Some health-care workers who either directly provide medical assistance in dying or work in that field say they are strongly opposed to Bill 18 — which, if passed, would prevent doctors or nurse practitioners from administering MAID to patients if they are unlikely to die within the next 12 months.
In a letter published in the Edmonton Journal on Friday and shared with CBC News, 25 health-care workers signed their names to make their opposition known.
“The proposed mandates and sanctions place clinicians in ethically untenable positions, undermining professional judgment and eroding trust within the therapeutic relationship,” the letter reads, in part.
Doctors and nurse practitioners would be barred from referring a patient out-of-province to be assessed for MAID eligibility. They would be prohibited from suggesting MAID to any patients as an option — the patient would have to request information on MAID first.
I’m mixed on this. I can understand this specific bill from the UCP, but even if they genuinely have the same concerns as I do, I don’t trust them to do what’s right to address the issues that MAiD has.
I do think MAiD is way too accessible, and has been used as a means to shelve the issues of the system for disabled people. Like, even a lot of Track 1 applications have been found to be from people who were denied proper access to pain relief.
Also, maybe people would be less inclined to access MAiD as an option if we made life easier and more accessible for them? The UCP has already expressed interest in making life harder for disabled people by cutting the $200 from AISH for those accessing the Canadian Disability Benefit, which can already be a hassle to apply for.
