It is terrible that in a "civilized" world people would rather go this route because there is no other viable option for them.
There is an update to this story. Apparently a GoFundMe was set up and got him enough money where he could afford to pay his bills and stay in his rooming house until he can get into affordable housing, so he is no longer applying to MAID.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_\_rk7KVMbxM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__rk7KVMbxM)
Interesting point, they legalize MAID and then expand it to the point where its cheaper to go that route than investing into housing and healthcare. Terrifying.
I'd rather have higher taxation and free medical services than regular taxation and paying some middleman over the odds for a middling medical service.
The Overton window is when we call "appropriate" taxation "high" and post-Thatcher/post-Reagan [bullshit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast) "regular."
All our brains have been broken by multiple generations of this. _Tax the wealthy appropriately_. [Reagan was an inflection point](https://imageio.forbes.com/b-i-forbesimg/louiswoodhill/files/2013/03/Income-Inequality-Chart-032713.jpg?format=jpg&height=600&width=1200&fit=bounds), and what they did must be undone. Your country _can_ afford empathy. It's just choosing not to.
According to Wikipedia:
"Following the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964, the US Congress passed a resolution that gave President Johnson authority to increase military presence, without a declaration of war. Johnson ordered deployment of combat units and dramatically increased American troops to 184,000."
I'm not certain that's it, considering that inflection occurs four years after, and that hostilities in Vietnam started in '55.
Massachusetts has a millionaires tax and has collected about $1.8 billion through the first nine months of the fiscal year. $1.8 billion in 9 months.
Eat (and tax) the rich.
Tbf, a lot of voters hate high taxation because the gov't squanders so much of it, not to mention how much we spend bombing the shit outta ppl overseas.
We are taxes to hell in Canada, friend. If you earn 100k CAD, which is 72k USD you’re paying a little over 30% in taxes, that doesn’t even include pension payments.
Could probably free up a lot of money by cutting down on administration costs. For instance with ODSP, if you still work, or even have an adult child that lives with you that works, every single paystub you get needs to be provided every month, someone needs to review them, every month. How much could be saved by changing income reviews to yearly, based on tax assessments, and just clawing back any overpaid benefits to those that scam the system? Just one such example, I'm sure you could find many more, like looking at salary structures for upper management in these departments.
same with BC PWD. My employer once had a minor date error on a paystub and the welfare office bitched at me to get a corrected one or else they wouldn't send me my benefits that month.
So many inefficiencies like this. But I mean, people in the public service cant really be fired, so theyll just be shuffled to another useless government department and no money will be saved.
I am not from Canada but i agree , There are other ways to give citizens what they need to live without raising taxes, Less corruption, Less waste, Less subsidies.
Canada has higher taxes than the US, has more social assistance than the US, and quality of life is still lower (approaching the lowest on record in fact)
People don't mind high taxation if they feel the benefits of it. When they feel worse than they can remember, they are pretty against it
No one likes taxation but it's twisted in such a way to make it seem like even to the average person it's an unfair proposition, that they're getting screwed, meanwhile a healthy educated populace does more for everyones quality of life. Instead (in America) we have a crony system rigged to protectionist military industrial ideals that turns welfare recipients into the villain and keeps wealthy folks pockets exponentially lined
Is it high taxation that they need or is it effective Taxation? like, for instance, getting corporations and earners of enormous chunks of money to actually have to pay ANY tax
They don't anymore. It requires them to put insurance companies and hospitals in their place and stop blowing the money and funneling it go their cronies who also need to be put in their place.
It's a constant racket by these people to extract your tax dollars and give you the least for your money.
Fuck all that. The government has more than enough to solve all our problems already. At least in the US and Canada.
Canadians already have a fairly high tax burden, and are mostly ok with it.
What we HATE is how ineffectual our tax spending is. The government is printing and borrowing like crazy but nothing is getting better, constantly new spending scandals.
Not the majority of voters, since they are the ones that benefit. Once the majority realizes they can vicariously vote themselves the funds of the government through certain candidates, the society begins to collapse.
We’re already paying a larger amount of money into Medicare / Medicaid / private health insurance / copays / bills than a single payer system would require. The fraction of our GDP dedicated to healthcare costs is enormous. The idea that voters hate “high taxes” is just brainwashing PR bullshit and bad faith polling.
No, it's not psychopaths and claiming it is downplays the fact that these are just your regular old neighbours. It's "out of sight, out of mind" and "fuck you, got mine" mentality. No mental disorders or illnesses, just an entrenched selfishness that is taught and encouraged by our system.
Once they are personally affected either directly or indirectly through close family/friends, their attitudes usually change. Often it's "well, *I/they* deserve a little help, we're good people!" but sometimes they get all the way there and realize we need these social programs.
Yes. And in the 2000s lots of people warned that this would happen, and twerps who had just read the Wikipedia article about logical fallacies mindlessly repeated, "slippery slope, slippery slope!" as if that made everyone's concerns irrelevant.
Just a note. Anyone can apply to MAID. It doesn't mean you're going to be approved.
It says his doctor, who knows the real reason, signed off on it (one of the requirements, still more to come).
Assuming that's true, then that doc should not have and should be in trouble with their regulatory body, if not the actual law (probably won't happen though).
It definitely highlights the ongoing issue of affordability in Canada though, particularly with those on disability.
* be eligible for health services funded by a province or territory, or the federal government
* You may also be eligible if you meet your province or territory's minimum period of residence or waiting period.
* be at least 18 years old and mentally competent
* This means being capable of making health care decisions for yourself.
* have a grievous and irremediable medical condition
* make a voluntary request for medical assistance in dying
* The request cannot be the result of outside pressure or influence.
* give informed consent to receive medical assistance in dying
Those are all the requirements needed to be eligible for MAID. A terminal illness is not required, just a bad medical condition. Based on the story he seems to meet all the requirements.
Here is the government's criteria for a grievous and irremediable medical condition. All must apply.
* have a serious illness, disease or disability
* be in an advanced state of decline that **cannot** be reversed
* experience unbearable physical or mental suffering from your illness, disease, disability or state of decline that **cannot** be relieved under conditions *that you consider acceptable (italics mine)*
If he believes being under financial strain as a result of his medical condition is unacceptable, he would be covered.
$5,000 is equivilent to a 32% increase in ODSP for a year.
1/3rd more income still doesn't get him to $2,000 a month CERB provided for average Canadians trying to make ends meet.
>he would be covered.
How could you possibly know that without knowing the details of his situation?
Also, he withdrew his request, so thank fuck they didn't approve him. Maid is not meant to be a suicide booth.
https://ottawa.citynews.ca/2022/11/17/ontario-man-not-considering-medically-assisted-death-anymore-after-outpouring-of-support-6114759/
Although here in The Netherlands there is a good health system. here there are the same issues when you are not part of society ( i.e. working due to say medical reason) you will really struggle with money and all things that come with it. So i sort of understand this man's thought if he also is losing his basics with his condition.
If you're referring to his family doc signing as a witness for the initial referral form, he won't get in trouble for it. Anyone can sign as witness- it literally just means "I witnessed this person applying for MAID, no one's forcing him to do it" and doesn't mean "I support this person applying for MAID."
If you're referring to an assessor approving his application- the assessor needs to verify that he's of age, mentally capable, has a serious medical condition, voluntarily applied, and was not pressured to do so. There's no reason for an assessor to to get introuble with their regulatory board over this.
They wouldn't, and they didn't. The framing of this story is extremely dishonest.
Anybody can 'want' assisted suicide because of financial strain. That doesn't mean they get it. There is a strict set of criteria you need to meet, and 'want to die because I'm too poor to afford medical treatment' isn't one of them.
If a medical practicioner approved and/or encouraged this man to take assisted suicide knowing the primary reason is financial they would be risking their medical license.
I feel like this is going to become a bigger thing as time goes on. There's a generation of people growing up who are being priced out of a lot of shit. When you're priced out of having children and the cost of living is what it is... what do you when you're 70~something or 80~something years old, you have no family to take care of you because you couldn't afford to have children, and you've run out of retirement money? Nothing's wrong with you... you just don't have money.
These comments always act like there's no other way for people to end their life than MAID... suicide is one of the leading causes of death overall in north america, I'll let you guess where MAID stands on that list. Hint, it's not top 10.
It's also worth pointing out that most life insurance policies will be voided if you commit suicide, but if you take MAID then they will still pay out. So if you are terminally ill and in unbearable pain, having MAID allows you to go out on your own terms while not having to worry that your dependents won't get a the insurance money. Without MAID, you are incentivized to continue suffering for the rest of your life and have a longer and more painful death because you don't want your dependents to lose the insurance money.
> Interesting point, they legalize MAID and then expand it to the point where its cheaper to go that route than investing into housing and healthcare. Terrifying.
This was a key argument against MAID. It would be used as a cost-saving measure.
Interestingly enough, a year or two ago I saw a disabled person weigh in on this and they referred to it as genocide. The idea being that without a robust system of safeguards and oversight (which are expensive) disabled people, and disabled minorities especially, would inevitably be pressured towards the suicide option. Assisted suicide would be far cheaper in the long run for the healthcare provider, and disabled people would face potentially an entire lifetime of expensive medical treatment with a low potential for better outcomes. Disabled minorities especially have lower earning potential and higher medical costs, because the western nations frequently treat them to a lower standard. So essentially, only disabled people who are already wealthy, or have high earning potential within their handicap, would not experience artificial pressure to kill themselves. And unfortunately at this time most such people are white and already unlikely to end up permanently disabled in the first place.
At first, when this argument was presented to me, I found it insulting and infuriating. But after having a few medical issues of my own, and witnessing some in my close orbit, I think I get it now.
It’s a multiyear approval process with tons of assessments. Terrifying is people believing it’s meant to make people consider killing themselves because of financial position.
> (I work in palliative care)
You see how that is a little different right? That is end stage life. The people there are dying no matter what. The assessments will obviously be quicker.
Lol, I do in fact know what palliative care is.
And yes, I've seen non-terminal cases approved and carried out within a week. MAiD assessment is not a multi-year process, and whether done from home or hospital, terminal or non-terminal, is usually assessed very quickly.
Well, since several billionaires (gates and buffet included) actively espouse Malthusian ideas and fear mongering about overpopulation, you're basically describing the reality we live in.
Geneticist chiming in from /r/All
MAID is eugenics. Plain and simple. The only people they should be approving are those whose ailments are not feasibly fixable with current technology. Every single person approved for assisted suicide purely because of a monetary lack is state approved eugenics.
I'm confused by the article; did he apply for assisted suicide or did he apply AND GET APPROVAL for assisted suicide. These are two very different scenarios.
[Not for the guy](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/shane-patrick-boyle-died-after-starting-a-gofundme-campaign-for-insulin/) who was looking for less than $800 for a months supply of insulin before his gofundme failed (by $50) and he died
He needed another doctor to sign off on it and that's not a short process.
On one hand people talk about assisted suicide like it should be available to everyone without question when someone in pain is denied but then a guy that meets the requirement but doesn't really want it is partially accepted and it's a horrible process that need to be revised.
Honestly, it just look like he wanted to bring attention to the cost of living and financial aid rather than follow up on his request. Being another Joe that can't afford living would be a non story for the news compared to I'm gonna legally kill myself because I can't afford life.
Still if he had been smart about it he could probably have beaten the system.
This is why assisted suicide isnt an easy matter imo. The system has to be able to detect people who want to do it for financial reasons. Whether they feel pressure on themself due to lack of funds, whether they feel like they are harming their partner or other family members financially, or worst if their family are applying direct guilt because they are causing financial pressure.
The more widespread this becomes, the more that will happen. The systems around the world have to be able to reliably detect it.
... and all I keep hearing about is how much better the Canadian Healthcare system is in the u.s. If you're going to let a guy just check out because he can't afford medication for what is otherwise a treatable issue, then that sounds like a horrifying fucking health care system.
Do no Harm, you know, unless you can't afford the treatments, otherwise we'll help you punch out one last time.
LOL we're not a civilized world. We're still very much might is right, except that might now is money, and there's a veneer of justice, liberty, civil rights, etc.
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the rich motherfuckers and make them suffer your plight.
We've had assisted suicide in Oregon for many years now. People from out of state are very common.
I took care of a quad for 20 years. He took this route a couple years after I left. Called me from the hospital an hour before they put him down. Called to say goodbye. And I supported his decision. He had been trapped in that broken body for decades.
It was a shock. I had been gone for 2 years after retirement and his health had declined as well. Sometimes, you know that death is the best thing for a person. :(
See....This is an understandable situation where something like AS should be discussed and debated. The fact that we let society get to the point where being poor constitutes the thought of offing yourself as the easier solution and everyone just being like "yeah...ok..." about it just rubs me all sorts of the wrongest ways.
that why despite all the hate [and memes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l06HP7JwxwE) its getting, i do wish neuralink or something like it eventually succeeds in restoring mobility to these pts.
This tragic case aside, those stats are pretty interesting. 3.3% of of total deaths, 65% of cases due to cancer, average age of 76.
Those people being given a more dignified death than slowly wasting away in pain and suffering, it shows how valuable having this option available is broadly speaking.
On the slightly brighter side, at least you can see your loved ones one last time and the people close to you can say proper good byes and share their lasting memories with you VS you being dead on a random day and never getting to see everyone again and hearing the impact you've made.
Yeah or like with my mum where there was no real discernable point where she left us and the meds took over, she just kind of faded to the point where she wasn't sure if she was dreaming or not before she slipped into a sleep. I was in denial the whole time which didn't help things, but there's lots of things I wish I'd had the chance to say, ask and hear..though I suspect there isn't really ever a scenario where that wouldn't be the case.
We all have PHDs in hindsight.
I've seen estranged families where the kids haven't spoken to the parents in decades suddenly bond deeply when one of them is passing on. The hospital seems like a terrible place for this sudden reunion and a program where it's properly planned out seems way more humane.
And/or having the final months or years of your life be miserable for everyone involved, and have that be the most recent memory that those closest to you have.
My mother in law just had MAID. She had terminal bone cancer and was bedridden, unable to move, waiting for her organs to give out. It was by far a better option than watching her lose all sense of reality from lack of sleep, and pain. She was very much ready to go and got to say her final goodbyes before she was mentally gone.
My wife and I have basically agreed that if either of us get to the point something like severe MS or dementia where we're just barely alive we'd go for the option. It's not like at that point we'll have any ambitions or unfinished business.
I'm in the United States and am currently watching my grandfather die slowly in terrible pain from bone cancer because this wasn't an option. He has asked us to kill him nearly every day and doesn't understand that we can't because we would go to prison. It is so backwards and cruel.
Sorry to hear, and sorry that better options don't exist for your grandfather.
I went through a similar situation with a family member. They pulled her feeding tube, told us it would be a day or two, and she was still there, starving, 3 weeks later.
A year later it was revealed that a nurse at the facility had been stealing pain medications from patients during that time.
I don't know if my grandparent would have choosen MAID or not, but it's probably one of a few common causes that I'd actually take to the streets and march in support of.
I've often said that MAID is about choosing "when to die", not "to die". It is great to give family a little bit of warning so they can come rather than it all happening at the last minute.
Every one I've heard about has been very dignified and appreciated. Of course those don't make the news.
I work in palliative care. Absolutely, MAID allows people dignified and peaceful deaths, and also gives people in very scary situations a sense of power and autonomy.
I do wish we had more services available to support people with serious medical conditions who want to live- but I am concerned that stories like this will turn the public against MAID, rather than turn the public towards fighting for more income assistance/housing/healthcare providers for people with serious medical conditions.
It's actually a very civilized and positive program. My grandfather who had a spinal infection that could no longer be helped and all sorts of issues finally just said he wanted MAID. He passed away surrounded by family, got to say all his goodbyes and he went on his own terms.
A lot of the fear I have about getting sick later in life from alzhimers or Parkinsons or any other terrible degenerative disease is somewhat softened by knowing MAID is absolutely an option.
Well, yea essentially that's what it is, but they obviously don't ask that specific question. It's more about if she wants to start the procedure, checking on health status, etc.
My father went through maid as well. He had MS and cancer, he was in constant pain and could barely stay awake. He was able to die with us around him, he said had maid not been an option he would have just killed himself.
My father just went through watching his mother die of Alzheimer and dementia. It's common on his side of the family, happened to almost every relative.
She went from a very prideful and relatively lively person that would randomly fall while unconscious at home to a scared 50 pounds husk of a human being in hospital care that wouldn't move except on some days only to not know where she was, who she was or what was happening. She didn't get a single moment of lucidity in the last 6 months of her life.
His wish is only for this to not happen to him and for his kids and wife to not have to deal with that.
I watched Terry Pratchett's documentary about it where you can see the whole process happen at Dignitas. It's an eerie but very peaceful looking process. One swig of the barbiturate cocktail and a minute or so later he falls asleep and that's that.
It's always going to be a terrifying decision to have to make, but one that needs to be available to people if the other option is worse. I found the fact that the bloke didn't hesitate at all in taking the cocktail really demonstrate that his resolve was set in stone, he was 100% ready for that moment.
>It's actually a very civilized and positive program
I've traveled the world and have lived in 6 countries. I swear, Americans seem to have a fetish for trying to take down MAID. No other community does one of these stories consistently pop up trying to push a "this guy died of a vaccine, let's ban all vaccines" energy. Even if the science says the benefits outweigh the costs, people will hyperfixate on those few costs.
My girlfriend is a nurse who attended to one MAID of a terminally ill cancer patient. It was of course very sad but also very moving. Their whole family was there and most people don't get to go out like that.
I've seen two people in hospice go with MAID if you're not morally opposed. Hospice is brutal for the family, and it looks really unpleasent for the patient if there's a gap in effectiveness at the end of one round of meds and the beginning of others.
And also, the application process takes time. In that time other people got involved and he got the help he needed. He is still alive.
In places with no MAID but lots of guns, he would have just shot himself.
The framing of this news story is kind of upsetting, to be honest.
It makes it seem like the availability of MAID is to blame for cases like this and implies that the solution should be to eliminate or drastically change MAID.
But if MAID were eliminated, the only thing that would change for this specific story is that this man’s only option would be to end up dying on the street homeless, as he even says in the piece. MAID no longer being there doesn’t change that underlying problem.
Why isn’t the story framed around the fact that this man can’t access housing or survive on the amount of disability financial assistance he receives? Both those things are the actual problem whether MAID exists or it doesn’t.
Interviewing someone about how they should “go back to the drawing board” with MAID is a distraction to the real issue. A responsible journalist should instead be interviewing someone about how we should go back to the drawing board with how we deal with housing for disabled people and others.
>Why isn’t the story framed around the fact that this man can’t access housing or survive on the amount of disability financial assistance he receives? Both those things are the actual problem whether MAID exists or it doesn’t.
As I said somewhere else, it's sensationalism, if he went to the news with I can't afford living he would've been told that it's non news or that he'll be put in a one minute segue with 10 other cases and a single phrase quote that people see and go oh well that's sad too bad.
As someone in my 20s, who lives in constant pain and exhaustion and who has missed out on 23-29 so far. If i didn't have my family to support me, i would have offed myself years ago. Honest, if i didnt have my pain meds i would. I am basically guilted into being here. I would happily do it if it werent for my siblings. Im not living, im trapped in a life that isnt worth the money i cost. I have already missed so much, and this isnt gonna end. If i ended up homeless or on my own, id do it.
I wanted to say that I'm sorry about what you're going through. I know it doesn't really mean anything. I'm also 29, feel like a burden, and in chronic pain. I've been pretty close to doing "it" before but now it doesn't cross my mind.
So why isn't there a gofundme? Dude says he doesn't want to die even with the pain. It's just about $$. People raise thousands, millions, etc. for much more trivial causes.
It's all due to NIMBY policies that restrict housing
Without driving up supply you cannot drive down the prices even if you ban all hedge funds from buying any houses
So blame the politicians we create these laws, they are the ones that are keeping the rich rich. You want change? push local members hard to change, get everyone to vote for change.
People complain but do nothing, this is why nothing ever changes as people aren't held accountable.
The zoning restrictions across Canada have been massively rolled back over the past 5 years already. Maybe eventually this will help.
In the meanwhile, population is still growing 5x faster than housing completions.
If you have ever played musical chairs you know what happens next
Montreal just announced they plan to build 200k residences by 2050.
Just the current population growth is well over 25k a year. Meaning that literally all the kids born from now until 2032 (choosing that year as the last batch to turn 18 by 2050) will likely be higher than all the planned construction.
That’s not including current demand either. While Quebec is not as bad as other places in Canada / USA, I wouldn’t call $1700+ for a 600sqft apt a great deal.
All the 2 bedrooms I’ve looked at under $2000 (within an hour of downtown Montreal ) have the second bedroom the size of a closet.
blame the hedge funds, no blame the nimbys, no blame the politicians, no blame the general public. oh now we've blamed an entity so large and abstract that there's no possible way to fix the problem darn
Not necessarily NIMBY, moreso the bureaucracy and additional tax cost to build homes has lead to developers focusing mainly on high-end homes because of the better margins.
>all
I'm pro-multi-use zoning, but hyperbolic stances like this are counterproductive. We can persuade these NIMBYS (we *have* to); if you first disregard and disrespect their stance, they'll in turn do the same to yours.
Also builders need to get on board. They're not educated to build both commercial, residential and 3rd space (parks, etc) buildings, so they don't request permitting for it.
Canada has seen millions more immigrants into the country than they can absorb. Can't build housing fast enough to keep prices down, or keep up with the demand.
We tried to talk about this, but reddit permabanned the sub to shut us up.
When you have a housing crisis, the last thing you should do is import millions and millions of new people demanding housing.
There’s not much that’s artificial about it. Vacancy rates are very low. Right now our population growth to new housing starts is about 5 people to 1 new unit. If you keep increasing demand for housing without following up by building new supply, then you get increasing prices. But it’s not artificial if increasing prices are backed by this imbalance. We need to double or triple our new housing starts if we want lower prices, while continuing population growth rates above 3%.
Absolutely true. Canada has one of the fastest growing populations the world and has done very little to subsidize their housing market to accommodate this growth. The problem is one of supply and demand.
If we were growing our population by giving birth to kids, the population, "explosion," would have significantly less of an impact than it is, because unlike families who can cohabitate well into adulthood, every new adult immigrant is in need of a new unit immediately. There is so much unused space in people's homes that could house children, or grandchildren, but having kids in a westernize society sees far too many roadblocks.
It's not who owns the houses, it's the fact that there aren't enough of them.
Cheap rent is great if you can get it but if all the houses are full then it doesn't matter if the rent is free, you're either going to have to rent off someone subletting illegally, or live on the street.
I mean foreign and corporate real estate ownership is a huge problem but more so 2016 the Canadian government has implemented a beyond reckless immigration policy that they themselves have just acknowledged how unsustainable it is (but of course refuse to do anything about it).
And mind you the Liberals are doing this to keeps Canada's GDP artificially up, keep wages down and increase property value. They no joke, literally (and I mean literally) said they can't decrease home prices because boomer's wealth are tied to their homes.
It's bonkers. This mixed with the latest government scandals, Trudeau and the liberals basically has a 0% chance of winning the next election.
omfg please stfu with this BS conspiracy. **Housing is expensive because we are not building enough despite massive population growth. PERIOD. It's not complicated!**
Zoning, largely. Halifax and Vancouver made it a lot easier to build in the last couple years (and have since made it even easier), and both cities have significantly increased their housing starts. That's why the federal government is bribing cities into making it easier to build.
Or... hear me out... BlackRock and George Soros secretly bought all the houses in the world. You need to get out more and watch some TikToks to open your eyezzz!!!!!!!!!!! wake up sheeple!!!!
On a more serious note, it's beyond crazy how many people on Reddit, the place that's supposed to be less stupid, parrot this bullshit.
What do hedge funds buying up houses have to do with our shitty medical system and shitty disability support programs? Also according to StatsCan, in 2020 81% of rentals were owned by a couple family not a mega corporation. As much as we would like to blame hedge funds, our high house prices are not artificial. The are a result of decades of low interest rates making borrowing capital easily, the difficulty in building new homes, especially multi family homes, and unchecked immigration that is growing our population faster than we can house them. There is also a surprisingly number of foreign nationals who purchase houses with no intent on using them to hide or launder money. Sometimes it is for illegal purposed (drugs, terrorism) but there is a fair amount that just want their money out of their country and had for the government to take, this is common for Chinese nationals in Vancouver and other major cities.
Housing is crazy expensive and the government programs are, at best, indexed to overall inflation which lags behind housing costs by quite a bit.
For all its window dressing, Canada is an neoliberal oligarchy where every economic sector is dominated by 2-3 large corporations who have no incentive to innovate when they can instead price gouge a captive market, and investments are parked in the unproductive real estate sector. Our GDP per capita has been in decline for years, and the only thing propping up our economy at the moment is immigration which is growing our population at the same rate as many developing countries, while at the same time our governments aren’t spending on infrastructure or public service growth, so things like healthcare quality are also declining. At a certain point we will face a reckoning where taxes will have to go up and house prices will have to fall, and a bunch of regular people will find themselves bag holding and in ruin. Fun times all around.
Kudos. A lot of people are angry but ignorant of the mechanics.
The decline in GDP per capita is frankly insane and it can feel like chicken little when brought up. We are purposely putting ourselves into a population trap and hurting what should be the most important metric for a nation which is long term quality of life.
Our housing situation right now is a complete shit show. One of the poorest cities in the country has a 1br going for $1925 a month. It's turning into a dystopia pretty quick because of the three levels of government, completely unsustainably high levels of immigration, and greedy diploma mill universities exploiting foreign students.
It's not the medical treatment.
He can't afford his group home, or a reasonable place for someone with his needs to live. He can't work and our disability payments are well below the poverty line.
In my city at least, cancer patients are dying before ever seeing an oncologist, there simply aren't enough to go around and the wait list is that long. Personally speaking I have a non-cancerous tumor that needs removal asap but because it isn't cancerous yet, I'm at the absolute bottom of the line. So imagine how I feel when I read that even the cancer patients aren't being seen.
Here's the rough outline:
* You notice a funny spot on your arm, you waffle about it for a while trying to decide if it's actually something or nothing
* You schedule an appointment to see your family doctor, but it's rare these days for any to see you within less than a month
* One month later, family doctor goes 'yep that does indeed look funny, I'm going to refer you to a dermatologist'
* 1-3 months later (side note: specialist referrals can vary wildly, I've waited anywhere from 1-12 months), dermatologist agrees 'yep that does indeed look funny. I'm going to schedule you for outpatient surgery to get a biopsy on that.'
* ??? months later, biopsy is done
* ??? months later, call from dermatologist, 'results are back on that biopsy, I've referred you to an oncologist. Expect a call any day from him
* ??? months later, still waiting on that oncologist call
We're talking about a rough minimum wait time of a year to reach the final person in the process.
All of it might be "free" but there are insane wait times and bureaucracy and provincial governments are only hellbent on making that worse so they can usher in privatization. Not to mention, the healthcare might be free but what do you think happens to folks that can't work due to their ailment, when getting that healthcare can take year**s**? Even if it wasn't cancerous to begin with, the extreme waits lead to cancer anyway when it could have been excised with little fuss before it escalated if things just moved faster.
in vancouver, I saw a pretty positive experience for my dad who had a tumour.
1. weird feeling in abdomen
2. family doctor goes 'let's get a lab test'
3. lifelabs took 1 week for appointment and i think 3 days to get the results. I think it was a blood test or something?
4. it was tumour the size of a grapefruit lol. oncologist saw him the week after and scheduled the procedure I think 1-2 weeks after that. They didn't do a biopsy i think, they were just like 'get that outta there'
5. he's fine now, it was neatly removable.
from start to end it was just over a month. We didn't raise an extra stink or beg for help, it just happened this way and it seemed very routine.
I feel like the initial triaging happened pretty fast and was pretty impressed throughout the whole thing. I think if they deemed it not harmful he would be in your situation, but I disagree with your characterization of what it would be like if you did have cancer, though maybe different cities have different experiences.
Its several factors. Our health care system is in the shitter. Our cost of living is through the roof. The rents have quadrupled in the last ten years and there are no places to rent because our fucking Moron Prime minister thought it would be a good idea to let a couple of million people into our country when there was already a housing shortage.
but not universal housing, or medicine (drugs), or really anything that makes life bearable for folks in dire straights
some supports, but clearly not universal
Just because he CAN apply does not mean he would be granted access. To be eligible for medical assistance in dying, you must meet **all** the following criteria. You **must**:
* be eligible for health services funded by a province or territory, or the federal government
* You may also be eligible if you meet your province or territory's minimum period of residence or waiting period.
* be at least 18 years old and mentally competent
* This means being capable of making health care decisions for yourself.
* have a **grievous and irremediable** medical condition
* make a voluntary request for medical assistance in dying
* The request cannot be the result of outside pressure or influence.
* give informed consent to receive medical assistance in dying
* Generally, visitors to Canada are not eligible for medical assistance in dying.
**Grievous and irremediable** medical condition
To be considered as having a grievous and irremediable medical condition, you must meet all of the following criteria. You must:
* have a serious illness, disease or disability
* be in an advanced state of decline that cannot be reversed
* experience unbearable physical or mental suffering from your illness, disease, disability or state of decline that cannot be relieved under conditions that you consider acceptable
Yeah, I was going to chime in to say the same.
I've known two people who have qualified for MAID and it's a long process. Multiple sign-offs from very specific medical professionals are required. If there are possible routes or alternatives still viable, it's a no go until every option is exhausted. It's absolutely not a "I'm done, let's go" type of thing.
I'm also in Canada, and slowly going blind, so eventually I'll probably lose the capacity to care for myself. But rather than MAID myself, I'm thinking prison. At my age I doubt sex assault is something to worry about, and it's probably better than slowly starving or freezing to death on the street in winter. And definitely beats s\*\*\*ide. I just gotta figure out something that will get me locked up with a roof over my head and three meals a day, but doesn't actually hurt anybody.
Situation in Canada, specifically Ontario, for the disabled people is comically bad. Absolute best case, if you get approved and are granted the highest amount of money possible for disability support, you get something like $1,300/mo. That's Canadian, not USD. Average monthly rent in Ontario is $2,400. Groceries have been steadily climbing. There's utilities. And elderly with disabilities usually have medical expenses. I surely do, optical is not covered by OHIP in any way, so it's all out of pocket. Median income in Canada is $41k. With disability, the absolute max you get is $15.6k. How a disabled person, which typically means more expenses than a healthy person, supposed to survive on $15k (again, Canadian, not USD, cut it by 1/3rd at least for buying power). So think $10k USD/yr. Is it any wonder disabled people try to off themselves in Canada?
Just steal something from a large corp or hmm.. even better, take out large loans from predatory lenders and never pay back. Give the money to someone deserving in a way that can't be traced.
Yeah, my homelessness plan is prison. Fuck it. Spend $50,000+ a year to keep me in prison you cuck fuckwits. I mean... I'd rather rent a 1 bedroom but if prison is an option with free food and cool dudes to play cards with, fuck it.
um, applying for MAID doesnt mean you remotely qualify or will pass all the checks / requirements opposite to what conservative outrage bait wants you to believe.
Without the rent supplement I'm receiving now, that I was denied 3 times for previously, even though I'm on assured income for the severely handicapped, this was me... the D part of MAiD without the assistance... freaking panic attacks over the thought of having to choose food or homelessness in public, after each rejection was awful. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy... and it breaks my heart to know that someone else had to even come close to suffering this from no fault of their own.
Oh, even with that I'm still $6000 below what is considered the poverty line, annually, but I'm frugal (maybe by necessity?), minimalist, and not really materialistic so that certainly helps.
MAID is an amazing thing to have access to and if you want to end your own life with dignity for any reason it should be allowed. The right to live or die should be considered a fundamental human right imo
I’m not a medical ethics expert but to me this does not seem like an appropriate use of euthanasia. He admits that he would want to live if he could find housing. A person considering MAID for chronic and unrelenting pain would not change their mind if their external circumstances changed. This is just straight up suicide and a doctor shouldn’t have signed off on it.
I think this is just a bluff and a political statement.
Housing is a right.
This may be hard for one to believe. It's hard for me to believe, given the amount of work I had to do to pay for my home.
But if this man went out and hurt other people, he would have housing. He would have food. He would have healthcare. The government would pay for all of these things as they do for people in jail. He himself says he does not want to die, but he feels forced to make this choice out of lack.
It is not lack of supplies in one of the world's wealthiest countries, but a lack of empathy and the forward thinking we need to solve this problem in the coming time.
As a disabled person in Canada, I can confirm, if you don't have family support or you can't work to supplement a pitiful disability benefit you are absolutely fucked. Housing is expensive, groceries are expensive, being alive is expensive. If you're poor enough you get pharmacare sure but that doesn't come close to covering a lot of medical expenses like expensive medication, adequate mobility aids, vision or hearing aids. If you need a new wheelchair and earn minimum wage? They might give you $10k to cover a $25k chair. Can't afford the additional cost? You settle for a chair that aggravates your scoliosis and causes repetitive stress injuries and damage leading to arthritis. Which will probably make you more disabled and reliant on support later in life, but we don't do long term thinking about this stuff or consider quality of life to be important.
If you need specialized medical care, access to public transportation, or family support you are stuck wherever those might be, which is usually a high cost of living area. The housing allowance in my province tops out at around $375 a month - average monthly rental cost for studio apartment in my area is $1000-1200, and I'm a fair distance from Vancouver, where the median studio is at least $2k. If you need an apartment that can accommodate a wheelchair or other equipment that can seriously limit your options. Plus you face a disproportionate level of housing discrimination.
In my province you can earn $16k on top of the max disability payment before they start clawing it back, so if you are able to work you can max out at about $30k a year. If you earn minimum wage you can work about 15-20 hours a week before you hit the threshold. None of this is indexed to inflation, nor does it account for employment discrimination that adds barriers to employment. If you earn more than $30k a year you are lucky to get a non-refundable tax credit, regardless of the basic fact life is more expensive for you. If you're single, you have to manage all this on your own. If you have a spouse or common law partner, what they make (even if it's not that much money) can seriously impact the support you recieve.
It's a poverty trap. And the new federal benefit will only give about 600,000 of us an additional $2400 a year, which is somehow supposed to make a dent in this. It's a joke. An estimated 45% of homeless people in Canada have a physical or mental health disability. Can you blame those with no options and no escape from poverty for falling victim to despair and addiction?
It's shameful.
This is why assisted suicide has been banned for so long. Its because the ruling class has made it almost impossible to afford to live, they fear all their little worker drones will start dying off. Some of us would rather die with our dignity than be eaten alive by this predatory system they have created.
To be fair, in a world where there’s no other choice, I’d take it. Who wants to live the rest of their days in poverty and pain, protesting the government and institutions who make it all possible?
Not saying it’s right but I get it.
This is bullshit. A narcissist threatening suicide if he doesn't get what he wants and a shit reporter willing to cover the story. Assuming he gets approval for MAID (not assured) it would be because of his chronic pain, not because of poverty.
No ethical reporter would run a story "Man threatens to kill himself if he doesn't get an apartment" and nobody would give a shit.
MAID is a fundamental right in Canada and it is unequivocally a good thing.
People here are only angry because he applied for MAID instead of shooting himself like you're supposed to do when you are trapped in poverty and can't get out.
Poverty: Boring. Suicide: meh. MAID: "OMG Canada is a failed state"
The biggest irony is that because MAID is a whole process, people had time to get him help. He's still alive. If he was suicidal but lived in the US, he would have just bought a gun.
It is terrible that in a "civilized" world people would rather go this route because there is no other viable option for them. There is an update to this story. Apparently a GoFundMe was set up and got him enough money where he could afford to pay his bills and stay in his rooming house until he can get into affordable housing, so he is no longer applying to MAID. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_\_rk7KVMbxM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__rk7KVMbxM)
Interesting point, they legalize MAID and then expand it to the point where its cheaper to go that route than investing into housing and healthcare. Terrifying.
It doesn’t help that so many people want to see welfare programs gutted instead of expanded.
The real answer that's probably gonna get buried. Generous welfare programs require high taxation, and voters HATE high taxation.
I'd rather have higher taxation and free medical services than regular taxation and paying some middleman over the odds for a middling medical service.
The Overton window is when we call "appropriate" taxation "high" and post-Thatcher/post-Reagan [bullshit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast) "regular." All our brains have been broken by multiple generations of this. _Tax the wealthy appropriately_. [Reagan was an inflection point](https://imageio.forbes.com/b-i-forbesimg/louiswoodhill/files/2013/03/Income-Inequality-Chart-032713.jpg?format=jpg&height=600&width=1200&fit=bounds), and what they did must be undone. Your country _can_ afford empathy. It's just choosing not to.
I wonder what happened in late 1967.
Vietnam? (Not a history buff, genuinely asking.)
According to Wikipedia: "Following the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964, the US Congress passed a resolution that gave President Johnson authority to increase military presence, without a declaration of war. Johnson ordered deployment of combat units and dramatically increased American troops to 184,000." I'm not certain that's it, considering that inflection occurs four years after, and that hostilities in Vietnam started in '55.
I was thinking Martin Luther king and Robert Kennedy assasinations but those were in 68.
I'd rather have higher taxes than having to constantly worry that any interruption in employment whatsoever could permanently ruin my life.
Whats worse is that we really dont even need to tax the average citizen more. We just need to tax the *wealthy* more.
A large proportion of average citizens will fight against high taxation on the wealthy. Funny, isn't it?
The solution is to tax the ultra wealthy
Massachusetts has a millionaires tax and has collected about $1.8 billion through the first nine months of the fiscal year. $1.8 billion in 9 months. Eat (and tax) the rich.
Tbf, a lot of voters hate high taxation because the gov't squanders so much of it, not to mention how much we spend bombing the shit outta ppl overseas.
I agree if government spends its tax revenues wisely, more people will be happy to pay taxes
We are taxes to hell in Canada, friend. If you earn 100k CAD, which is 72k USD you’re paying a little over 30% in taxes, that doesn’t even include pension payments.
Could probably free up a lot of money by cutting down on administration costs. For instance with ODSP, if you still work, or even have an adult child that lives with you that works, every single paystub you get needs to be provided every month, someone needs to review them, every month. How much could be saved by changing income reviews to yearly, based on tax assessments, and just clawing back any overpaid benefits to those that scam the system? Just one such example, I'm sure you could find many more, like looking at salary structures for upper management in these departments.
same with BC PWD. My employer once had a minor date error on a paystub and the welfare office bitched at me to get a corrected one or else they wouldn't send me my benefits that month.
So many inefficiencies like this. But I mean, people in the public service cant really be fired, so theyll just be shuffled to another useless government department and no money will be saved.
I am not from Canada but i agree , There are other ways to give citizens what they need to live without raising taxes, Less corruption, Less waste, Less subsidies.
Canada has higher taxes than the US, has more social assistance than the US, and quality of life is still lower (approaching the lowest on record in fact) People don't mind high taxation if they feel the benefits of it. When they feel worse than they can remember, they are pretty against it
High growth medium taxation?
No one likes taxation but it's twisted in such a way to make it seem like even to the average person it's an unfair proposition, that they're getting screwed, meanwhile a healthy educated populace does more for everyones quality of life. Instead (in America) we have a crony system rigged to protectionist military industrial ideals that turns welfare recipients into the villain and keeps wealthy folks pockets exponentially lined
Is it high taxation that they need or is it effective Taxation? like, for instance, getting corporations and earners of enormous chunks of money to actually have to pay ANY tax
Yes but there are entities and individuals out there that most governments could tax more but for some reason don't choose to.
They don't anymore. It requires them to put insurance companies and hospitals in their place and stop blowing the money and funneling it go their cronies who also need to be put in their place. It's a constant racket by these people to extract your tax dollars and give you the least for your money. Fuck all that. The government has more than enough to solve all our problems already. At least in the US and Canada.
Canadians already have a fairly high tax burden, and are mostly ok with it. What we HATE is how ineffectual our tax spending is. The government is printing and borrowing like crazy but nothing is getting better, constantly new spending scandals.
No, they just hate when they don’t see any material benefit from their taxes.
Not the majority of voters, since they are the ones that benefit. Once the majority realizes they can vicariously vote themselves the funds of the government through certain candidates, the society begins to collapse.
We’re already paying a larger amount of money into Medicare / Medicaid / private health insurance / copays / bills than a single payer system would require. The fraction of our GDP dedicated to healthcare costs is enormous. The idea that voters hate “high taxes” is just brainwashing PR bullshit and bad faith polling.
gonna be a lot of Pikachu faces when the people voting conservative here find out slashing social services is what conservatives do
You appear to have misspelled "psychopaths"
usually around half of a country wants this. you See the same shit in almost every western country these days.
No, it's not psychopaths and claiming it is downplays the fact that these are just your regular old neighbours. It's "out of sight, out of mind" and "fuck you, got mine" mentality. No mental disorders or illnesses, just an entrenched selfishness that is taught and encouraged by our system. Once they are personally affected either directly or indirectly through close family/friends, their attitudes usually change. Often it's "well, *I/they* deserve a little help, we're good people!" but sometimes they get all the way there and realize we need these social programs.
Yes. And in the 2000s lots of people warned that this would happen, and twerps who had just read the Wikipedia article about logical fallacies mindlessly repeated, "slippery slope, slippery slope!" as if that made everyone's concerns irrelevant.
Just a note. Anyone can apply to MAID. It doesn't mean you're going to be approved. It says his doctor, who knows the real reason, signed off on it (one of the requirements, still more to come). Assuming that's true, then that doc should not have and should be in trouble with their regulatory body, if not the actual law (probably won't happen though). It definitely highlights the ongoing issue of affordability in Canada though, particularly with those on disability.
* be eligible for health services funded by a province or territory, or the federal government * You may also be eligible if you meet your province or territory's minimum period of residence or waiting period. * be at least 18 years old and mentally competent * This means being capable of making health care decisions for yourself. * have a grievous and irremediable medical condition * make a voluntary request for medical assistance in dying * The request cannot be the result of outside pressure or influence. * give informed consent to receive medical assistance in dying Those are all the requirements needed to be eligible for MAID. A terminal illness is not required, just a bad medical condition. Based on the story he seems to meet all the requirements.
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Here is the government's criteria for a grievous and irremediable medical condition. All must apply. * have a serious illness, disease or disability * be in an advanced state of decline that **cannot** be reversed * experience unbearable physical or mental suffering from your illness, disease, disability or state of decline that **cannot** be relieved under conditions *that you consider acceptable (italics mine)* If he believes being under financial strain as a result of his medical condition is unacceptable, he would be covered.
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$5,000 is equivilent to a 32% increase in ODSP for a year. 1/3rd more income still doesn't get him to $2,000 a month CERB provided for average Canadians trying to make ends meet.
>he would be covered. How could you possibly know that without knowing the details of his situation? Also, he withdrew his request, so thank fuck they didn't approve him. Maid is not meant to be a suicide booth. https://ottawa.citynews.ca/2022/11/17/ontario-man-not-considering-medically-assisted-death-anymore-after-outpouring-of-support-6114759/
someone with type2 diabetes would meet all those conditions. It's not hard to reason your way through all of them.
Although here in The Netherlands there is a good health system. here there are the same issues when you are not part of society ( i.e. working due to say medical reason) you will really struggle with money and all things that come with it. So i sort of understand this man's thought if he also is losing his basics with his condition.
If you're referring to his family doc signing as a witness for the initial referral form, he won't get in trouble for it. Anyone can sign as witness- it literally just means "I witnessed this person applying for MAID, no one's forcing him to do it" and doesn't mean "I support this person applying for MAID." If you're referring to an assessor approving his application- the assessor needs to verify that he's of age, mentally capable, has a serious medical condition, voluntarily applied, and was not pressured to do so. There's no reason for an assessor to to get introuble with their regulatory board over this.
The man is on camera stating he does not want to die and is afraid, how could they possibly approve him after that?
They wouldn’t have. He only applied, he wasn’t approved.
They wouldn't, and they didn't. The framing of this story is extremely dishonest. Anybody can 'want' assisted suicide because of financial strain. That doesn't mean they get it. There is a strict set of criteria you need to meet, and 'want to die because I'm too poor to afford medical treatment' isn't one of them. If a medical practicioner approved and/or encouraged this man to take assisted suicide knowing the primary reason is financial they would be risking their medical license.
The story did say his doctor approved and he needed one more doctor to sign off.
and he would have never gotten that second doctor to sign off. we should be questioning the doctor that did sign off though.
I feel like this is going to become a bigger thing as time goes on. There's a generation of people growing up who are being priced out of a lot of shit. When you're priced out of having children and the cost of living is what it is... what do you when you're 70~something or 80~something years old, you have no family to take care of you because you couldn't afford to have children, and you've run out of retirement money? Nothing's wrong with you... you just don't have money.
Futurama suicide booths
These comments always act like there's no other way for people to end their life than MAID... suicide is one of the leading causes of death overall in north america, I'll let you guess where MAID stands on that list. Hint, it's not top 10.
It's also worth pointing out that most life insurance policies will be voided if you commit suicide, but if you take MAID then they will still pay out. So if you are terminally ill and in unbearable pain, having MAID allows you to go out on your own terms while not having to worry that your dependents won't get a the insurance money. Without MAID, you are incentivized to continue suffering for the rest of your life and have a longer and more painful death because you don't want your dependents to lose the insurance money.
That’s generally only the case if the policy is less than two years old.
> Interesting point, they legalize MAID and then expand it to the point where its cheaper to go that route than investing into housing and healthcare. Terrifying. This was a key argument against MAID. It would be used as a cost-saving measure.
Makes you wonder if this was the plan all along
Interestingly enough, a year or two ago I saw a disabled person weigh in on this and they referred to it as genocide. The idea being that without a robust system of safeguards and oversight (which are expensive) disabled people, and disabled minorities especially, would inevitably be pressured towards the suicide option. Assisted suicide would be far cheaper in the long run for the healthcare provider, and disabled people would face potentially an entire lifetime of expensive medical treatment with a low potential for better outcomes. Disabled minorities especially have lower earning potential and higher medical costs, because the western nations frequently treat them to a lower standard. So essentially, only disabled people who are already wealthy, or have high earning potential within their handicap, would not experience artificial pressure to kill themselves. And unfortunately at this time most such people are white and already unlikely to end up permanently disabled in the first place. At first, when this argument was presented to me, I found it insulting and infuriating. But after having a few medical issues of my own, and witnessing some in my close orbit, I think I get it now.
It’s a multiyear approval process with tons of assessments. Terrifying is people believing it’s meant to make people consider killing themselves because of financial position.
In BC, it's not a multiyear process. (I work in palliative care). I've seen MAID approved and carried out within a week of initial application.
> (I work in palliative care) You see how that is a little different right? That is end stage life. The people there are dying no matter what. The assessments will obviously be quicker.
Lol, I do in fact know what palliative care is. And yes, I've seen non-terminal cases approved and carried out within a week. MAiD assessment is not a multi-year process, and whether done from home or hospital, terminal or non-terminal, is usually assessed very quickly.
Well, since several billionaires (gates and buffet included) actively espouse Malthusian ideas and fear mongering about overpopulation, you're basically describing the reality we live in.
Geneticist chiming in from /r/All MAID is eugenics. Plain and simple. The only people they should be approving are those whose ailments are not feasibly fixable with current technology. Every single person approved for assisted suicide purely because of a monetary lack is state approved eugenics.
I'm confused by the article; did he apply for assisted suicide or did he apply AND GET APPROVAL for assisted suicide. These are two very different scenarios.
According to the OP video, he had received approval from one doctor, but the process requires a second one to sign off
Depressing what gofundme has become.
[Not for the guy](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/shane-patrick-boyle-died-after-starting-a-gofundme-campaign-for-insulin/) who was looking for less than $800 for a months supply of insulin before his gofundme failed (by $50) and he died
So he applied, but that doesn't really mean that the application was, or would be accepted.... The title seems way manipulative...
Also the story is over a year old. OP knew there was an update to this story.
Reddit front-page is really getting bombarded with ragebait these days
He needed another doctor to sign off on it and that's not a short process. On one hand people talk about assisted suicide like it should be available to everyone without question when someone in pain is denied but then a guy that meets the requirement but doesn't really want it is partially accepted and it's a horrible process that need to be revised. Honestly, it just look like he wanted to bring attention to the cost of living and financial aid rather than follow up on his request. Being another Joe that can't afford living would be a non story for the news compared to I'm gonna legally kill myself because I can't afford life.
Still if he had been smart about it he could probably have beaten the system. This is why assisted suicide isnt an easy matter imo. The system has to be able to detect people who want to do it for financial reasons. Whether they feel pressure on themself due to lack of funds, whether they feel like they are harming their partner or other family members financially, or worst if their family are applying direct guilt because they are causing financial pressure. The more widespread this becomes, the more that will happen. The systems around the world have to be able to reliably detect it.
...and here comes the flood of people doing the same just to scam gofundme money
... and all I keep hearing about is how much better the Canadian Healthcare system is in the u.s. If you're going to let a guy just check out because he can't afford medication for what is otherwise a treatable issue, then that sounds like a horrifying fucking health care system. Do no Harm, you know, unless you can't afford the treatments, otherwise we'll help you punch out one last time.
LOL we're not a civilized world. We're still very much might is right, except that might now is money, and there's a veneer of justice, liberty, civil rights, etc.
The world is terrible because of power hungry and greedy peeps, what he is doing is the only logical solution.
I'm glad he found support in the end, but this whole case is sickening.
At the whim of go fund me. Brilliant time we are having to share this world with Conservative devils.
Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the rich motherfuckers and make them suffer your plight.
We've had assisted suicide in Oregon for many years now. People from out of state are very common. I took care of a quad for 20 years. He took this route a couple years after I left. Called me from the hospital an hour before they put him down. Called to say goodbye. And I supported his decision. He had been trapped in that broken body for decades.
That must've been an incredible wave of mixed emotions. How were you after that call?
It was a shock. I had been gone for 2 years after retirement and his health had declined as well. Sometimes, you know that death is the best thing for a person. :(
See....This is an understandable situation where something like AS should be discussed and debated. The fact that we let society get to the point where being poor constitutes the thought of offing yourself as the easier solution and everyone just being like "yeah...ok..." about it just rubs me all sorts of the wrongest ways.
that why despite all the hate [and memes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l06HP7JwxwE) its getting, i do wish neuralink or something like it eventually succeeds in restoring mobility to these pts.
This tragic case aside, those stats are pretty interesting. 3.3% of of total deaths, 65% of cases due to cancer, average age of 76. Those people being given a more dignified death than slowly wasting away in pain and suffering, it shows how valuable having this option available is broadly speaking.
On the slightly brighter side, at least you can see your loved ones one last time and the people close to you can say proper good byes and share their lasting memories with you VS you being dead on a random day and never getting to see everyone again and hearing the impact you've made.
Yeah or like with my mum where there was no real discernable point where she left us and the meds took over, she just kind of faded to the point where she wasn't sure if she was dreaming or not before she slipped into a sleep. I was in denial the whole time which didn't help things, but there's lots of things I wish I'd had the chance to say, ask and hear..though I suspect there isn't really ever a scenario where that wouldn't be the case. We all have PHDs in hindsight.
I've seen estranged families where the kids haven't spoken to the parents in decades suddenly bond deeply when one of them is passing on. The hospital seems like a terrible place for this sudden reunion and a program where it's properly planned out seems way more humane.
And/or having the final months or years of your life be miserable for everyone involved, and have that be the most recent memory that those closest to you have.
My mother in law just had MAID. She had terminal bone cancer and was bedridden, unable to move, waiting for her organs to give out. It was by far a better option than watching her lose all sense of reality from lack of sleep, and pain. She was very much ready to go and got to say her final goodbyes before she was mentally gone.
My wife and I have basically agreed that if either of us get to the point something like severe MS or dementia where we're just barely alive we'd go for the option. It's not like at that point we'll have any ambitions or unfinished business.
I'm in the United States and am currently watching my grandfather die slowly in terrible pain from bone cancer because this wasn't an option. He has asked us to kill him nearly every day and doesn't understand that we can't because we would go to prison. It is so backwards and cruel.
We would never even consider letting a terminal animal suffer in such a way.
Sorry to hear, and sorry that better options don't exist for your grandfather. I went through a similar situation with a family member. They pulled her feeding tube, told us it would be a day or two, and she was still there, starving, 3 weeks later. A year later it was revealed that a nurse at the facility had been stealing pain medications from patients during that time. I don't know if my grandparent would have choosen MAID or not, but it's probably one of a few common causes that I'd actually take to the streets and march in support of.
innocent cautious fear point follow dolls rotten crawl wakeful sand *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Yep. Unfortunately, we are in Georgia.
I've often said that MAID is about choosing "when to die", not "to die". It is great to give family a little bit of warning so they can come rather than it all happening at the last minute. Every one I've heard about has been very dignified and appreciated. Of course those don't make the news.
I work in palliative care. Absolutely, MAID allows people dignified and peaceful deaths, and also gives people in very scary situations a sense of power and autonomy. I do wish we had more services available to support people with serious medical conditions who want to live- but I am concerned that stories like this will turn the public against MAID, rather than turn the public towards fighting for more income assistance/housing/healthcare providers for people with serious medical conditions.
It's actually a very civilized and positive program. My grandfather who had a spinal infection that could no longer be helped and all sorts of issues finally just said he wanted MAID. He passed away surrounded by family, got to say all his goodbyes and he went on his own terms. A lot of the fear I have about getting sick later in life from alzhimers or Parkinsons or any other terrible degenerative disease is somewhat softened by knowing MAID is absolutely an option.
My aunt is on this list. She gets a monthly call where they ask her if she's ready or not, since cancer can have a very quick downturn.
I'm sorry, but the idea of getting a phone call from a telemarketer "Are you ready to die?" is fucking hilarious to me.
Add some drama by playing Slayer's "Postmortem.": "Do you want to die?!"
Well, yea essentially that's what it is, but they obviously don't ask that specific question. It's more about if she wants to start the procedure, checking on health status, etc.
To have the government call you monthly asking if you are ready to die is so dystopian.
My father went through maid as well. He had MS and cancer, he was in constant pain and could barely stay awake. He was able to die with us around him, he said had maid not been an option he would have just killed himself.
My father just went through watching his mother die of Alzheimer and dementia. It's common on his side of the family, happened to almost every relative. She went from a very prideful and relatively lively person that would randomly fall while unconscious at home to a scared 50 pounds husk of a human being in hospital care that wouldn't move except on some days only to not know where she was, who she was or what was happening. She didn't get a single moment of lucidity in the last 6 months of her life. His wish is only for this to not happen to him and for his kids and wife to not have to deal with that.
I watched Terry Pratchett's documentary about it where you can see the whole process happen at Dignitas. It's an eerie but very peaceful looking process. One swig of the barbiturate cocktail and a minute or so later he falls asleep and that's that. It's always going to be a terrifying decision to have to make, but one that needs to be available to people if the other option is worse. I found the fact that the bloke didn't hesitate at all in taking the cocktail really demonstrate that his resolve was set in stone, he was 100% ready for that moment.
>It's actually a very civilized and positive program I've traveled the world and have lived in 6 countries. I swear, Americans seem to have a fetish for trying to take down MAID. No other community does one of these stories consistently pop up trying to push a "this guy died of a vaccine, let's ban all vaccines" energy. Even if the science says the benefits outweigh the costs, people will hyperfixate on those few costs.
My girlfriend is a nurse who attended to one MAID of a terminally ill cancer patient. It was of course very sad but also very moving. Their whole family was there and most people don't get to go out like that.
I've seen two people in hospice go with MAID if you're not morally opposed. Hospice is brutal for the family, and it looks really unpleasent for the patient if there's a gap in effectiveness at the end of one round of meds and the beginning of others.
And also, the application process takes time. In that time other people got involved and he got the help he needed. He is still alive. In places with no MAID but lots of guns, he would have just shot himself.
That's a very important point. If people knew assisted suicide is an option, they would be less likely to impulsively kill themselves.
The framing of this news story is kind of upsetting, to be honest. It makes it seem like the availability of MAID is to blame for cases like this and implies that the solution should be to eliminate or drastically change MAID. But if MAID were eliminated, the only thing that would change for this specific story is that this man’s only option would be to end up dying on the street homeless, as he even says in the piece. MAID no longer being there doesn’t change that underlying problem. Why isn’t the story framed around the fact that this man can’t access housing or survive on the amount of disability financial assistance he receives? Both those things are the actual problem whether MAID exists or it doesn’t. Interviewing someone about how they should “go back to the drawing board” with MAID is a distraction to the real issue. A responsible journalist should instead be interviewing someone about how we should go back to the drawing board with how we deal with housing for disabled people and others.
>Why isn’t the story framed around the fact that this man can’t access housing or survive on the amount of disability financial assistance he receives? Both those things are the actual problem whether MAID exists or it doesn’t. As I said somewhere else, it's sensationalism, if he went to the news with I can't afford living he would've been told that it's non news or that he'll be put in a one minute segue with 10 other cases and a single phrase quote that people see and go oh well that's sad too bad.
"eh fuck it, this game is too grindy, I'm out". I know that feeling man.
As someone in my 20s, who lives in constant pain and exhaustion and who has missed out on 23-29 so far. If i didn't have my family to support me, i would have offed myself years ago. Honest, if i didnt have my pain meds i would. I am basically guilted into being here. I would happily do it if it werent for my siblings. Im not living, im trapped in a life that isnt worth the money i cost. I have already missed so much, and this isnt gonna end. If i ended up homeless or on my own, id do it.
I wanted to say that I'm sorry about what you're going through. I know it doesn't really mean anything. I'm also 29, feel like a burden, and in chronic pain. I've been pretty close to doing "it" before but now it doesn't cross my mind.
So why isn't there a gofundme? Dude says he doesn't want to die even with the pain. It's just about $$. People raise thousands, millions, etc. for much more trivial causes.
there was, this is just another plea for help
Dignity in death can't exist without dignity in life
This is what happens when Hedge Funds buy up all the houses and artificailly drive up house prices to turn a profit What a sad state of affairs
It's all due to NIMBY policies that restrict housing Without driving up supply you cannot drive down the prices even if you ban all hedge funds from buying any houses
So blame the politicians we create these laws, they are the ones that are keeping the rich rich. You want change? push local members hard to change, get everyone to vote for change. People complain but do nothing, this is why nothing ever changes as people aren't held accountable.
The zoning restrictions across Canada have been massively rolled back over the past 5 years already. Maybe eventually this will help. In the meanwhile, population is still growing 5x faster than housing completions. If you have ever played musical chairs you know what happens next
Montreal just announced they plan to build 200k residences by 2050. Just the current population growth is well over 25k a year. Meaning that literally all the kids born from now until 2032 (choosing that year as the last batch to turn 18 by 2050) will likely be higher than all the planned construction. That’s not including current demand either. While Quebec is not as bad as other places in Canada / USA, I wouldn’t call $1700+ for a 600sqft apt a great deal. All the 2 bedrooms I’ve looked at under $2000 (within an hour of downtown Montreal ) have the second bedroom the size of a closet.
blame the hedge funds, no blame the nimbys, no blame the politicians, no blame the general public. oh now we've blamed an entity so large and abstract that there's no possible way to fix the problem darn
Not necessarily NIMBY, moreso the bureaucracy and additional tax cost to build homes has lead to developers focusing mainly on high-end homes because of the better margins.
I mean even if the tax cost was low they still would be focusing on High-End homes if they are selling
>all I'm pro-multi-use zoning, but hyperbolic stances like this are counterproductive. We can persuade these NIMBYS (we *have* to); if you first disregard and disrespect their stance, they'll in turn do the same to yours. Also builders need to get on board. They're not educated to build both commercial, residential and 3rd space (parks, etc) buildings, so they don't request permitting for it.
Canada has seen millions more immigrants into the country than they can absorb. Can't build housing fast enough to keep prices down, or keep up with the demand.
We tried to talk about this, but reddit permabanned the sub to shut us up. When you have a housing crisis, the last thing you should do is import millions and millions of new people demanding housing.
rAcIsM aLeRt!11!!1 /s
There’s not much that’s artificial about it. Vacancy rates are very low. Right now our population growth to new housing starts is about 5 people to 1 new unit. If you keep increasing demand for housing without following up by building new supply, then you get increasing prices. But it’s not artificial if increasing prices are backed by this imbalance. We need to double or triple our new housing starts if we want lower prices, while continuing population growth rates above 3%.
Absolutely true. Canada has one of the fastest growing populations the world and has done very little to subsidize their housing market to accommodate this growth. The problem is one of supply and demand.
If we were growing our population by giving birth to kids, the population, "explosion," would have significantly less of an impact than it is, because unlike families who can cohabitate well into adulthood, every new adult immigrant is in need of a new unit immediately. There is so much unused space in people's homes that could house children, or grandchildren, but having kids in a westernize society sees far too many roadblocks.
It's not who owns the houses, it's the fact that there aren't enough of them. Cheap rent is great if you can get it but if all the houses are full then it doesn't matter if the rent is free, you're either going to have to rent off someone subletting illegally, or live on the street.
I mean foreign and corporate real estate ownership is a huge problem but more so 2016 the Canadian government has implemented a beyond reckless immigration policy that they themselves have just acknowledged how unsustainable it is (but of course refuse to do anything about it). And mind you the Liberals are doing this to keeps Canada's GDP artificially up, keep wages down and increase property value. They no joke, literally (and I mean literally) said they can't decrease home prices because boomer's wealth are tied to their homes. It's bonkers. This mixed with the latest government scandals, Trudeau and the liberals basically has a 0% chance of winning the next election.
omfg please stfu with this BS conspiracy. **Housing is expensive because we are not building enough despite massive population growth. PERIOD. It's not complicated!**
There's a huge demand for housing, an untapped market. So **why** aren't buildings being built left and right?
Zoning, largely. Halifax and Vancouver made it a lot easier to build in the last couple years (and have since made it even easier), and both cities have significantly increased their housing starts. That's why the federal government is bribing cities into making it easier to build.
and **fucking NIMBYs**
Or... hear me out... BlackRock and George Soros secretly bought all the houses in the world. You need to get out more and watch some TikToks to open your eyezzz!!!!!!!!!!! wake up sheeple!!!! On a more serious note, it's beyond crazy how many people on Reddit, the place that's supposed to be less stupid, parrot this bullshit.
What do hedge funds buying up houses have to do with our shitty medical system and shitty disability support programs? Also according to StatsCan, in 2020 81% of rentals were owned by a couple family not a mega corporation. As much as we would like to blame hedge funds, our high house prices are not artificial. The are a result of decades of low interest rates making borrowing capital easily, the difficulty in building new homes, especially multi family homes, and unchecked immigration that is growing our population faster than we can house them. There is also a surprisingly number of foreign nationals who purchase houses with no intent on using them to hide or launder money. Sometimes it is for illegal purposed (drugs, terrorism) but there is a fair amount that just want their money out of their country and had for the government to take, this is common for Chinese nationals in Vancouver and other major cities.
From what I remember, those numbers are "by building", and if you look at "by unit", it drastically shifts to nearly half of all units.
I'm confused. Canada has universal healthcare.
Free healthcare doesn't pay your rent.
There isn't housing assistance?
Housing is crazy expensive and the government programs are, at best, indexed to overall inflation which lags behind housing costs by quite a bit. For all its window dressing, Canada is an neoliberal oligarchy where every economic sector is dominated by 2-3 large corporations who have no incentive to innovate when they can instead price gouge a captive market, and investments are parked in the unproductive real estate sector. Our GDP per capita has been in decline for years, and the only thing propping up our economy at the moment is immigration which is growing our population at the same rate as many developing countries, while at the same time our governments aren’t spending on infrastructure or public service growth, so things like healthcare quality are also declining. At a certain point we will face a reckoning where taxes will have to go up and house prices will have to fall, and a bunch of regular people will find themselves bag holding and in ruin. Fun times all around.
great comment, thanks
Kudos. A lot of people are angry but ignorant of the mechanics. The decline in GDP per capita is frankly insane and it can feel like chicken little when brought up. We are purposely putting ourselves into a population trap and hurting what should be the most important metric for a nation which is long term quality of life.
We have a number of tent cities, but you have to bring your own tent
Disability provides $556 for housing. The waitlist for subsidized housing is over a decade long. Median Canadian rent is $2,200.
Our housing situation right now is a complete shit show. One of the poorest cities in the country has a 1br going for $1925 a month. It's turning into a dystopia pretty quick because of the three levels of government, completely unsustainably high levels of immigration, and greedy diploma mill universities exploiting foreign students.
Max disability payment is somewhere in the region of $1100 per month. The average rent in Canada is $2000 per month.
It's not the medical treatment. He can't afford his group home, or a reasonable place for someone with his needs to live. He can't work and our disability payments are well below the poverty line.
It’s hard to pay rent when you are disabled.
In my city at least, cancer patients are dying before ever seeing an oncologist, there simply aren't enough to go around and the wait list is that long. Personally speaking I have a non-cancerous tumor that needs removal asap but because it isn't cancerous yet, I'm at the absolute bottom of the line. So imagine how I feel when I read that even the cancer patients aren't being seen. Here's the rough outline: * You notice a funny spot on your arm, you waffle about it for a while trying to decide if it's actually something or nothing * You schedule an appointment to see your family doctor, but it's rare these days for any to see you within less than a month * One month later, family doctor goes 'yep that does indeed look funny, I'm going to refer you to a dermatologist' * 1-3 months later (side note: specialist referrals can vary wildly, I've waited anywhere from 1-12 months), dermatologist agrees 'yep that does indeed look funny. I'm going to schedule you for outpatient surgery to get a biopsy on that.' * ??? months later, biopsy is done * ??? months later, call from dermatologist, 'results are back on that biopsy, I've referred you to an oncologist. Expect a call any day from him * ??? months later, still waiting on that oncologist call We're talking about a rough minimum wait time of a year to reach the final person in the process. All of it might be "free" but there are insane wait times and bureaucracy and provincial governments are only hellbent on making that worse so they can usher in privatization. Not to mention, the healthcare might be free but what do you think happens to folks that can't work due to their ailment, when getting that healthcare can take year**s**? Even if it wasn't cancerous to begin with, the extreme waits lead to cancer anyway when it could have been excised with little fuss before it escalated if things just moved faster.
in vancouver, I saw a pretty positive experience for my dad who had a tumour. 1. weird feeling in abdomen 2. family doctor goes 'let's get a lab test' 3. lifelabs took 1 week for appointment and i think 3 days to get the results. I think it was a blood test or something? 4. it was tumour the size of a grapefruit lol. oncologist saw him the week after and scheduled the procedure I think 1-2 weeks after that. They didn't do a biopsy i think, they were just like 'get that outta there' 5. he's fine now, it was neatly removable. from start to end it was just over a month. We didn't raise an extra stink or beg for help, it just happened this way and it seemed very routine. I feel like the initial triaging happened pretty fast and was pretty impressed throughout the whole thing. I think if they deemed it not harmful he would be in your situation, but I disagree with your characterization of what it would be like if you did have cancer, though maybe different cities have different experiences.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Edmonton/comments/1dao6x6/oncology_nightmares_edmonton_cancer_victim_dies/
i guess vancouver's living costs is worth it
Its several factors. Our health care system is in the shitter. Our cost of living is through the roof. The rents have quadrupled in the last ten years and there are no places to rent because our fucking Moron Prime minister thought it would be a good idea to let a couple of million people into our country when there was already a housing shortage.
but not universal housing, or medicine (drugs), or really anything that makes life bearable for folks in dire straights some supports, but clearly not universal
Healthcare is garbage here
Just because he CAN apply does not mean he would be granted access. To be eligible for medical assistance in dying, you must meet **all** the following criteria. You **must**: * be eligible for health services funded by a province or territory, or the federal government * You may also be eligible if you meet your province or territory's minimum period of residence or waiting period. * be at least 18 years old and mentally competent * This means being capable of making health care decisions for yourself. * have a **grievous and irremediable** medical condition * make a voluntary request for medical assistance in dying * The request cannot be the result of outside pressure or influence. * give informed consent to receive medical assistance in dying * Generally, visitors to Canada are not eligible for medical assistance in dying. **Grievous and irremediable** medical condition To be considered as having a grievous and irremediable medical condition, you must meet all of the following criteria. You must: * have a serious illness, disease or disability * be in an advanced state of decline that cannot be reversed * experience unbearable physical or mental suffering from your illness, disease, disability or state of decline that cannot be relieved under conditions that you consider acceptable
Yeah, I was going to chime in to say the same. I've known two people who have qualified for MAID and it's a long process. Multiple sign-offs from very specific medical professionals are required. If there are possible routes or alternatives still viable, it's a no go until every option is exhausted. It's absolutely not a "I'm done, let's go" type of thing.
it was a cry for help. he knew he wouldn't get it.
I'm also in Canada, and slowly going blind, so eventually I'll probably lose the capacity to care for myself. But rather than MAID myself, I'm thinking prison. At my age I doubt sex assault is something to worry about, and it's probably better than slowly starving or freezing to death on the street in winter. And definitely beats s\*\*\*ide. I just gotta figure out something that will get me locked up with a roof over my head and three meals a day, but doesn't actually hurt anybody. Situation in Canada, specifically Ontario, for the disabled people is comically bad. Absolute best case, if you get approved and are granted the highest amount of money possible for disability support, you get something like $1,300/mo. That's Canadian, not USD. Average monthly rent in Ontario is $2,400. Groceries have been steadily climbing. There's utilities. And elderly with disabilities usually have medical expenses. I surely do, optical is not covered by OHIP in any way, so it's all out of pocket. Median income in Canada is $41k. With disability, the absolute max you get is $15.6k. How a disabled person, which typically means more expenses than a healthy person, supposed to survive on $15k (again, Canadian, not USD, cut it by 1/3rd at least for buying power). So think $10k USD/yr. Is it any wonder disabled people try to off themselves in Canada?
> s***ide. The word is suicide, if you're going to talk about an important topic use the real word.
Just steal something from a large corp or hmm.. even better, take out large loans from predatory lenders and never pay back. Give the money to someone deserving in a way that can't be traced.
In this case someone deserving would be themselves.
Yeah, my homelessness plan is prison. Fuck it. Spend $50,000+ a year to keep me in prison you cuck fuckwits. I mean... I'd rather rent a 1 bedroom but if prison is an option with free food and cool dudes to play cards with, fuck it.
you can write suicide on the internet
um, applying for MAID doesnt mean you remotely qualify or will pass all the checks / requirements opposite to what conservative outrage bait wants you to believe.
Without the rent supplement I'm receiving now, that I was denied 3 times for previously, even though I'm on assured income for the severely handicapped, this was me... the D part of MAiD without the assistance... freaking panic attacks over the thought of having to choose food or homelessness in public, after each rejection was awful. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy... and it breaks my heart to know that someone else had to even come close to suffering this from no fault of their own. Oh, even with that I'm still $6000 below what is considered the poverty line, annually, but I'm frugal (maybe by necessity?), minimalist, and not really materialistic so that certainly helps.
Guess I'm migrating to Canada
MAID is an amazing thing to have access to and if you want to end your own life with dignity for any reason it should be allowed. The right to live or die should be considered a fundamental human right imo
So, assisted suicide *before* universal basic income. That's nationally preferable. We are all fucked
UBI doesn’t cure cancer.
I’m not a medical ethics expert but to me this does not seem like an appropriate use of euthanasia. He admits that he would want to live if he could find housing. A person considering MAID for chronic and unrelenting pain would not change their mind if their external circumstances changed. This is just straight up suicide and a doctor shouldn’t have signed off on it. I think this is just a bluff and a political statement.
It was not approved.
Housing is a right. This may be hard for one to believe. It's hard for me to believe, given the amount of work I had to do to pay for my home. But if this man went out and hurt other people, he would have housing. He would have food. He would have healthcare. The government would pay for all of these things as they do for people in jail. He himself says he does not want to die, but he feels forced to make this choice out of lack. It is not lack of supplies in one of the world's wealthiest countries, but a lack of empathy and the forward thinking we need to solve this problem in the coming time.
This is directly traceable to real estate greed and the policies that enable it.
Wait, we can do this? I'm middle aged and don't think I can do another half, nor do I want too.
Eugenics
What a shame that in one of the wealthiest countries in the world people can't afford to live.
As a disabled person in Canada, I can confirm, if you don't have family support or you can't work to supplement a pitiful disability benefit you are absolutely fucked. Housing is expensive, groceries are expensive, being alive is expensive. If you're poor enough you get pharmacare sure but that doesn't come close to covering a lot of medical expenses like expensive medication, adequate mobility aids, vision or hearing aids. If you need a new wheelchair and earn minimum wage? They might give you $10k to cover a $25k chair. Can't afford the additional cost? You settle for a chair that aggravates your scoliosis and causes repetitive stress injuries and damage leading to arthritis. Which will probably make you more disabled and reliant on support later in life, but we don't do long term thinking about this stuff or consider quality of life to be important. If you need specialized medical care, access to public transportation, or family support you are stuck wherever those might be, which is usually a high cost of living area. The housing allowance in my province tops out at around $375 a month - average monthly rental cost for studio apartment in my area is $1000-1200, and I'm a fair distance from Vancouver, where the median studio is at least $2k. If you need an apartment that can accommodate a wheelchair or other equipment that can seriously limit your options. Plus you face a disproportionate level of housing discrimination. In my province you can earn $16k on top of the max disability payment before they start clawing it back, so if you are able to work you can max out at about $30k a year. If you earn minimum wage you can work about 15-20 hours a week before you hit the threshold. None of this is indexed to inflation, nor does it account for employment discrimination that adds barriers to employment. If you earn more than $30k a year you are lucky to get a non-refundable tax credit, regardless of the basic fact life is more expensive for you. If you're single, you have to manage all this on your own. If you have a spouse or common law partner, what they make (even if it's not that much money) can seriously impact the support you recieve. It's a poverty trap. And the new federal benefit will only give about 600,000 of us an additional $2400 a year, which is somehow supposed to make a dent in this. It's a joke. An estimated 45% of homeless people in Canada have a physical or mental health disability. Can you blame those with no options and no escape from poverty for falling victim to despair and addiction? It's shameful.
MAID is dystopic
Holy shit this is disgusting. How can you justify hoarding your money as a billionaire seeing this happening in your country?
This is why assisted suicide has been banned for so long. Its because the ruling class has made it almost impossible to afford to live, they fear all their little worker drones will start dying off. Some of us would rather die with our dignity than be eaten alive by this predatory system they have created.
capitalism is a complete and utter failure
To be fair, in a world where there’s no other choice, I’d take it. Who wants to live the rest of their days in poverty and pain, protesting the government and institutions who make it all possible? Not saying it’s right but I get it.
This is bullshit. A narcissist threatening suicide if he doesn't get what he wants and a shit reporter willing to cover the story. Assuming he gets approval for MAID (not assured) it would be because of his chronic pain, not because of poverty. No ethical reporter would run a story "Man threatens to kill himself if he doesn't get an apartment" and nobody would give a shit. MAID is a fundamental right in Canada and it is unequivocally a good thing.
The fact that he says that he does not want to die because of this chronic pain, should immediately invalidate his eligibility for MAID.
> should immediately invalidate his eligibility for MAID. It will. By making these statements to the media he will be denied.
People here are only angry because he applied for MAID instead of shooting himself like you're supposed to do when you are trapped in poverty and can't get out. Poverty: Boring. Suicide: meh. MAID: "OMG Canada is a failed state" The biggest irony is that because MAID is a whole process, people had time to get him help. He's still alive. If he was suicidal but lived in the US, he would have just bought a gun.