Some poverty stricken Canadians opted for assisted death.

The following letter was written by Dr Catherine Ferrier in response to Stefanie Green's letter that stated that Poverty alone does not meet the criteria for MAiD. The letter was published by the National Post on June 14, 2023.

Re: Poverty alone doesn’t meet criteria for MAID — Dr. Stefanie Green, Letter to the editor, June 7

Dr. Stefanie Green calls several National Post columnists disingenuous for expressing concerns about Canadians requesting MAID for poverty, homelessness and other social problems.

Dr. Green knows perfectly well that, contrary to her claim of an “extremely rigorous process,” the Canadian law is so broad that anyone with a serious chronic illness or disability is eligible for MAID, regardless of whether that is their reason for requesting it. There is no need to be close to death and no need to have tried other options to relieve suffering, or even have them available. The 10-day waiting period for people close to death was eliminated in 2021, and the 90-day delay for other people still makes it easier to obtain MAID than to see a specialist in many parts of Canada.

Amir Farsoud stated on CBC’s The Fifth Estate that he was approved for MAID on the basis of his chronic back pain, but requested it because he could not find housing he could afford on his disability pension. Alan Nichols, whose case was documented in the National Post, died through MAID for an official diagnosis of hearing loss, which was not his real reason either.

The Canadian Association of MAID Assessors and Providers (CAMAP), of which Dr. Green is the president, is well aware that poverty drives many MAID requests. An article by Alexander Raikin in the New Atlantis in December 2022 quoted from many CAMAP seminars discussing exactly this issue.

There are reasons why Canada has the highest MAID rates in the world after only seven years, and why over 10,000 Canadians died through MAID in 2021, compared with 486 through assisted suicide in California, which has a similar population to ours, and legalized assisted death the same year.

Catherine Ferrier MD, Montreal

Further reading:

• Canada passes Bill C-7 allowing euthanasia for mental illness (Link).
• Canada's law will provide not prevent suicide for some psychiatric patients (Link).
• Euthanasia for mental illness. Killing people with an uncertain prognosis (Link).
• Abbotsford police investigating euthanasia death (Link).
• Canada is not as advertised. Euthanasia is eugenics (Link).
• Canada's euthanasia law is the most permissive in the world (Link).
• (MAiD) euthanasia for disability and poverty (Link).
• (MAiD) euthanasia for mental illness and poverty (Link).
• Veterans affairs worker advocates euthanasia for PTSD (Link).\
• Abandoning people. Canada's broadening euthanasia laws (Link).
• Mother wants to stop 23-year-old son from dying by euthanasia (Link).
• Bereaved mother speaks out against euthanasia (Link).
• Woman died by euthanasia because of inadequate home care (Link).
• Infant euthanasia proposed by Quebec College of Physicians (Link).
• How poverty not pain is driving people with disabilities to euthanasia (Link).
• Ontario man seeks euthanasia to avoid homelessness (Link).
• Why did they kill my brother? (Link).
• Canada's doctors offer euthanasia before receiving a request (Link).
• Food bank clients asking for euthanasia based on poverty (Link).
• No other options. An expose on euthanasia in Canada (Link).
• Poverty and euthanasia creates public interest but euthanasia is abhorent on its own (Link).