Ed note: Canada has liberalized its medical aid in dying (MAID) laws far beyond that of Washington State (or any other state). A person no longer needs to be terminally ill and the lethal medication can be given by IV injection. This has resulted in about 2.5% of deaths in Canada are from MAID, while the rate is 0.5% in Washington State.
by Ian Austen in the NYT
Since the government expanded the eligibility for assisted death last year to include those with disabilities, critics have been saying there should be more checks and balances.
CALGARY, Alberta — The first time Cheryl Romaire tried to end her life under Canada’s assisted suicide law, her application was rejected. But after a loosening of the law, she received approval to end her life — and she now intends to do just that.
“It felt like a weight had been lifted off my chest,” Ms. Romaire said recently, as one of her cats and a dog competed for her attention at her apartment in Calgary, Alberta.
Last year, Canada changed its assisted death law, permitting people with chronic, “grievous and irremediable” conditions and physical disabilities to commit suicide, even if they are not terminally ill. And so this allowed Ms. Romaire — who has undergone 41 medical procedures in 10 years for a painful and worsening spinal cord condition but had been told her death from the condition was not “reasonably foreseeable’’ — to qualify for a death on her own terms.
“You can have a good death, you can have your family there with you,” she said. “It’s traumatic still to them. But it’s not the same as the shock of suicide which people will do when they’re at pain levels where there’s no hope.”
Canada is among 12 countries and several American states where assisted death is permitted in certain circumstances. Since last year, it has been one of at least three — including Belgium and the Netherlands — that allow an assisted death if the person is suffering from a chronic painful condition, even if that condition is not terminal.
Although the Canadian law was hotly debated in 2016, when it was originally enacted, it has won broad public acceptance since then, with polls showing strong support. Through December of 2021, 31,664 Canadians have received assisted deaths. Of those, 224 who died last year were not terminally ill, taking advantage of last year’s amendment.