spoiler
"... when the Canadian parliament enacted Bill C-7, a sweeping euthanasia law which repealed the ‘reasonably foreseeable’ requirement – and the requirement that the condition should be ‘terminal’. Now, as long as someone is suffering from an illness or disability which ‘cannot be relieved under conditions that you consider acceptable’, they can take advantage of what is now known euphemistically as ‘medical assistance in dying’ (MAID for short) for free.
Soon enough, Canadians from across the country discovered that although they would otherwise prefer to live, they were too poor to improve their conditions to a degree which was acceptable..."
"A woman in Ontario was forced into euthanasia because her housing benefits did not allow her to get better housing which didn’t aggravate her crippling allergies. Another disabled woman applied to die because she ‘simply cannot afford to keep on living’. Another sought euthanasia because Covid-related debt left her unable to pay for the treatment which kept her chronic pain bearable"
"When the family of a 35-year-old disabled man who resorted to euthanasia arrived at the care home where he lived, they encountered ‘urine on the floor… spots where there was feces on the floor… spots where your feet were just sticking. Like, if you stood at his bedside and when you went to walk away, your foot was literally stuck.’ According to the Canadian government, the assisted suicide law is about ‘prioritis[ing] the individual autonomy of Canadians’; one may wonder how much autonomy a disabled man lying in his own filth had in weighing death over life."
:doomjak:
That final paragraph is a doozy:
Next year, the floodgates will open even further when those suffering from mental illness – another disproportionately poor group – become eligible for assisted suicide, although enthusiastic doctors and nurses have already pre-empted the law. There is already talk of allowing ‘mature minors’ access to euthanasia too – just think of the lifetime savings. But remember, slippery slopes are always a fallacy.
:jesus-christ:
just think of the lifetime savings
This was one of the earliest nazi talking points in pre-WW2 Germany.
Even before Bill C-7 entered into force, the country’s Parliamentary Budget Officer published a report about the cost savings it would create: whereas the old MAID regime saved $86.9 million per year – a ‘net cost reduction’, in the sterile words of the report – Bill C-7 would create additional net savings of $62 million per year. Healthcare, particular for those suffering from chronic conditions, is expensive; but assisted suicide only costs the taxpayer $2,327 per ‘case’.
The paragraph in question
imagine the savings if we wiped out the entire human race in a nuclear holocaust but left an automated money printer and a paper factory hooked up to a hydroelectric dam
i think that's an allusion to the one about vagrancy law equally preventing the rich and poor from sleeping under a bridge
That was one of the voices I had to kill in my own head, can't imagine hearing it from a doctor.
I've been reading a book that goes over early eugenics and "Just think about how much these people cost" was always the driving force.
How much do billionaires cost to the rest of humanity and the world? :cap-think:
Unfortunately, eugenics isn't a new thing here. Canada and Canadian doctors have been practicing eugenics in the form of legally and illegally forced or coerced sterilization from 1928 to 2017 (at least, that's the most recent known case) largely targeting indigenous people, those experiencing mental health problems, and people with disabilities.
If anything, bill C-7 and it's subsequent expansions are just a reintroduction of its legal form that conveniently has a built in "but it's voluntary" cop out
the prioritizing autonomy thing is absolute bullshit, I'm still astounded that's the leading argument for those supporting this. there's no choice here. this is canadas "oh so polite" way of framing blatant eugenics by imposing horrible conditions on poor and disabled people and saying it's their choice if they want to die because of it. it's just so much easier to coerce them into being killed than actually providing services and aid that would improve their quality of life. like this shit is so fucking insidious.
the autonomy argument just gets me cause its like, oh you want to take away a disabled persons ability and right to choose?? like fuck off you are not advocating for their autonomy, you want them to choose to die so your hands feel more clean when you kill them. I'm so tired and upset about the lives bill c-7 will take.
liberal "autonomy" isn't real autonomy, just like they don't know what freedom is.
on the other hand, now i get to choose between adventurism and a one way trip to canada.
suicidality being seen as an individual's onus and not the brain's natural response to the torture of late stage capitalism is honestly one of the most insidious tendencies of liberalism.
i wish every capitalist a very nice free euthanasia :trans-gun:
I still have this suspicious feeling about Covid, because a few years ago, I remember reading the news and Shinzo Abe (former PM of Japan) said that he wished all the elderly would die so they don't have to pay their pensions. Then a few years later Covid comes along and is mostly killing the elderly. The world's financial elites do get together and hold secret meetings, and I'm sure these ghouls would love to get rid of the elderly, sick and poor.
Malthus was in favor of "courting the plague" to do just that however if Covid received initial human assistance I think it was most likely from that Maryland base with the intent to harm China.
We're about 15-20 years away from the suicide pills in Children of Men that they'll sale over the counter.
The suicide booths from Futurama, but they have a Canadian accent
Wasn't able to post this bit, due to running out of time on my break at work, but I wanted to share a little about my personal connection to this.
Prior to this bill, my stepfather (who I still consider more of a father to me than my actual father, who always prioritized the highest paying job he could find over time with my family and still bases his worth of my sister and I on how much money we make) committed suicide seemingly out of nowhere. My mom, who had always been upfront and open with me, gave me the option to read the note he left for her, partially because there was a section addressed directly to me, and partially because she didn't want me to wonder if I had been part of the reason. I couldn't make it to that section because I was so shocked that one of the reasons he stated for doing it was being unable to provide for us as much as he wanted to and seeing no other alternative than "relieving" us of the "financial burden" he saw himself as that it broke me. I was 14.
Just over a year later this bill passed, and I happened to be in an ethics class when the news broke. Our teacher had us choose our own sides debate it, and even then I could see where it was headed. The autonomy argument many of my classmates made resulted in me being sent to the office for getting into such a rage that the whole top floor could hear me yelling, and they thought it to be unreasonable because I wasn't willing to get personal enough in class to say that I knew and loved someone who probably would have opted for it in part due to financial stress. What other choice did he see himself having? How was that "autonomy"?
He literally unknowingly saved me from my own attempt when I was 13. The aftermath made me promise myself I would never go through with it no matter how bad things got. I couldn't understand back then, but I now know what it's like to weigh the finances of not existing anymore. It's a hellish low to be rationalizing suicide like that, because in a lot of cases under capitalism it's a logical conclusion you can't rationalize your way out of. I wish he hadn't felt like he had no other option. It's been nearly a decade, but I still really miss him.
neoliberalism, the most anti-human, monstrous, fucking cruel and crooked global socioeconomic system, beyond fucked up, i hope one day these ghouls die feeling every single iota of the pain and despair that they have spread
Reading another article about this
https://globalnews.ca/news/7703262/canada-senate-passes-bill-c-7/
It's Canada's conservatives who are begging to not have the bill passed. God they might have :amerikkka: beat on the hellworld title.
The problem with euthanasia and assisted suicide is that for the most part, no one actually wants to die. Seriously, no one actually wants it, it's almost always just because the alternative is seen as even worse. Take a patient who is in extreme pain 24/7 and who just wants to end it all, and imagine that we discover an amazing breakthrough that will fix all of their pain and allow them to live in a healthy and normal life without any issues whatsoever. They would take that in an instant instead.
The thing with assisted suicide is that those breakthroughs don't happen (or at least not nearly enough) and for 99.9% of the people in such situations, we simply don't know how or if their problems could be fixed ever. It's reasonable that we shouldn't force them to stay alive in a world that has no solution to their problems.
But with poverty? Or family worries? Or all the things that people typically commit suicide over? That stuff is fixable, we can help those. Most of these issues are problems society can fix easily, we just refuse to. That's when assisted suicide turns from "sad but necessary" into genocide. Body autonomy is only about choice when that choice isn't being purposefully limited by a shitty society that refuses to help you out if you can't find a place to live or you think you're hurting your family.
MAID being euthanasia for those who had to google it like myself
the bourgeoisie will slowly kill the workers who no longer fit into the economy, once all workers are eliminated, and all jobs can be automated, the bourgeoisie will enjoy a stateless, classless, moneyless society, but for them only, :doomjak:
