Canada's euthanasia slippery slope.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

An article written by Meagan Gillmore and published in Canadian Affairs on July 19, 2024 refers to Canada's euthanasia law as a slippery slope. This article is important for how it covers Canada's euthanasia law but also how several American death lobby leaders respond.

Gillmore interviewed Ian McIntosh, a Canadian who lives in Virginia. Gillmore writes:

But reports of Canada’s permissive medical assistance in dying (MAID) laws, and stories of people accessing it due to poverty or disability, fill him with “profound concern and disbelief,” he said from northern Virginia, his home since 2016.

McIntosh, originally from Ontario, says if someone had told him in 2015 and 2016, when Canada’s first MAID law was being crafted, that Canada would eventually allow adults without terminal illnesses to qualify for MAID, he “would have said this is out of some horror novel, some dystopian novel.”

Thaddeus Pope

Gillmore quotes Thaddeus Pope, an American euthanasia activist and bio-ethicist, who states:

“When people say, ‘slippery slope,’ the implication is that the thing at the bottom of the slope is a place you do not want to be,”

“I don’t think the thing at the bottom of the slope is actually a thing to avoid, even if we were sliding there,”

“I don’t think we are, but even if we were sliding toward Canada, I don’t think that’s a bad thing.”

Thaddeus Pope stated on his Blog that:

I make some comments in this new article in Canadian Affairs. The article contrasts MAID laws in the United States and Canada. I argue that Canada is a model, not an anti-model.

Pope confirms the point that we have been making for several years. The American assisted suicide lobby wants to expand their laws from assisted suicide to euthanasia. In other words, the American assisted suicide lobby is not satisfied with limiting assisted deaths to doctors prescribing lethal poison, but rather they want to follow Canada's lead and allow doctors and nurses to lethally administer the poison.

Assisting a suicide is what is currently permitted in 10 US states but the assisted suicide lobby want to transform their laws to permit doctors and nurses directly killing their patients (euthanasia) which is a homicide and is what occurs in Canada.

Anita Cameron

Gillmore interviews Anita Cameron from Not Dead Yet. Gillmore writes:

Despite differences in law, philosophical arguments supporting and opposing MAID are similar in both countries. So are concerns that MAID will put people in vulnerable situations — including people with disabilities and those living in poverty — at increased risk of being explicitly or implicitly coerced into ending their lives.

Anita Cameron, director of minority outreach at Not Dead Yet, a national disability rights organization, says people with disabilities are scared that what has happened in Canada could happen in America. “We’re trying to sound the alarm here,” she said.

Cameron, who has multiple disabilities, lived in Canada temporarily when she was younger and once considered moving to Canada permanently. “There’s no way in this universe, this multiverse, or the next that I will move to Canada now,” she said.

Gillmore quotes Dr Mark Komrad, a psychiatrist in Maryland. Gillmore writes:

Dr. Mark Komrad, a practising psychiatrist and medical ethicist based in Maryland, where assisted dying legislation was recently introduced, says any form of MAID represents “a profound and fundamental change in civilization in general, certainly in medical ethics.”

It contradicts a clear medical ethic: that doctors do not harm their patients, he says.

Komrad became interested in assisted dying laws worldwide in 2015 when he heard of psychiatric patients in Europe dying by MAID. Soon, he learned about Canada. He now travels internationally, sharing his concerns about MAID, which he considers to be assisted suicide.

He compares himself to Paul Revere, who warned Americans about British armies during the American Revolution. Only, Komrad warns Americans about the dangers of MAID in Canada and elsewhere.

Gillmore continues:

The two countries have very different laws, says Pope. “Canada is basically the most permissive in the world, and the United States is the most restrictive in the world,” he said, comparing the countries’ eligibility criteria. “Even though they are right next to each other, they’re about as far apart as you can get in terms of eligibility and who can access it legally.”

In the US, patients must have a terminal illness — meaning medical professionals have determined they are reasonably likely to die within six months. Canada, by contrast, has never had a time-based requirement and removed the requirement that someone’s death be “reasonably foreseeable” in 2021. This created what is known as Track 2 MAID — MAID for people who have serious illnesses, diseases or disabilities and are suffering, but whose deaths are not reasonably foreseeable.

MAID is administered differently in the countries, too. In the US, patients must self-administer lethal drugs. In Canada, most patients receive the drugs intravenously. Fewer than seven people who died by MAID in both 2021 and 2022 self-administered the drugs, according to Health Canada reports.

Gillmore quotes Komrad:

“Canada is the most compelling case study for anyone who pays attention and is interested in this,” he says. Countries that legalized MAID before Canada, such as Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, “are easy [for Americans] to dismiss” because of distance and size. Canada is closer to the US — geographically and culturally, he says.

“When you see this galloping [horse] of MAID in Canada, I think it’s a lot easier for Americans to identify that that can happen here,”

Gillmore juxtaposes Komrad with comments from Thaddeus Pope:

“Canada is, in a sense, 20 years ahead of the US on this,” he said. “Obviously, it’s informative to look at what might you authorize. You don’t have to do any of it.”

Pope supports Canada’s current laws, although some aspects of Track 2 MAID make him uncomfortable. He says there should be a way to ensure Track 2 applicants have seriously considered non-lethal options to relieve their suffering.

“I think that generally each person is the best judge for themselves of what is in their best interest,” he said. “I don’t think the right response is to completely ban that option for those people. But absolutely, I think that we should make sure that it’s carefully considered.”

The increasing number of MAID deaths in Canada “is a red flag,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean that anything bad is happening.”

Gillmore gives Komrad the last word:

Komrad disagrees. The rapid rise in deaths by MAID in Canada should cause concern, he says. “Just because something is legal, doesn’t [mean] it’s ethical,” he said.

He hopes in the future people will look back at current support for MAID and ask, ‘What were they thinking?’

“Maybe I won’t be alive to see that,” he said. “But one day we may be able to look back and say that.”

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition is working to educate and alert people to the dangers of euthanasia.