One of Canada’s best-known fashion retailers, Quebec-based La Maison Simons, has launched an advertising campaign based on euthanasia. A three-minute video on YouTube, supported by one-minute and 30-second versions, part of the company’s “All is Beauty” marketing strategy, depicts a 37-year-old woman named Jennyfer as she prepares for “medical assistance in dying”. It opens with […]
In Oregon, we passed the Death With Dignity Act back in 1994, the first state to do so. But it hasn’t been plagued by these same issues. It’s very tightly controlled, requiring someone to be diagnosed as terminally ill (6 months to live) by two physicians. Then the administration itself is via pills that must be swallowed by the patient. The result has been a slow but stead increase to around 350 prescriptions, with about 2/3 of patients using it. Many report feeling a sense of relief just having the option there in case the pain becomes overwhelming. It also can mean they spend their final hours in comfort with family instead of in a sterile hospital room.
But this shift to MAiD for mental illness, that just feels wrong. Like we’re letting patients down and sweeping it under the rug. I’m willing to hear reason if there’s another side to it, but it just doesn’t sit well with me.
In Oregon, we passed the Death With Dignity Act back in 1994, the first state to do so. But it hasn’t been plagued by these same issues. It’s very tightly controlled, requiring someone to be diagnosed as terminally ill (6 months to live) by two physicians. Then the administration itself is via pills that must be swallowed by the patient. The result has been a slow but stead increase to around 350 prescriptions, with about 2/3 of patients using it. Many report feeling a sense of relief just having the option there in case the pain becomes overwhelming. It also can mean they spend their final hours in comfort with family instead of in a sterile hospital room.
But this shift to MAiD for mental illness, that just feels wrong. Like we’re letting patients down and sweeping it under the rug. I’m willing to hear reason if there’s another side to it, but it just doesn’t sit well with me.