A key group calling for the legalization of assisted dying in Canada says mental suffering is a valid reason for government-sanctioned euthanasia.
Canada is very close to approving medically-assisted dying, as Bill C-14 is being debated in the Senate after passing through the House of Commons by the majority Liberal government.
Opposition Conservative and New Democrat MPs raised concerns about the legislation not being clear enough and some members raised concerns about mentally troubled, yet physically sound, people seeking to end their lives in the hands of doctors.
The group Dying with Dignity Canada says mental anguish should be on the table in the future.
“The government should indeed craft parameters that will ensure that vulnerable people can be assessed but not discriminated against in requests for assisted dying,” Shanaaz Gokool, CEO of Dying With Dignity Canada told Evan Solomon on News Talk Radio 580 CFRA. “We don’t want to further stigmatize people with mental illness by saying that their suffering isn’t as real as somebody with a physical condition but we do want to find parameters in which they can be assessed and to ensure that their suffering is indeed enduring, intolerable, and so is their wish to die.”
Some ethicists say Canadians should be very concerned when considering to permit government-sanctioned assisted deaths for mentally troubled or depressed people.
“It is a symptom of serious mental illness that people, who are not terminally ill from physical disease, want to die – want to commit suicide. Our response to them should not be to help them to do that, but to give them the support that they need, if they are to have a chance to change their minds and want to live,” Dr Margaret Somerville, Founding Director, Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law at McGill University told CFRA. “We must not send a message that suicide is an appropriate response to relieve mental suffering… and if mental illness triggers a right to assisted suicide then when a person who has attempted suicide is admitted to an emergency room, the healthcare professionals would have an obligation to respect their right and not treat them to save their lives.”
A recent documentary by Dutch director Kim Faber documents the death of a 27-year-old woman named Sanne, who had struggled with chronic depression and insomnia for nearly ten years. Sanne opted for euthanasia through a private company, informed her family and friends of her decision, and died on March 24th, 2014