Canada to start offering doctor-assisted death to the mentally ill

[JM_]

5 minutes ago, Kurgom said:

Because depression is not incurable and most of the times it is "incurable" it's due to a lack of effort towards change by the individual. I was guilty of this in the past, if you told 20 year old me "yeah but it's OK to just give up and die if you still feel bad a year from now" I would not be here.

 

As mental health becomes an even more important part of young people's lives going forwards, this is not something you want them to be thinking of as an option or resolution. Society telling them yes, it's okay to kill themselves, how can you not see the effects this will have on the most vulnerable people?

it hasn't been that easy of a process for other diseases, not sure that this situation would be easier, I expect the controls to be even tighter. 

[Kurgom]

2 minutes ago, JM_ said:

it hasn't been that easy of a process for other diseases, not sure that this situation would be easier, I expect the controls to be even tighter. 

That's good and all but I don't think reality soon becoming going to your doctor and having a conversation about when the government will let you kill yourself is going to be a positive for mental health in this country. Usually therapy and doctors get the people whom struggle with these thoughts to keep their mind on other things. Kids see this and know it's morally correct to end your life if you are suffering from depression badly enough.

Edited April 8, 2022 by Kurgom

[JM_]

Just now, Kurgom said:

That's good and all but I don't think reality soon becoming going to your doctor and having a conversation about when the government will let you kill yourself is going to be a positive for mental health in this country. Usually therapy and doctors get the people whom struggle with these thoughts to keep their mind on other things.

I think this is meant for people who really have no hope of a solution. Not sure I want to see people forced to suffer, but its going to be a very difficult decision for a team of physicians to come to. I don't envy anyone who has to go through this process. 

[Warhippy]

On 4/6/2022 at 5:00 AM, Canuck Surfer said:

It is a tough world.  The posts noting suicide among Inuit and 1st Nations hit home. Especially with young.

 

I have some honest questions.  @Warhippy I regard you as both sensationalist. Which is fair most things considered. Candid a better term. Informed, sincere. Calculated in the way you measure impacts which I respect.  

 

Is there a traditional life to be had, loved, lived richly?  Is home life attractive, or a path it can be.  Co-habitation, integration; are they options that are wanted? I am, no doubt, asking the wrong questions.

 

Where would you take a discussion if people were genuine. 

 

 

 

I am unsure how to answer this as I am unsure of the context of traditional life.

 

My main stay on this is that people should have the right to govern their own bodies.  Period.  This includes refusing vaccinations and being allowed to have abortions.  I would 100% believe and suggest they also have the right to terminate their life as they see fit.

 

There are so many reasons people might, from bleak futures, traumatic pasts, social, economic, mental and physical issues.  All of them (within reason barring terminal or degenerative illness) are in fact treatable and all of them can in fact increase not only the quality of life of said person.  But sometimes, these are salves only and a person can back slide and decide that even with a bump in quality of life, or seratonin.  That it's just not worth it.

 

I firmly believe that with 8 billion people on the planet.  Numerous eco systems at risk of collapse, the general apathy of the world and society as a whole.  Allowing people the right to bow out of this life is not only a right but an actual courtesy.

 

I believe myself to be a centrist as I like to see and understand both arguments because life is never just black or white.  In a just society in which we allow complete bodily autonomy the right to death should be as enshrined as the right to life, equality and the pursuit of happiness if not basic human rights/decency.

[StanleyCupOneDay]

On 4/4/2022 at 12:46 PM, Coda said:

https://nationalpost.com/health/canada-mental-illness-maid-medical-aid-in-dying/wcm/944c8b7f-4c78-489d-9758-7d87733b8d78/amp/

“The expert panel has been instructed to recommend safeguards. For Dr. Sonu Gaind, a past president of the Canadian Psychiatric Association, the most fundamental safeguard has already been bypassed, because there is no scientific evidence, he says, that doctors can predict when a mental illness will be irremediable.  Everything else goes out the window.”

 

Not sure I like where this is going.  I’m not against the idea of medically-assisted death entirely: For some with painful terminal illnesses it really may be the most humane thing.  However, our society used to promote trying to help the mentally ill overcome their mental illnesses (at least in theory: in practice funding for mental health has been abysmal).  Now we’re going to tell the guy who wants to jump off the bridge “hey don’t do that…let’s get you to a clinic…where you can kill yourself with less mess.”  
 

People with mental illnesses very often have their brain working against their best interests…such as staying alive and getting healthy.  

Medically assisted death for terminal/coma patients is one thing, and an action I strongly support, but widening that list to anyone mentally unwell is something I am vehemently against. I know people who took their lives who suffered from mental health problems, friends, family. It’s not permanent and things can get better (personal note: attempted suicide myself, without my mom, I wouldn’t be posting this right now).
 

During someone’s greatest time of desperation there has to be support to help people live not help people die.

This makes me very angry.

Edited April 9, 2022 by StanleyCupOneDay

[StanleyCupOneDay]

On 4/7/2022 at 6:05 PM, Kurgom said:

Because depression is not incurable and most of the times it is "incurable" it's due to a lack of effort towards change by the individual. I was guilty of this in the past, if you told 20 year old me "yeah but it's OK to just give up and die if you still feel bad a year from now" I would not be here.

 

As mental health becomes an even more important part of young people's lives going forwards, this is not something you want them to be thinking of as an option or resolution. Society telling them yes, it's okay to kill themselves, how can you not see the effects this will have on the most vulnerable people?

Let’s not blame people who suffer from mental illness. It’s not as simple as “Just change. There, mental problems solved”. It’s far more complicated then you make it out to be.

[thrago]

On 4/4/2022 at 4:49 PM, Warhippy said:

As a first nations person I am fully aware of this.

 

We're talking about a system wide reset though;  because at this point nothing else will change it.  We can prevent it.  Yes.  But for how long?  We continue, as a people; to get promised help.  Decades later and numerous governments we've seen no change.  There's no will to change it all.  What is it like to continually get promised hope, change and help.  Only to see it never arrive and then be ostracized because of it for simply asking where the promised help was that we'd been waiting for.

 

Without a full reset from the floor to the ceiling about this, and mental health as a whole in this nation.  What you suggest; will never come to pass.

First off, I will apologize for my ignorance, I'm just putting out a though to see what you think.  It seems to me that a large part of the problem is that we need to get these kids off the reservation and into society as a whole.  Here is where I'm really ignorant on the matter, how much of the aboriginal population is on the reserve because they have no choice and how many is it because they choose to be there and or are pressured to stay?  If it's because they have no choice, we need to find a way to help them get to where they want to be.  Are these kids committing suicide because they feel there is no way out?  Again I apologize for my ignorance as all I know about reserves is what I've seen on TV, but from what I've seen they don't look like healthy from a mental standpoint place to grow up.