia #maid https://t.co/lbdRDr5r1t

— Trudo Lemmens (@TrudoLemmens) March 25, 2024

The death toll is going to rise ever faster as the rules become looser. Mental illness was going to be added to the list of acceptable reasons to kill yourself, and there are lots of cases where the government has suggested that people with disabilities or PTSD off themselves. Actually suggested to them that they should kill themselves rather than get help.

A new court ruling–stayed for the moment but likely to be upheld–has approved a request for MAID made by a woman whose only diagnoses are autism and ADHD.

Autism and ADHD.

A Calgary judge has issued a ruling that clears the way for a 27-year-old woman to receive medical assistance in dying (MAID) despite her father’s attempts through the courts to prevent that from happening.

A publication ban protects the identities of the parties and the medical professionals. CBC News will identify the daughter as M.V. and the father as W.V.

While Justice Colin Feasby acknowledged the “profound grief” that W.V. would suffer with the death of his child, he ruled the loss of M.V.’s autonomy was more important.

“M.V.’s dignity and right to self-determination outweighs the important matters raised by W.V. and the harm that he will suffer in losing M.V.,” wrote Feasby in his 34-page written decision issued Monday.

“Though I find that W.V. has raised serious issues, I conclude that M.V.’s autonomy and dignity interests outweigh competing considerations.”

It turns out that in Canada, the only requirement for getting MAID is two doctors’ signatures, and doctor shopping is a thing. If you find the right ghouls, you are in like Flynn. The eligibility requirements, which are applied very loosely, are:

The revised 2021 law modified MAID eligibility criteria in response to the Superior Court of Québec’s 2019 Truchon decision. The Superior Court found the “reasonable foreseeability of natural death” eligibility criterion in the Criminal Code, as well as the “end-of-life” criterion from Québec’s Act Respecting End-of-Life Care, to be unconstitutional.

The law no longer requires a person’s natural death to be reasonably foreseeable as an eligibility criterion for MAID.

As of March 17, 2021, persons who wish to receive MAID must meet the following eligibility criteria:

be 18 years of age or older and have decision-making capacity

be eligible for publicly funded health care services

make a voluntary request that is not the result of external pressure

give informed consent to receive MAID, meaning that the person has consented to receiving MAID after they have received all information needed to make this decision

have a serious and incurable illness, disease or disability (excluding a mental illness until March 17, 2024)

be in an advanced state of irreversible decline in capability

have enduring and intolerable physical or psychological suffering that cannot be alleviated under conditions the person considers acceptable

Autism and ADHD apparently qualify under these rules, which leads one to wonder what doesn’t.

Mental illness was scheduled to be added to the criteria, but after a major outcry, the inclusion has been delayed for three years. We’ll see what happens then, although if autism and ADHD are eligible, it’s hard to see why crippling depression wouldn’t be.

Suicidality used to be seen as a mental illness itself and is treatable, unlike terminal cancer or other terminal diseases. “Harm to self or others” is generally seen as criteria for commitment and treatment, not assistance from the government in carrying them out.

‘She is generally healthy’

But W.V. believes his daughter “is vulnerable and is not competent to make the decision to take her own life,” according to Feasby’s summary of the father’s position.

“He says that she is generally healthy and believes that her physical symptoms, to the extent that she has any, result from undiagnosed psychological conditions.”

Her only known diagnoses described in court earlier this month are autism and ADHD.

On March 11, when M.V.’s lawyers asked the judge to set aside the interim injunction, W.V.’s counsel asked for the injunction to continue and for a judicial review to be ordered that would examine how the daughter obtained MAID approval.

‘Tie-breaker’ doctor

Currently, two doctors or nurse practitioners have to approve a patient for MAID.

Feasby heard that two doctors were initially approached by M.V. One agreed to sign off on approving her for MAID, the other denied the application.

A third “tie-breaker” doctor, as described by lawyers for Alberta Health Services, was then offered to M.V.

Her father took issue with the third doctor who signed off on M.V.’s MAID approval “because he was not independent or objective.”

At the March 11 hearing, Sarah Miller, counsel for the father, called the situation “a novel issue for Alberta” because the province operates a system where there is no appeal process and no means of reviewing a person’s MAID approval.

No matter your opinion on assisted suicide for the terminally ill, I would hope that most civilized people would show enough compassion to help a person who simply needs counseling and assistance to live a fulfilling life. Having known people who have been suicidal in the past, I have seen how extending a helping hand and medical care can return a person to mental health and happiness.

Euthanizing people at the first opportunity is barbaric, and whatever they say the Canadian government has an interest in offing people who need help. It saves money.

Good God. From @CBC: ‘Medically assisted deaths could save millions in health care spending: Report.’ https://t.co/SgczbhhIiJ

— Byron York (@ByronYork) September 3, 2022