Feds must reject advance requests for MAID

Recently, the federal government announced that it will launch a "national conversation" on advance requests for medical assistance in dying. An advance request would allow a person with a diagnosed condition to specify under what circumstances they would want to die in the future if they have lost the capacity to consent. This move appears to be in response to Quebec’s decision to allow advance requests as of the end of October in violation of the Criminal Code. Rather than initiate a challenge of Quebec’s law, the federal government has chosen to ignore that provinces’s defiance of criminal law and consider allowing advance requests across the country. In the Oct. 28 statement announcing the national conversation, Health Minister Mark Holland and Justice Minister Arif Virani announced Ottawa would "not be initiating a challenge” against the Quebec law. Daniel Zekveld is a policy analyst with the Association for Reformed Political Action Canada. Photograph courtesy of Daniel Zekveld A Quebec court case was the catalyst for the federal government’s expansion of medical assistance in dying (MAID) to those whose death is not reasonably foreseeable. Rather than challenging the Truchon decision which declared the "reasonable foreseeability" requirement of the law unconstitutional, the federal government simply gave in and expanded the law. But in the case of advance requests, there was not even a court decision on Quebec’s side. Instead, Quebec simply decided to violate criminal law. and the federal government appears to be giving in. The federal government declined Quebec’s requests to allow advance directives earlier this year, and they ought to continue holding firm on their refusal to expand the law once again. Let’s remind ourselves of the progression of MAID law in Canada. In 2016, Parliament legalized assisted dying for people nearing the end of their lives. Then, in 2021, the law was expanded to include people with disabilities and chronic illness who were not nearing natural death. Although twice delayed, people with mental illness as their sole underlying condition will be offered MAID as of March 2027, unless Parliament repeals that change before then. And now the federal government is considering expanding the law further to include Canadians who can no longer consent. Each of these expansions includes a subtle implication that certain lives are not worth living. In the case of diminishing capacity, people are giving doctors a license to kill them in the future, without their contemporaneous consent, based on their present fear of their future condition. A person diagnosed with dementia can live well for years. They may know generally how dementia progresses, but they’ve never lived through the future stages of the condition. They can’t know what their future life will be like. They fear reaching a particular stage of their condition even though they have not experienced it. The person might no longer wish to die when they have reached the point indicated in an advance request. They do not know what the future will bring, and they might be happy in their circumstances despite cognitive decline. But there’s no way of knowing if a person has changed their mind once that person has lost the capacity to consent. Canada has the fastest growing rate of MAID in the world. In 2022, 6.6 per cent of deaths in Quebec were due to MAID, compared to the national average of 4.1 per cent. MAID is increasingly seen as a solution to suffering instead of a last resort. The Ontario Coroner’s office recently released reports looking at ways people are accessing MAID due to mental illness and socioeconomic vulnerabilities. Those reports emphasized the need for a care-focused approach that addresses and resolves suffering rather than procedurally qualifying for a MAID death. And now the federal government is looking at expanding it still further. The government ought to protect people with cognitive decline, rather than passing a law that devalues their lives and offers them MAID at a future point. We need quality palliative care to help them live well, even (and especially) when they have lost decision-making capacity. I hope the government will make such a conclusion when it wraps up its national discussion on advance requests. Daniel Zekveld is a policy analyst with the Association for Reformed Political Action Canada, which aims to educate, equip, and encourage Reformed Christians to political action and bring a biblical perspective to civil authorities. The Hill Times

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Feds must reject advance requests for MAID

Each of Canada's expansion to assisted dying laws includes a subtle implication that certain lives are not worth living.

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