The Second MAID!

   My Daily Newspaper headline: JUSTICE MINISTER DEFENDS THE ASSISTED DYING BILL. The article went on to explain that he has heard fierce criticism of the government's new 'assisted dying' Bill.  Note they don't call it 'assisted suicide' anymore - that would be getting a little too close to the bone! The new bill expands assisted suicide to include people who don't have a terminal illness.  There are many medical experts in related areas who are critical of the bill, including the former Justice Minister.  
   Minister Lametti said he believes the government has found the right balance in respecting the dignity of people with disabilities and their 'right' to end their life.  I beg to disagree, because having functioned for most of my life as an 'old-fashioned' GP, with a special interest knowledge and experience of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, I have looked after many patients who would have opted for what I call Assisted Suicide, who with appropriate management went on to live a productive and rewarding life.  Some went on to express gratitude for being guided through their incredible suffering to regain the ability to enjoy living. 
    When I was a medical student, Ireland was peppered with TB Sanatoria, full of patients coughing, spitting up blood and gradually wasting away.  In addition to my patients, I knew a few such persons personally.  Because the disease was so inevitably fatal, my educated estimate is that 80% of them would have opted for 'assisted suicide'.  Then, all of a sudden Streptomycin came on the scene!!  All of these 'condemned' patients had a reprieve, became curable.  Most became well enough to integrate into society and to enjoy a relatively normal productive life.  Within a few years the TB Sanatorium became obsolete and vanished from the scene.
   The Minister is a lawyer, at least I presume he is.  I would no more want his medical opinion - and that's what he is giving, no matter what he says, than he would want my legal opinion.  I think the comparison is appropriate.
   I have blogged on the many opinions regarding assisted suicide in the past.  I have laid out my opinion clearly I hope.  If you are interested you can find them buried  at www.medicalmanes.com.  If the legislature wants to condone actively killing patients, and already they are extending the Medical Aid in Dying to non terminal patients, let them do so without involving the medical profession .  The NAZIs tried that and generated the most sadistic brutal breed of inhuman Physicians the world has ever known. If Canada wants terminating  patients to be legal it would be easy enough to train a corps of  'Terminators'.  I estimate it would take about three months.  It is appalling that the major medical associations appear to give their imprimatur to widening the indications for assisted suicide. 
   Be careful of giving the government a carte blanche regarding when you should be terminated.  Because, if you are an old curmudgeon like me, it is much cheaper to terminate us than to pour millions of  health care dollars into keeping us alive for a while longer.
    Addendum:  It appears that from April 4th to Sept 21st, Quebec's Health Ministry had issued a directive to Urgences Sante paramedics in Montreal and Laval (Pre-hospital emergency services) not to resuscitate patients who had flat-lined (Heart stopped beating) due to cardio or pulmonary crisis.  The excuse used was to keep Intensive Care Units from being overwhelmed.  The order was lifted only after complaints from the Urgences Sante Union.
   This gave administridiots, supported by the College of Physicians of Quebec the right to decide who should live and who should die!   Absolutely unacceptable.
   Be careful to whom you give control of whether you live or die.  It is certainly a lot cheaper to 'assist' old folks on their way, instead of spending a fortune keeping them alive for another year or two.
Stay well.  Wash your hands, wear your mask and keep your distance.