Abstract
The recent change in Canadian law to allow access to medical assistance in dying restricts eligibility, among its other criteria, to those for whom “natural death has become reasonably foreseeable.” A recent review of certain aspects of the law examined the evidence pertaining to extending access to assisted dying in three particular request situations currently denied: requests by mature minors, advance requests, and requests where mental illness is the sole underlying medical condition [1]. The requirement for this review was included in the legislation that introduced medical assistance in dying in Canada. Both the original change in the law and the review itself neglected to consider those with intolerable suffering for whom natural death is not reasonably foreseeable. This paper explores the possibility that access to assisted dying should be extended by removing this limiting criterion. It also considers the ethical challenges this might present for those who work in rehabilitation.
Highlights
When Czesław Miłosz wrote that “the true enemy of man is generalization” [2, p.208], he may have been engaging in an overgeneralization himself
In keeping with the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) ruling, the criteria include the need to be a capable adult and to be experiencing a grievous and irremediable condition that produces physical or psychological suffering that is intolerable to the individual
The eventual amendment to the Criminal Code of Canada departs from the SCC ruling with more limiting specifications of what constitutes ‘grievous and irremediable’ [4, S.241.2(2)]
Summary
When Czesław Miłosz wrote that “the true enemy of man is generalization” [2, p.208], he may have been engaging in an overgeneralization himself. Canada’s current law enshrines this denial of evident self-reported intolerable suffering by individuals not nearing death, and the parameters of the recent review3 of the law [1] continued to disregard the experiences of some people living with non-terminal conditions that lead a small minority of them to seek an end to their life.
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