Health Canada has released a questionnaire asking Canadians for input on the government’s assisted suicide program. The survey focuses on “advanced requests,” which would allow people who might be incapable of making decisions in the future to give their advanced consent for the “Medical Assistance in Dying” program.
Advanced requests for assisted suicide would be reserved for people who don’t qualify now but have capacity-limiting conditions such as dementia or Alzheimers, which could hinder their ability to consent in the future when they may be eligible.
In most provinces, a person undergoing assisted suicide has to consent immediately before being killed by the state.
The survey is being criticized by the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition of Canada for many of the questions pre-supposing that participants support advanced requests to the Canadian assisted suicide program.
Dying with Dignity, a pro-assisted suicide group in Canada, told True North in an email that it predicts many Canadians will be in support of the new measures under the program. It pointed to previous polls by Ipsos, which found that 83% of Canadians support advanced assisted suicide requests for those diagnosed with a “grievous and irremediable condition.
Health Minister Mark Holland announced the consultations after Quebec became the first province to implement advanced requests for its assisted suicide program.
“We are optimistic that the national consultation on advance requests for MAID will lead to swift federal legislation following the leadership and initial guidance developed by Quebec,” a spokesperson for Dying with Dignity said. “Advance requests for MAID should be a legal end-of-life option for those diagnosed with a grievous and irremediable medical condition.”
Alex Schadenberg, the executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition of Canada, told True North that the advanced directive legislation is an overreach as provincial governments already have laws regarding the requests.
While healthcare falls under provincial jurisdiction, the survey states that because euthanasia involves taking someone’s life, it falls under the Criminal Code of Canada, making it a federal jurisdiction.
“Euthanasia was originally legalized in Canada under the guise of being limited to mentally competent adults, who are capable of consenting and who freely “choose.” Euthanasia by advanced request undermines these principles,” Schadenberg said in an email to True North.
He argued that advanced requests for assisted suicide do not technically qualify for consent.
“Euthanasia by advance request means that a person, while competent, legally declares their “wish” to be killed, and if the person becomes incompetent, the person would then be killed, even though the person is not capable, at that time, of consenting,” he said. “Once a person becomes incompetent, they are not legally able to change their mind, meaning that some other person will have the right to decide when the person dies, even if that person is happy with life.”
He argued that if the government permits assisted suicide by advanced request, that will open a floodgate of advocates for euthanasia, demanding people who were not able to consent before the law was changed be grandfathered in and killed despite being incapable of consenting.
“Once killing incompetent people is viewed as “compassionate” it will be considered cruel not to kill an incompetent person who is deemed to be suffering because the person didn’t make an advance request,” he said.
Schadenberg wrote a guide for supporters of his organization to still participate in the survey while not giving the government ammunition to say that the program has wide support.
The survey asks about the kinds of guardrails, or lack thereof that Canadians may feel are “important” when offering advanced request assisted suicide.
Questions in the survey included if advanced requests should only be permitted if a family member is aware of the decision, that the person periodically reaffirms their commitment to being euthanized if they are still capable of doing so and if the person should still be euthanized, if they appear happy despite being eligible and incapable.