Canada is commonly recognized as one of the world’s most progressive nations, especially as it relates to healthcare. However, recent cases of veterans being offered assisted suicide is calling the true success of its healthcare system into question. Now, a Paralympic athlete and veteran of Canada’s military, Christine Gauthier, who desired a wheelchair lift to be installed in her home was instead offered assisted suicide in writing by Canada’s VA.
Ms. Gauthier is an athlete and a veteran who simply wanted to be provided with equipment that would help her navigate her home independently. She requested help to continue to live with dignity, yet was not offered help to live, but help to die.
A country, like Canada, that claims assisted suicide provides “dignity” at the end of life, yet does not provide adequate resources and healthcare so that the members of its society can live a dignified life is not “progressive” at all.
This appalling circumstance reveals an ugly truth: some believe that people with disabilities would be better off dead than living with their disability.
But Canada is not the only country formed by this belief. In Oregon’s annual report on their assisted suicide law, the top five reasons given by those who requested assisted suicide drugs are disability-related issues. When doctors and healthcare professionals view people with disabilities as inconveniences or burdens, it is no surprise when they suggest assisted suicide to those they believe have a lower “quality of life,” subjectively deeming their lives not worth living.
When 16% of the world’s population and 26% of Americans are living with a disability, it is imperative that discriminatory assisted suicide laws be abolished, and real care for people with disabilities be made accessible. A culture euthanizing vulnerable populations is a regressive form of modern eugenics.
Matt Vallière in the Los Angeles Times Thanks to the LA Times for sharing Matt’s letter, which strongly opposes assisted suicide laws. Read his letter to the editor below: Steve Lopez asks, “Will the option [of assisted suicide] be there for others?” To plaintiffs in the referenced lawsuit and many in the disability, older adult
Celebrating 33 Years of the ADA Today marks the 33rd anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). On this day, July 26th, 1990, the ADA was signed and enshrined civil rights protections into law for people with disabilities. Today and every ADA anniversary, the Patients’ Rights Action Fund (PRAF) celebrates the
Advocates for Assisted Suicide Begin to Fear the Case in California Proponents of assisted suicide are beginning to write articles and speak up about their worries and opposition to the case filed in California to end assisted suicide. While the initial response to this groundbreaking case was severely delayed, opinion pieces and statements of opposition
