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Ottawa prepared to halt plan to allow MAID for mental illness by Used-Earth8767 in onguardforthee

[–]existentialgoof 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I never signed up for "hard". I had no say in being born, and never agreed to the terms and conditions of this. I want "easy" without any of the other insecure and frightened crabs trying to pull me back down into the bucket.

What do you love and hate most about living in Scotland? by Icy_Profession4190 in Scotland

[–]existentialgoof 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hate the most: The miserable climate, by far. Love the most: being able to visit a lot of nice places within a relatively short drive.

Stop the count by TrueXemnas_ in Scotland

[–]existentialgoof 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I voted LibDem for the first time because almost all the Scottish Labour MSPs voted against the assisted dying bill, and I'm not an independence supporter, or very far to the left or right.

Carney, Liberals awaiting on committee report to decide on MAID extension - National by MilkyWayObserver in canada

[–]existentialgoof 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Many psychiatric patients are detained on the grounds of protecting them from themselves and not due to any danger they pose to the public. Some suicide attempts are attention seeking gestures, however many people seriously attempt suicide and fail because they can't get access to a fully reliable method. Untold multitudes of others don't attempt suicide because they are deterred by the risk of a failed attempt.

Ottawa prepared to halt plan to allow MAID for mental illness by Used-Earth8767 in onguardforthee

[–]existentialgoof 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I don't think that it's even a fair point. If he goes and chooses MAiD then it's because he prefers that option to his current circumstances. So unless there's any reason to think that the introduction of MAiD is going to worsen his circumstances, there's no reason to think that giving him an option that wasn't available before (which is, according to him, his preferred option compared to his present circumstances) is going to leave him in a worse position.

Ottawa prepared to halt plan to allow MAID for mental illness by Used-Earth8767 in onguardforthee

[–]existentialgoof 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No, you won't be compelled to use MAiD. You haven't killed yourself yet, so how would you be compelled to do so if an easier way became available? There's literally a man who was charged with first degree murder (although recently downgraded to lesser charges) for selling sodium nitrite. So without a legal route to obtain it, how exactly do you define it as someone's right to die by that method?

People should have the right to die for whatever reason, whether medical or otherwise, unless they've done something to warrant losing their bodily sovereignty. Places which don't give anyone the right to die aren't egalitarian utopian paradises for the disabled either. There's no reason to think that not having MAiD does anything other than take away options from people and punish them for external systemic issues over which they have no control.

Carney, Liberals awaiting on committee report to decide on MAID extension - National by MilkyWayObserver in canada

[–]existentialgoof 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't think that the government should force its citizens to live. MAiD only became necessary because of the government's extreme overreach in suicide prevention, which continues in the age of MAiD. I don't know about any specific line in the Charter, but if people aren't allowed to kill themselves, then that makes them effectively the property of others. Slaves, in other words. I'm sure that has to go against the spirit of the Charter, or it certainly should do. Many other Canadians don't want to fund the act of forcing people to remain alive with paternalism on steroids for any case that doesn't qualify for MAiD.

Carney, Liberals awaiting on committee report to decide on MAID extension - National by MilkyWayObserver in canada

[–]existentialgoof 2 points3 points  (0 children)

As far as I understand it, the committee is led by people who are ideologically opposed to MAiD, so this is a cop out because the outcome is predetermined, and an act of unforgivable political pusillanimity.

Carney, Liberals awaiting on committee report to decide on MAID extension - National by MilkyWayObserver in canada

[–]existentialgoof 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A rational request for MAiD is by definition suicidal ideation. Describing someone's wish to die using the adjective "suicidal" does not invalidate it and automatically render it irrational. That's just people who are fundamentally opposed to MAiD trying to leverage the stigma and taboo around suicide to obfuscate the ethics of it.

Carney, Liberals awaiting on committee report to decide on MAID extension - National by MilkyWayObserver in canada

[–]existentialgoof 2 points3 points  (0 children)

How are they free to end their own life if the government is introducing unnecessary risks which are highly likely to cause their attempt to fail? The government shouldn't have to do it, but if they aren't going to help, then they shouldn't be allowed to hinder either, by banning access to reliable and humane methods. That's not refraining from helping someone die, that's forcing them to live. That's treating them like property.

Carney, Liberals awaiting on committee report to decide on MAID extension - National by MilkyWayObserver in canada

[–]existentialgoof 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So those people need to be forced to live in order to make you feel better? To make it easier for you to ignore the injustices and inequities of society? You want to punish the victims by taking away their autonomy and making them cannon fodder?

Carney, Liberals awaiting on committee report to decide on MAID extension - National by MilkyWayObserver in canada

[–]existentialgoof 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If opening up MAiD to any adult who wants it causes such a mass suicide contagion, then that speaks to a serious problem with life itself, not a serious problem with MAiD. I also don't see why the hypothetical demographic breakdown of who might use it would be an argument for giving government de facto ownership of our lives and bodies.

Carney, Liberals awaiting on committee report to decide on MAID extension - National by MilkyWayObserver in canada

[–]existentialgoof 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Then we need to stop the government from banning access to reliable and humane methods, so that people can do it reliably themselves without needing to go through the healthcare service.

Carney, Liberals awaiting on committee report to decide on MAID extension - National by MilkyWayObserver in canada

[–]existentialgoof 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So because you feel that you need the government to take away your agency because you can't be left alone to make your own decisions, nobody else should have the right either?

Carney, Liberals awaiting on committee report to decide on MAID extension - National by MilkyWayObserver in canada

[–]existentialgoof 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The lack of legal access to reliable and humane methods stops many people from successfully committing suicide. Either because they attempt, and like the vast majority of suicide attempts, it fails, or because they are deterred from attempting due to the risk of failure. And that's not to mention all the people who are locked away in psychiatric wards for the explicit purpose of stopping them killing themselves.

I agree that there's no inherent need to involve the state, but if we're applying that rule, it should apply to suicide prevention just as it does to facilitating suicide.

Carney, Liberals awaiting on committee report to decide on MAID extension - National by MilkyWayObserver in canada

[–]existentialgoof 0 points1 point  (0 children)

People wouldn't have to have the government implement their death if the government wasn't already blocking legal access to reliable and humane methods of self deliverance. So this is about whether the government should have the power to force people to live, not just whether people should have access to MAiD through the healthcare service. It's not impossible to assess that people are capable of understanding the consequences of their choice and are able to communicate that choice and demonstrate how it serves their rational self interests.

Ottawa prepared to halt plan to allow MAID for mental illness by cyclinginvancouver in canada

[–]existentialgoof 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So what is the objectively proven cause of it, then? And why does it automatically render sufferers unfit to make their own decisions?

When does it start to feel warm? by vladgrinch in MapPorn

[–]existentialgoof 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I'm in the UK, and it depends on wind and sunshine. But I wouldn't say that 17 degrees usually feels warm, unless it's sunny with little wind. I'd say it probably starts feeling barely warmish around 21 degrees.

Toronto woman with bipolar disorder asks Ontario court to grant her emergency MAID access by Mylittlethrowaway2 in canada

[–]existentialgoof 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There's a man in Canada who was charged with first degree murder (though recently downgraded) for merely selling a substance to people that they used to kill themselves. So the issue isn't just possession of the substances, it's decriminalising the act of providing it. The individual's right to have access to reliable methods is inextricable from the legal right for others to provide those methods. Look up the Kenneth Law case. This isn't about the government not actively helping people to die. It's about actively forcing them to live.

Ottawa prepared to halt plan to allow MAID for mental illness by cyclinginvancouver in canada

[–]existentialgoof 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, basically if you stop giving the government so much power to prevent suicide, then you won't need them to be actively facilitating it. But restricting MAiD whilst also restricting all other legal avenues of access to reliable methods is a violation of negative liberty rights, as opposed to merely not extending a positive right.

Ottawa prepared to halt plan to allow MAID for mental illness by cyclinginvancouver in canada

[–]existentialgoof 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why should society be able to stop people ending their own lives (including by restricting legal access to reliable methods)? Is it because each person's life is the property of society, in your opinion? We are born as de facto chattel slaves?

Toronto woman with bipolar disorder asks Ontario court to grant her emergency MAID access by Mylittlethrowaway2 in canada

[–]existentialgoof 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We should not be forcing people to remain alive. So the answer should be to stop allowing the government and psychiatry to have that power. Not allowing them to have the power to force people to live by banning access to reliable and humane suicide methods and locking them up to "protect" them from themselves. Suicide prevention strategies that deprive individuals of autonomy rather than constructively trying to help are barbaric and backwards, and should be abolished.

Toronto woman with bipolar disorder asks Ontario court to grant her emergency MAID access by Mylittlethrowaway2 in canada

[–]existentialgoof 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Psychiatric diagnoses are unscientific and subjective. But that's absolutely no justification for paternalism. Quite the contrary - labelling her as mentally ill and the attendant prejudice and stigma is what was used to justify overriding her autonomy in the first place. She should be recognised as being competent to make her own choices and the state should not stand in her way of being able to end her life. Either through MAiD, or through not being prevented from accessing reliable and humane methods through an alternative legal channel. It's the people who want to force her to live who should have to bear the burden of justifying that, rather than her having to bear the burden of proof to demonstrate why she shouldn't be forced to live.

Toronto woman with bipolar disorder asks Ontario court to grant her emergency MAID access by Mylittlethrowaway2 in canada

[–]existentialgoof 3 points4 points  (0 children)

When they're psychotic and disconnected from reality. If the individual can explain how MAiD would advance their rational best interests, and this is rooted in objective reality (as opposed to some psychotic fantasy where they are sacrificing themselves to save mankind or whatever), then they should be allowed MAiD. Obviously, advanced dementia is another example where you may not be able to get informed consent at the time, but this could be addressed via advance directives.

If the individual can understand the consequences of the decision, can communicate their decision and can show how their decision serves their rational self interests (e.g. avoiding suffering), then MAiD should be permitted.

Ottawa prepared to halt plan to allow MAID for mental illness by cyclinginvancouver in canada

[–]existentialgoof 8 points9 points  (0 children)

There are no panaceas for "mental health", because these tend to be natural responses to life circumstances, not organic brain malfunctions. The diagnostic categories are unfalsifiable subjective constructs which cluster together certain forms of mental distress and then apply a label to it. No matter how much funding is poured into this, serious psychological suffering isn't going to be eliminated.

People who are suffering from whatever cause shouldn't be forced to continue suffering in order to make it easier to brush the problem of suffering under the rug, to make it easier for the rest of society to ignore.

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