Comment by hypeatei

3 days ago

> This is the same reason many people are opposed to the death penalty.

Death penalty is the government deciding to take your life based on what they believe you did. I agree, mistakes there are bad. Assisted suicide consists of the person dying giving their consent to take their life. Quite different.

2 comments

hypeatei

ants_everywhere 3 days ago

Unfortunately consent is not always clear. For example, see my other comment in this thread about the reports on Dr Kevorkian's assisted suicides.

Not only is whether someone gives consent sometimes unclear, it's also unclear if the consent was informed consent and whether it was uncoerced.

Informed consent is obliquely mentioned in my other comment. For example, a patient may falsely believe their illness is terminal.

I realize I replied to a question about financial incentives to talk about non-financial incentives. But coerced consent would often fall under the financial incentive heading. E.g. "consent to be euthanized or I'll contest the will."

Forced "suicide" also has a long history, including in the ancient world. Arguably things like kamikaze might fall into that category. And it's a favorite method of execution in financial and espionage type cases because the method of coercion won't show up in the forensics.

For these sorts of reasons, I think the risk of mistakes is high.

nick__m 3 days ago

The process in Québec doesn't have those flaws, it is much superior than the one used in the rest of Canada :

  To obtain medical aid in dying in Quebec, people must meet all the following requirements:

    have a Quebec health insurance card,
    be 18 years old or older,
    have the mental capacity to make their own decisions about their medical care,
    be in one of these situations:  
        and be in a state where their abilities are severely and permanently getting worse, with no chance of improvement,
        have a serious physical impairment that greatly affects their abilities for an extended period,
    be in constant and unbearable physical or psychological pain,
    be informed about any available means to relieve suffering,
    have decided that those means are intolerable.

  Once a doctor or SNP assesses the request, they must ask a second doctor or SNP to confirm in writing that the patient is eligible to receive medical aid in dying. 


  The doctor or SNP must also ensure that several measures to protect the patient have been respected. They must ensure that:

    The patient made their request freely and with all the information necessary to make an informed decision. 
    The patient repeated their request at different moments.
    The patient has had an opportunity to discuss the request with their loved ones.
    The patient has the opportunity to change their mind right up to the very last moment.

  If the patient has trouble communicating, the doctor or SNP must also ensure that the patient was given a reliable means of communication and understands the information they had received.

from https://educaloi.qc.ca/en/capsules/medical-aid-in-dying/