The survey conducted by the Canadian polling firm Research Co. found that 27 percent said Medical Aid in Dying (MAID), the country's end-of-life program, should be available to those in poverty, while 28 percent said the same for the country's roughly 30,000 homeless people.
Moreover, a higher percentage of the 1,000 adult respondents said that assisted suicide should also be made available to those with disabilities, mental illnesses or those who cannot receive medical treatment. A whopping 43 percent even said the mentally ill should be allowed to get a doctor's help in ending their lives. Fifty percent also believe that those with disabilities should also be able to receive MAID.
Canada has been dubbed as the home to the most permissive assisted suicide program, which was launched in 2016. Records show that more than 10,000 people ended their lives under the scheme in recent years.
As the country's government officials ponder on whether the assisted suicide program should be extended to children and the mentally ill, the survey found that nearly 75 percent of Canadians believe the country has the right policies in place for letting people seek medical assistance in dying. (Related: Canada expands euthanasia "mercy" killing to ensnare society's most vulnerable, including children.)
Many Canadians support euthanasia and the campaign group Dying With Dignity pointed out that the procedures are "driven by compassion, an end to suffering and discrimination and desire for personal autonomy." However, experts say that regulations lack necessary safeguards, devalue the lives of disabled people and prompt doctors and health workers to suggest the procedure to those who might not otherwise consider it.
"One-third of Canadians are fine with prescribing assisted suicide for homelessness. Shameful," Lord David Alton, a British peer, tweeted. "Homeless people need a roof over their heads, not a lethal injection. End homelessness, not the lives of the homeless."
"We said we were going to have safeguards and guardrails, but the next government can simply open it up further by making a decision and that's exactly what's happening," said Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.
Euthanasia is legal in Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Spain, as well as in several states in Australia. It is available to children in the Netherlands and Belgium.
More and more Canadians avail of MAID program
According to David Brooks, contributing writer at the Atlantic, MAID was originally conceived reasonably well-defined. Assisted suicide will only be granted to patients with serious illness or disability; an "advanced state" of decline that could not be reversed; with unbearable physical or mental suffering; and someone who is at the point where natural death had become "reasonably foreseeable."
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau even promised that the 2016 legislation would never endanger those who are psychologically vulnerable and not near death. This "simply isn't something that ends up happening," he said, but now the nation seems to be moving toward that road.
"Within a few years, Canada went from being a country that banned assisted suicide to one of the loosest regimes in the world," Brooks highlighted in the article, adding that the number of Canadians dying by physician-assisted suicide ballooned over the years.
There were more than 10,000 assisted suicides in 2021, which is one in 30 of all Canadian deaths. The great majority of people dying this way were elderly and near death, but those who seek assisted suicide tend to get it. In the same year, only four percent of those who filed written applications were deemed not eligible for the program.
"If autonomy is your highest value, these trends are not tragic; they're welcome. Death is no longer the involuntary, degrading end of life; it can be a glorious act of self-expression," Brooks said.
On the other side of the coin, the complex moral issues surrounding the end of life have drifted out of sight. Decisions tend to be made within a bureaucratic context, where utilitarian considerations can come to dominate the foreground.
Visit Euthanasia.news to read more about Canada's doctor-assisted death industry.
Watch the video below that talks about a man applying for MAID as he was about to be ejected from his home in Canada.
This video is from the Red Voice Media channel on Brighteon.com.
More related stories:
OFFING THE POOR: Canadian man facing homelessness applies for medically assisted death.
Aussie scientist promotes ASSISTED SUICIDE in Scotland using DIY death pods.
KILLING THE HELPLESS: Canada set to legalize euthanasia for mentally ill patients.
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