Canada doesn’t need a shortcut to medically assisted dying for people with disabling conditions

Parliament appears poised to rush through the Government of Canada’s proposed Bill C-7—amendments to the medical assistance in dying (MAID) legislation. Most sweeping among these is the introduction of a separate track that permits MAID to people with disabling conditions, other than mental health issues, who are not otherwise nearing the end of their lives. We need to ask why, and who’s next? Canada’s current MAID regime makes an assisted death available to anyone whose natural death is reasonably foreseeable. When the federal government first introduced the MAID legislation in 2016, it said this fundamental safeguard was necessary, because “to permit it in circumstances where a person is not approaching natural death could be seen as undermining suicide prevention initiatives and normalizing death as a solution to many forms of suffering.” We agree. The end-of-life requirement represents a careful balancing of individual autonomy rights and broader rights to equality for all persons and social groups. Removing this requirement changes the very nature of the intervention. What compels the government to now sweep away this safeguard with such ease? A lower court judgment struck it down in 2019. Yet, in an unprecedented move for court decisions affecting the Criminal Code, the federal government has so far refused to appeal or refer that decision to the Supreme Court of Canada. It has dismissed concerns from legal experts about the judgment’s reasoning along with widespread pleas from the disability community and hundreds of physicians for the Supreme Court of Canada to weigh in. It’s time for the government to hit pause on Bill C-7 and heed the cautions. If the government’s proposed amendments become law, no longer will MAID be limited to persons who are dying. One Charter-protected group, adults with disabling medical conditions, will be able to access MAID at any stage in life, provided that they find the conditions of their life intolerable. Yet, as critics have noted, people with disabilities are already turning to MAID—not because of their disability itself, but because of suffering from unconscionable social and economic deprivation as a result of their disability. These are factors that all levels of government can and should address with almost immediate positive outcomes. Many other Canadians also suffer greatly from the grievous conditions of their lives. The hugely disproportionate suicide rates of Indigenous persons, of members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community, of people who are homeless, tell painful stories of enduring and intolerable suffering. Woven into them, all too commonly, are colonial legacies, racism, genocide, discrimination, pervasive queerphobia, gender- and minority-based violence, and failed, or absent, income security and social support policies. These stories shame us all. But we work together as a country, step by step, policy by policy, to try to right the wrongs. We need to do the same for persons with disabilities. In the original decision in Carter v. Canada striking down the prohibition on assisted suicide, the B.C. trial judge justified her decision based in part on expert testimony that in end-of-life situations, the decision of a terminally ill person to hasten their death can be “well reasoned” and not suicidal. Her finding was clearly limited to end-of-life situations. Claiming now that it can be just as “well reasoned” for people with disabling conditions to choose MAID when they are suffering but not dying is a dangerous and faulty leap of logic. Are the suicidal decisions of other Charter-protected groups, such as Indigenous persons and members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community who endure intolerable suffering, also considered well-reasoned by our federal leaders? People with disabilities have been told it would be “patronizing” to refuse access to MAID for those who are not dying. To do so would violate their right to autonomy. So, will the government next “respect” the autonomy rights of people in these other groups? Rightly, and without hesitation, we override the autonomy rights of homeless, Indigenous, and 2SLGBTQ+ persons who are not living with disability, illness, or disease but who seek a premature death when their suffering becomes intolerable. We create policies and programs to help them live robustly instead. But in the case of persons with disabilities, the government suggests we should look into their eyes and say, “You’re right, people like you do have a good reason to die and we are going to help you make it happen.” Michael Bach, PhD., is managing director, IRIS, at the Institute for Research and Development on Inclusion and Society, and adjunct professor, disability studies, at Ryerson University. Neil Belanger is the executive director of the British Columbia Aboriginal Network on Disability Society (BCANDS). Catherine Frazee is a professor emerita at Ryerson University's School of Disability Studies and advisor to the Vulnerable Persons Standard. The Hill Times

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Canada doesn’t need a shortcut to medically assisted dying for people with disabling conditions

It’s time for the government to hit pause on Bill C-7 and heed the cautions.

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