There is no justification for euthanising the vulnerable

Perhaps I should be pleased that a prediction I made some years ago is coming true. Instead, I am horrified. I argued that legalising assisted suicide and / or euthanasia, far from liberating people to decide their own destinies, would reduce their autonomy. Indeed, it would promote the deaths of some vulnerable people while eroding individual freedoms, like the right to refuse medical treatment. Now a recent article in the Journal of Medical Ethics (JME), which has garnered a great deal of attention in the Canadian press, demonstrates my point all too well.

The article in question, written by two bioethicists at the University of Toronto – Kayla Wiebe, a PhD candidate in philosophy, and Amy Mullin, a bioethicist and professor of philosophy – tries to defend Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID), Canada’s now notorious euthanasia programme. (Euthanasia is the apt term, given that more than 99 per cent of Canada’s MAID deaths are by euthanasia administered by medical personnel, rather than by assisted suicide, which is initiated by the individual concerned.)

The article tries to respond to the widespread criticism that Canada is ‘euthanising its poor’. MAID is currently made available to anyone with a condition or disability that they believe ‘cannot be relieved under conditions that they consider acceptable’. In practice, this has led many people who are poor and helpless to seek an assisted death as a means of escaping their problems. In 2024, the eligibility criteria for MAID will be expanded further to include people who suffer from mental-health problems alone.

Read here