"Carr said that since Track 2 MAiD was implemented in 2021 – which allows patients who are not terminally ill to be euthanized – people with disabilities are targeted “for medical assistance in dying when they are not dying” and “that has certainly changed people’s interactions with the health care system quite dramatically.”
She said: “People with disabilities are now very much afraid in many circumstances to show up in the healthcare system with regular concerns because often MAiD is suggested as the solution to what is considered to be intolerable suffering that happens to be caused by some of the things that this committee addresses like poverty and the situations that people with disabilities disproportionately find themselves in compared to other Canadians.”"
MacAulay walked the committee through what his department knew, thus far, saying the first case that came to light occurred last summer where the caseworker repeatedly pushed the notion of MAID to an unnamed veteran who had called seeking help with post-traumatic stress.
A second occasion reported happened last May where the same caseworker provided assisted dying information to a veteran.
Another incident is alleged to have happened in December 2021, said MacAulay. It involved a veteran who contacted the department to ask questions about MAID. The committee had already heard testimony about that event during a previous hearing last month.
The fourth known case apparently happened in 2019, where a veteran called VAC specifically asking for information about assistance in taking his own life.
"Carr said that since Track 2 MAiD was implemented in 2021 – which allows patients who are not terminally ill to be euthanized – people with disabilities are targeted “for medical assistance in dying when they are not dying” and “that has certainly changed people’s interactions with the health care system quite dramatically.”
She said: “People with disabilities are now very much afraid in many circumstances to show up in the healthcare system with regular concerns because often MAiD is suggested as the solution to what is considered to be intolerable suffering that happens to be caused by some of the things that this committee addresses like poverty and the situations that people with disabilities disproportionately find themselves in compared to other Canadians.”"
https://theinterim.com/issues/euthanasia-suicide/euthanasia-instills-fear-of-health-care-system-for-people-with-disabilities/
MacAulay walked the committee through what his department knew, thus far, saying the first case that came to light occurred last summer where the caseworker repeatedly pushed the notion of MAID to an unnamed veteran who had called seeking help with post-traumatic stress.
A second occasion reported happened last May where the same caseworker provided assisted dying information to a veteran.
Another incident is alleged to have happened in December 2021, said MacAulay. It involved a veteran who contacted the department to ask questions about MAID. The committee had already heard testimony about that event during a previous hearing last month.
The fourth known case apparently happened in 2019, where a veteran called VAC specifically asking for information about assistance in taking his own life.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/veterans-maid-rcmp-investigation-1.6663885