When people with disabilities are not provided adequate healthcare, palliative care, long term services and supports, or hospice, but rather are encouraged to consider assisted suicide, it is communicated that they would be better off dead than disabled.
This is especially exemplified in an article about physicians in Canada, where the country “is using assisted suicide as a way of trying to ‘handle’ those with chronic, expensive medical issues that require extensive treatment.”
It is unacceptable to make assisted suicide affordable to those who have degenerative brain disorders, mental illness, or other disabilities while making it difficult or impossible for them to afford the care they need. That’s not autonomy, that’s steering.
“According to the Associated Press, hospitals are raising the possibility of assisted suicide with patients who hadn’t asked about it. These conversations are not motivated by quality of life but health care costs.” The reason healthcare providers in Canada are baselessly suggesting assisted suicide is to save money.