Euthanasia, disability and poverty in Canada.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

An article by Simon Spichak that was published by the Daily Beast and republished by Yahoo News on August 30 examines the issus of long covid, poverty and disability in relation to euthanasia (MAiD) in Canada.

Tracey Thompson is interviewed about her experience with long covid, her difficulty with applying for disability benefits and her Go Fund Me page to help her live not die by euthanasia.

“I won’t be able to maintain housing and I’m not well enough to live on the street,” Thompson told The Daily Beast. With money running low, and no cure for long COVID in the crosshairs, she has applied for medical assistance in dying, or MAiD. “I don’t understand how a society that supposedly has universal health care gets an international reputation for taking care of its citizenry, when that is obviously not true for poor, disabled people.”

The article then explains how Bill C-7, passed in March 2021, made MAiD available to people with chronic conditions, such as Thompson. Spichak wrote:

The pool of eligible applicants has grown significantly since then. MAiD legislation was amended in March 2021, allowing people with intolerable and irreversible illness, disease or disability (called “Track Two”) to qualify—though without introducing substantial improvements to social assistance programs. “Publicly, the data around Track Two requests have not been reported in a meaningful way,” Dosani said. “In public discourse on social media, the media, and some of my own experiences, I have seen people with disabilities who are talking about pursuing MAiD.”

Spichak concludes his article by stating how MAiD has become an option for people with disabilities who live in poverty. Spichak writes:

We’re learning more and more each day that long COVID and other post-viral conditions pose a risk to seemingly anyone—which will force more and more people to rely on inadequate disability payments, dwindling savings, and crowdfunding to treat manageable conditions. When that runs out, their lack of viable options may force them to seek MAiD—not out of choice, but out of grim necessity.

Links to more stories of the euthanasia experience in Canada:

• Veterans affairs worker advocates euthanasia for PTSD (Link).
• Shopping for doctor death in Canada (Link).
• Gwen is seeking euthanasia because she can't access medical treatment (Link).
• Euthanasia for disability and poverty (Link).
• Euthanasia for Long Covid and poverty (Link).
• Canada's MAiD law is the most permissive in the world. (Link).