I was once vaguely in favour of the idea of medically assisted suicide, but am now utterly opposed to it. Here in the UK we do not have a scheme like Canada's but I have always taken an interest in the subject and kept an eye on the developments in Europe as well. My attitude was changed by the suicide of our youngest son aged 25 after worsening mental illness. As he was an adult it was difficult enough for us as parents to talk to the psychiatric services who were supposedly looking after him but ultimately failed him. We are still struggling to get the health service to admit their mistakes, of which there were several, in his care. The grief and anger are hard enough to bear as it is, and we only have to challenge their lack of professionalism. It's hard for me to imagine how I'd feel if he had died as the result of a deliberate act by the 'health service' under a MAID type scheme. Had that been the case, and he'd had his life terminated medically by a 'healthcare professional', I'm not sure I'd be a free man any more. I fear that rage would have taken over, and I'm not someone prone to it.
There are well established ways to keep people who are clearly dying comfortable with painkillers and sedatives in their final days and hours. This was done for both own my mother (cancer) and my mother-in-law (scleroderma), when it was clear that the end was near. There is a vast moral and practical difference between that and positively ending a life with drugs, whatever the ailment.
The latter is in effect an inversion of the duties of a medical professional.
It seems to me that Canada has made a grave error with its MAID scheme, and is intent on making matters worse and more contentious, rather than hesitating or even better, reversing course.
I fail to understand the frame of mind of the people who promote it and wish to expand its scope. It is as if they are wilfully blind . I worry that as the number of lives taken by MAID grows, there will come a point where some of the bereaved could take out their rage on those responsible. It could get very ugly.
Thank you for this record of what happened to your family. I believe there is upcoming a symposium about drug use by those who consider themselves to be "addictions specialists" and one of the sessions will be discussing MAiD. This is setting alarms off for safe supply advocates because, quite obviously, most who self medicate are doing it as part of their staying alive strategy for as long as they can. Obviously it is dangerous, especially right now with the poisoned supplies, but we cannot judge those who live with C-PTSD and trauma. There's reasons of wanting to stay alive that has people accessing any safe supply services and products they can find.
Anecdotally, a woman in Vancouver took herself to hospital because she was suicidal. While there, a "carer" asked her if she would consider MAiD. Quite clearly she wanted to live despite suicidal ideation, because she delivered herself to a place she thought she would be safe.
These are truly troubling times, and with MAiD many people with disabilities warned us of this happening. I once had a friend whose parents were encouraged from the get go to institutionalize her for having cerebral palsy — hospital caused. She went on to write books, get married, give presentations, complete a university degree, travel the world solo, and own her own condo. Now in her 50s, she's still treated like dirt in the medical system. It's appalling.
I'm so sorry for your loss, for the death mongers, and for the scars that you carry. BC is currently a terrifying place to have any kind of medical issues. I too had (have) parents who were (are) unwell psychologically. It's …. a lot no matter how you navigate it. Solidarity. k
t's a radical inversion of un-medicine in the name of a recalcitrant notion of choice and autonomy under a veneer of poorly defined concepts. I'm very worried about the kinds of personalities attracted to practice MAiD.
May 15, 2023·edited May 16, 2023Liked by Christopher Lyon
Thank you for bringing your concerns "forward." This essay is beautifully written, and absolutely harrowing (the last few paragraphs, as "Provider became Death," just chilling).
"Provider also told me that she had 'never lost sleep' over any of her deaths, as evidence somehow of her skill in approval, and that 'families are messy' as if we were too much bother to contact in advance."
Provider doesn't like families, and not just because recalcitrant family members raise bothersome objections, ask uncomfortable questions. Families are a reminder that patient is deeply embedded in complex familial and social relationships, which gives the lie to the rationale/pretext of autonomy.
You give heart-rending witness to “the banality of evil.” I’m enraged and so astounded: How has it come to this? How is this so accepted, so de rigueur? How are there so many people so willing to prop this evil up, to blithely systematize it? We should respond to this cold, calculating, clinical evil with torches and pitchforks. Pray without ceasing—and be ready to fight.
My heart grieves for your father, your family, and you, Mr. Lyon. And for all of us. Dear God, help us all.
I don't think I'm missing what you are saying. What I get from your well-considered story is that you disagreed with with his decision to end his life with MAID. And that you believe he did this to cause deliberate harm and pain to his family. And that somehow, the system was complicit. I do wish you peace with these beliefs one day. That's all I wanted so say. Namaste.
I am so sorry for your loss. This is horrifying beyond words. As the mother of two adults with Down Syndrome I live in fear for their future if their dad and I pass away before them.
Our country has sunk to a new depth under this libertarian government that is looking to balance the health care budget by getting rid of “less thans” in our society. Or maybe it’s a covert fascism, it’s hard to tell.
We need to get back to protesting and standing up for the rights of ALL and putting supports in place for LIFE and dignity so that people can’t be conned into making these appalling decisions.
I don’t think budget has anything to do with it. “Conned” is a good word for these victims—but so many are complicit in this evil because they’ve built no backbone, cultivated no intellect sufficient to protest, been too unpracticed in the faith to see their decisions for what they are: a violation of natural law and the will of God.
This is reprehensible beyond words. There is absolutely nothing dignified about these state sanctions killings not to mention the callous attitude of the MAiD provider who by all appearances seems to have the mindset of a cold-blooded killer. Death should be a sacred family matter and not in the hands of the state that in some cases pushes vulnerable individuals to opt for a speedy exit. In a healthcare system where death is an option what are the chances that vulnerable individuals won't find themselves entrapped or lured into it? Thank you for sharing your story I hope that you can find some measure of comfort by sharing this traumatic event.
Next October will be 40 years since the bioethicist, Daniel Callahan, warned that starving people to death (a practice in hospice) could result in "social disaster." Tom Beauchamp and James Childress in the 4th of 8 editions of their textbook, Principles of Biomedical Ethics, wrote that Callahan's warning was "overly stern," but acknowledged the risk:
"There could be a general reduction of respect for human life as a result of the official removal of barriers to killing. Rules against killing in a moral code are not isolated fragments; they are threads in a fabric of rules, drawn in part from nonmaleficience, that support respect for human life. The more threads we remove, the weaker the fabric becomes."
Forty years later, we have record high suicide rates, which include record low ages (children), high rates of mental illness, general life dissatisfaction, family instability, and other indices (including random and mass shootings) of despair and a weakened social fabric.
I'm so sorry for the tragedy you witnessed and for the pain you surely suffered in conveying it in print. Kudos. I hope it will contribute to reversing this terrible development.
I'm very sorry for your loss, and for what you have been feeling after your father's decision. I'm fortunate to have a husband to share my journey with, and as we approach our seventies we are both very clear about what we want, should our bodies (and/or minds) fail us. I really hope our children can find peace with our choice, as we have. My sincere sympathy goes out to you on the loss of your dad.
If I may gently say that you cannot control how your loved ones or others will respond to your choice, nor are you entirely in control of how the assessment and process of your death unfolds. Suicides are often bombs detonating in families and can destroy and leave a legacy of poisoned relationships, with deeply traumatised and lasting harm to survivors. I hope a lesson from my experience is that people considering MAiD, and assessors practising it, are very, very, careful in how they go about it.
I am sorry, but, for the ones choosing MAid, or withdrawing consent on life saving measures… their death, is NOT about those that are living. Their death is their death only. How those living deal with it, is on them, but to the person who is the one choosing this way, that is their own decision and no one else’s. And they should never EVER have to base their decision on how it will affect those that are living.
Jane, it isn't actually their decision. All they can do is request death, but the decisions to approve and kill rests with the assessors and provider. The only place it comes close to being their decision is in the very few cases where death is self-administered.
"And they should never EVER have to base their decision on how it will affect those that are living" is sociopathic.
Would you be comfortable with a change to a Swiss-type of law where the patient themselves has to administer the drug and the physicians can only prescribe it?
I generally think assisted death invites problems in administration and the kinds of clinicians who may be attracted to it. If, for some reason, we absolutely had to do this, then self-administered would be the best way. My guess is that we would see many less MAiD deaths in Canada if this were the case.
See, I disagree with a ban. I think overall from a completely utilitarian perspective policies like assisted-dying relieve much more suffering to both the person dying and their families then they than the cause such as the case with your father. That doesn't mean the laws should remain static or that there shouldn't be more restrictions and safeguards implemented. For instance doctors in Canada can bring up assisted-dying with patients whereas laws in Switzerland and the Netherlands prohibit that. Furthermore it's true that social safety nets and support for the disabled in Canada lag behind much of developed Europe (especially compared to Switzerland), hence you have some cases where people were motivated by poverty or homelessness in the country who sought MAiD.
No one has to accept deliberate harm or selfishly avoidance the impact of one person's decisions on others. I appreciate the intent behind your wishes, but I think you're missing my point.
Dec 1, 2022·edited Dec 1, 2022Liked by Christopher Lyon
You took the time to write this brilliant piece and I took time to read it (as someone newly diagnosed with terminal cancer).Sorry for your loss.
I am taking a personal stand against active vs passive euthanasia based on slippery slope issues, expectation of compassionate, competent palliative care vs medieval magic, etc.
My primary principle is moral and biblical based on the sanctity of life, sovereignty of God, etc.
Thank you for sharing your story on this complex issue.
Hi Christopher, I am so sorry for the loss of your father. It's an incredible failure of the Canadian healthcare system that patients can be fast-tracked on MAiD, but it takes many months to gain access to mental healthcare. I would encourage you to submit your writing to a medical journal -- more physicians need to be aware of what is happening in Canada, and I believe would be outraged at how your father and family were treated. One that comes to mind is the Journal of Palliative Medicine, but ethics or internal medicine journals may also be interested.
Thanks for sharing and sorry for your loss. What a tragic and harrowing tale. This well-written account illustrates the casual nature with which death is dealt out by "providers". How can anyone, after reading this, think that "safeguards" make any difference to anyone?
We just went through a similar experience, only my father in-law completed suicide by alcohol. Oddly he wanted to execute the MAiD but he continued to use the suicide/euthanasia monikers, which ultimately pointed to other undiagnosed mental illnesses and so they refused to discuss it.
What a tragic, troubling and infuriating chronicle of what your family has had to contend with. I am so sorry for your loss may God comfort you and bring you peace during this season of grief.
This was heartbreaking to read.
I was once vaguely in favour of the idea of medically assisted suicide, but am now utterly opposed to it. Here in the UK we do not have a scheme like Canada's but I have always taken an interest in the subject and kept an eye on the developments in Europe as well. My attitude was changed by the suicide of our youngest son aged 25 after worsening mental illness. As he was an adult it was difficult enough for us as parents to talk to the psychiatric services who were supposedly looking after him but ultimately failed him. We are still struggling to get the health service to admit their mistakes, of which there were several, in his care. The grief and anger are hard enough to bear as it is, and we only have to challenge their lack of professionalism. It's hard for me to imagine how I'd feel if he had died as the result of a deliberate act by the 'health service' under a MAID type scheme. Had that been the case, and he'd had his life terminated medically by a 'healthcare professional', I'm not sure I'd be a free man any more. I fear that rage would have taken over, and I'm not someone prone to it.
There are well established ways to keep people who are clearly dying comfortable with painkillers and sedatives in their final days and hours. This was done for both own my mother (cancer) and my mother-in-law (scleroderma), when it was clear that the end was near. There is a vast moral and practical difference between that and positively ending a life with drugs, whatever the ailment.
The latter is in effect an inversion of the duties of a medical professional.
It seems to me that Canada has made a grave error with its MAID scheme, and is intent on making matters worse and more contentious, rather than hesitating or even better, reversing course.
I fail to understand the frame of mind of the people who promote it and wish to expand its scope. It is as if they are wilfully blind . I worry that as the number of lives taken by MAID grows, there will come a point where some of the bereaved could take out their rage on those responsible. It could get very ugly.
Thank you for this record of what happened to your family. I believe there is upcoming a symposium about drug use by those who consider themselves to be "addictions specialists" and one of the sessions will be discussing MAiD. This is setting alarms off for safe supply advocates because, quite obviously, most who self medicate are doing it as part of their staying alive strategy for as long as they can. Obviously it is dangerous, especially right now with the poisoned supplies, but we cannot judge those who live with C-PTSD and trauma. There's reasons of wanting to stay alive that has people accessing any safe supply services and products they can find.
Anecdotally, a woman in Vancouver took herself to hospital because she was suicidal. While there, a "carer" asked her if she would consider MAiD. Quite clearly she wanted to live despite suicidal ideation, because she delivered herself to a place she thought she would be safe.
These are truly troubling times, and with MAiD many people with disabilities warned us of this happening. I once had a friend whose parents were encouraged from the get go to institutionalize her for having cerebral palsy — hospital caused. She went on to write books, get married, give presentations, complete a university degree, travel the world solo, and own her own condo. Now in her 50s, she's still treated like dirt in the medical system. It's appalling.
I'm so sorry for your loss, for the death mongers, and for the scars that you carry. BC is currently a terrifying place to have any kind of medical issues. I too had (have) parents who were (are) unwell psychologically. It's …. a lot no matter how you navigate it. Solidarity. k
Thank you, Karen.
t's a radical inversion of un-medicine in the name of a recalcitrant notion of choice and autonomy under a veneer of poorly defined concepts. I'm very worried about the kinds of personalities attracted to practice MAiD.
Thank you for bringing your concerns "forward." This essay is beautifully written, and absolutely harrowing (the last few paragraphs, as "Provider became Death," just chilling).
"Provider also told me that she had 'never lost sleep' over any of her deaths, as evidence somehow of her skill in approval, and that 'families are messy' as if we were too much bother to contact in advance."
Provider doesn't like families, and not just because recalcitrant family members raise bothersome objections, ask uncomfortable questions. Families are a reminder that patient is deeply embedded in complex familial and social relationships, which gives the lie to the rationale/pretext of autonomy.
Truly the banality of evil.
This made me cry. I am so very sorry this happened to your father, you and your family. We are truly living in a culture of death.
You give heart-rending witness to “the banality of evil.” I’m enraged and so astounded: How has it come to this? How is this so accepted, so de rigueur? How are there so many people so willing to prop this evil up, to blithely systematize it? We should respond to this cold, calculating, clinical evil with torches and pitchforks. Pray without ceasing—and be ready to fight.
My heart grieves for your father, your family, and you, Mr. Lyon. And for all of us. Dear God, help us all.
I don't think I'm missing what you are saying. What I get from your well-considered story is that you disagreed with with his decision to end his life with MAID. And that you believe he did this to cause deliberate harm and pain to his family. And that somehow, the system was complicit. I do wish you peace with these beliefs one day. That's all I wanted so say. Namaste.
I am so sorry for your loss. This is horrifying beyond words. As the mother of two adults with Down Syndrome I live in fear for their future if their dad and I pass away before them.
Our country has sunk to a new depth under this libertarian government that is looking to balance the health care budget by getting rid of “less thans” in our society. Or maybe it’s a covert fascism, it’s hard to tell.
We need to get back to protesting and standing up for the rights of ALL and putting supports in place for LIFE and dignity so that people can’t be conned into making these appalling decisions.
I don’t think budget has anything to do with it. “Conned” is a good word for these victims—but so many are complicit in this evil because they’ve built no backbone, cultivated no intellect sufficient to protest, been too unpracticed in the faith to see their decisions for what they are: a violation of natural law and the will of God.
This is reprehensible beyond words. There is absolutely nothing dignified about these state sanctions killings not to mention the callous attitude of the MAiD provider who by all appearances seems to have the mindset of a cold-blooded killer. Death should be a sacred family matter and not in the hands of the state that in some cases pushes vulnerable individuals to opt for a speedy exit. In a healthcare system where death is an option what are the chances that vulnerable individuals won't find themselves entrapped or lured into it? Thank you for sharing your story I hope that you can find some measure of comfort by sharing this traumatic event.
Thank you for writing this piece.
Next October will be 40 years since the bioethicist, Daniel Callahan, warned that starving people to death (a practice in hospice) could result in "social disaster." Tom Beauchamp and James Childress in the 4th of 8 editions of their textbook, Principles of Biomedical Ethics, wrote that Callahan's warning was "overly stern," but acknowledged the risk:
"There could be a general reduction of respect for human life as a result of the official removal of barriers to killing. Rules against killing in a moral code are not isolated fragments; they are threads in a fabric of rules, drawn in part from nonmaleficience, that support respect for human life. The more threads we remove, the weaker the fabric becomes."
Forty years later, we have record high suicide rates, which include record low ages (children), high rates of mental illness, general life dissatisfaction, family instability, and other indices (including random and mass shootings) of despair and a weakened social fabric.
I'm so sorry for the tragedy you witnessed and for the pain you surely suffered in conveying it in print. Kudos. I hope it will contribute to reversing this terrible development.
I'm very sorry for your loss, and for what you have been feeling after your father's decision. I'm fortunate to have a husband to share my journey with, and as we approach our seventies we are both very clear about what we want, should our bodies (and/or minds) fail us. I really hope our children can find peace with our choice, as we have. My sincere sympathy goes out to you on the loss of your dad.
If I may gently say that you cannot control how your loved ones or others will respond to your choice, nor are you entirely in control of how the assessment and process of your death unfolds. Suicides are often bombs detonating in families and can destroy and leave a legacy of poisoned relationships, with deeply traumatised and lasting harm to survivors. I hope a lesson from my experience is that people considering MAiD, and assessors practising it, are very, very, careful in how they go about it.
I am sorry, but, for the ones choosing MAid, or withdrawing consent on life saving measures… their death, is NOT about those that are living. Their death is their death only. How those living deal with it, is on them, but to the person who is the one choosing this way, that is their own decision and no one else’s. And they should never EVER have to base their decision on how it will affect those that are living.
Jane, it isn't actually their decision. All they can do is request death, but the decisions to approve and kill rests with the assessors and provider. The only place it comes close to being their decision is in the very few cases where death is self-administered.
"And they should never EVER have to base their decision on how it will affect those that are living" is sociopathic.
Suicides cause great harm to the living.
Would you be comfortable with a change to a Swiss-type of law where the patient themselves has to administer the drug and the physicians can only prescribe it?
I generally think assisted death invites problems in administration and the kinds of clinicians who may be attracted to it. If, for some reason, we absolutely had to do this, then self-administered would be the best way. My guess is that we would see many less MAiD deaths in Canada if this were the case.
See, I disagree with a ban. I think overall from a completely utilitarian perspective policies like assisted-dying relieve much more suffering to both the person dying and their families then they than the cause such as the case with your father. That doesn't mean the laws should remain static or that there shouldn't be more restrictions and safeguards implemented. For instance doctors in Canada can bring up assisted-dying with patients whereas laws in Switzerland and the Netherlands prohibit that. Furthermore it's true that social safety nets and support for the disabled in Canada lag behind much of developed Europe (especially compared to Switzerland), hence you have some cases where people were motivated by poverty or homelessness in the country who sought MAiD.
I am very sorry you are in such pain and hope one day you can accept your father's choice. Namaste.
No one has to accept deliberate harm or selfishly avoidance the impact of one person's decisions on others. I appreciate the intent behind your wishes, but I think you're missing my point.
You took the time to write this brilliant piece and I took time to read it (as someone newly diagnosed with terminal cancer).Sorry for your loss.
I am taking a personal stand against active vs passive euthanasia based on slippery slope issues, expectation of compassionate, competent palliative care vs medieval magic, etc.
My primary principle is moral and biblical based on the sanctity of life, sovereignty of God, etc.
Thank you for sharing your story on this complex issue.
Hi Christopher, I am so sorry for the loss of your father. It's an incredible failure of the Canadian healthcare system that patients can be fast-tracked on MAiD, but it takes many months to gain access to mental healthcare. I would encourage you to submit your writing to a medical journal -- more physicians need to be aware of what is happening in Canada, and I believe would be outraged at how your father and family were treated. One that comes to mind is the Journal of Palliative Medicine, but ethics or internal medicine journals may also be interested.
You're not the first to mention this...
Thanks for sharing and sorry for your loss. What a tragic and harrowing tale. This well-written account illustrates the casual nature with which death is dealt out by "providers". How can anyone, after reading this, think that "safeguards" make any difference to anyone?
Thanks, Kevin. So much of the 'safeguarding' seems to ride on a provider's personal approach and biases, and/or local protocols, at least in Canada.
Thank you for sharing.
We just went through a similar experience, only my father in-law completed suicide by alcohol. Oddly he wanted to execute the MAiD but he continued to use the suicide/euthanasia monikers, which ultimately pointed to other undiagnosed mental illnesses and so they refused to discuss it.
Be well, Roger Pothier
Thank you, Roger.
What a tragic, troubling and infuriating chronicle of what your family has had to contend with. I am so sorry for your loss may God comfort you and bring you peace during this season of grief.
Thank you, Mitchell.