Canada has now put on the docket a new bill letting terminally ill kids end their own lives through assisted suicide, spawning extreme outrage from international critics who labeled the new plan as “horrible.”
This past month, a committee from the Canadian parliament put forth the recommendation that “mature minors” should be given the power to euthanize themselves, even against parental consent, via the nation’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) program so long as the kid’s deaths are “reasonably foreseeable.”
The government of Canada should “amend the eligibility criteria for MAID set out in the Criminal Code to include minors deemed to have the requisite decision-making capacity upon assessment,” explained the much-awaited report issued by the Special Joint Committee on MAiD.
Parents are required to be consulted throughout the assessment for their children’s assited suicide, but the “will of the minor” will “ultimately take priority,” explained the reccommendation of the recent report.
The House of Commons is slated to discuss the report over the course of the next few months.
The law could end up being changed as soon as this year to fully include disabled and terminally sick children.
In the meanwhile, a number of critics are heavily criticizing the new proposal.
“I think it’s horrible,” expressed Amy Hasbrouck of the anti-MAiD group Not Dead Yet, reported The Daily Mail.
“Teenagers are not in a good position to judge whether to commit suicide or not,” she went on. “Any teenagers with a disability, who’s constantly told their life is useless and pitiful, will be depressed, and of course they’re going to want to die.”
A different advocate stated that Canada has been traveling down a “slippery slope” leading to rampant assisted suicide ever since 2016, the year that particular law came into effect.
“We said we were going to have safeguards and guardrails, but the next government can simply open it up further by making a decision — and that’s exactly what’s happening,” stated the executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, Alex Schadenberg”
Close to 10,000 adults elected to end their own lives back in 2021 via the MAiD program, according to the health department of Canada. That number has increased year over year since the program’s inception when just about 1,000 people utilized the program to commit suicide.
Conservative committee members openly dissented in the report, stating that they do not stand for minors being allowed to make such a massive choice. One of the largest issues is the “decision-making capacity” of kids, whos brains have not yet been fully developed, not to mention the practical challenges that comes with assessing a child’s maturity.
“So long as these issues remain unresolved, it would be irresponsible for the Liberal government to move ahead with any expansion of MAID for mature minors,” stated the Conservative members of the panel. “Minors are a uniquely vulnerable group, having regard for their level of cognitive development.”
