cover image: Disability Alliance BC Statement on MAiD and Bill C-7

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Disability Alliance BC Statement on MAiD and Bill C-7

24 Jun 2022

Disability Alliance BC Statement on MAiD and Bill C-7 0000 we are all tel 604.872.1278 connected toll Pree 1.800.663.1278 disability alliance be Disability Alliance BC Statement on Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) and Bill C-7 June 24, 2022 Disability Alliance BC (DABC) exists to support people with disabilities to live with dignity, independence, and as equal and full participants in community. [...] Allowing access to MAiD for those who do not meet the reasonably foreseeable natural death (RFND) requirement, while simultaneously failing to implement adequate safeguards, has inevitably led to people accessing MAiD because of unmet societal needs or due to ableism within the medical profession itself, and not due to the effects of medical condition(s) on the people who have them. [...] The current state of MAiD in Canada relies heavily on safeguards to strike a balance between respecting the “autonomy of individuals to choose MAiD as a means for relieving intolerable suffering” and “protecting vulnerable persons.”2 However, certain safeguards have proven grossly insufficient in their intent of protecting life. [...] When a person considers accessing MAiD, their path to a decision is “determined by the civil, social, economic and political context in which they live.”3 Lack of access to basic needs like housing, medication, care, transportation, and financial stability intensifies suffering and may push some to categorize their level of suffering as intolerable. [...] People with disabilities are being forced to choose death in the face of an ableist system that is perpetually refusing to provide the support they need to live.

Authors

Helaine Boyd

Pages
3
Published in
Canada