@timbray so yes, Twitter* is awful.

However, I'm much more interested in a more pressing matter, namely getting the government to recognize that MAiD, framed as it is as a cost-saving measure, is a fundamental breach of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and must be ended. Would you happen to know of petitions I can point people to on that matter?

*In sharp contrast to my policy for actual human beings, I am fine with deadnaming awful companies.

@davidfetter @timbray

"...MAiD, framed as it is as a cost-saving measure..."

When did this happen?

@davidfetter @timbray

Because I've seen a lot of people talk a lot of crap about MAiD that directly contradicts the law.

For example, I've seen people attack MAiD, because of reports that doctors have pressured people to use it, even though that very specifically against the law.

@csstrowbridge @timbray ah, yes, the famous law, which everyone obeys scrupulously and whose alleged spirit no one ever violates. See also: starlight tours.

Here's a few of the things I found over the course of slightly under ten seconds' worth of searches on the terms MAiD, eugenics, and Canada.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/austerity-eugenics-canadas-assisted-dying-programme/
https://eppc.org/publication/the-cautionary-tale-of-canadas-euthanasia-regime-an-interview-with-alexander-raikin/
https://theconversation.com/maid-and-marginalized-people-coroners-reports-shed-light-on-assisted-death-in-ontario-241661

I'm sure you can do at least as well if you're actually interested in what's going on rather than, you know, pretending everything's fine.

Out of a generosity I'm running short on, I will, for the moment, assume that you would oppose a eugenicist programme if you were convinced one was going on. That assumption is subject to revision, of course. The benefit of the doubt goes away as the doubt does.

@davidfetter @csstrowbridge 

Another one to add to your list:

Canadian Journal of Disability Studies
Medical Assistance In Dying: Resistance in Canada
Vol. 13 No. 2 (2024) https://cjds.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/cjds/issue/view/47

@StephBoragina @davidfetter

Did you read these? And I don't mean the foreword, but the actual testimonials. Did you read those?

@StephBoragina

The very first one suggests things that are already part of MAiD. You can't go through MAiD unless you've been offered other help to relieve suffering.

'People shouldn't be allowed to make end of life decisions now, because these decisions might be based on ableist and ageist prejudices.'

That is not a compelling argument to end MAiD. That is certainly not an argument that MAiD is eugenics. That's a compelling argument on teaching people so they don't have these prejudices.

@csstrowbridge e.g., from the forward (https://cjds.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/cjds/article/view/1105/1248):

When the law’s intended safeguards are easily circumvented, when ‘doctor shopping’ practices override the expertise of family physicians and others who know an applicant’s actual life circumstances over time, and when even the courts are helpless to intervene, Canada’s MAID regime has become what one journalist described as “an unholy mess.”

@StephBoragina

"When the law’s intended safeguards are easily circumvented..."

Citation needed.

Anyone can make claims. I want to see proof.

@csstrowbridge
Well, that particular sentence cited https://nationalpost.com/opinion/chris-selley-if-not-a-judge-then-who-can-find-proof-of-oversight-on-maid

But, the testimonies speak more broadly to the issues.

For example, Bill Adair's speaks to the problems with only requiring a 90-day wait period (his argument is well-supported by another book I'm reading right now: Suicidal: Why we kill ourselves, by Jesse Bering), and the lack of real choice for a person when they are offered MAiD. (Jonas-Sébastien Beaudry's and Ramona Coelho's testimonies are similar.)

@csstrowbridge Michael Bach speaks about the role that stigma may play in the case of advance requests.

Neil Belanger speaks about the challenge of accessing appropriate healthcare for Indigenous people suffering from mental health challenges versus the relative ease of accessing MAiD.

@StephBoragina

"Neil Belanger speaks about the challenge of accessing appropriate healthcare for Indigenous people suffering from mental health challenges..."

And this predates MAiD.

"...versus the relative ease of accessing MAiD."

You can't use MAiD without getting mental health counselling.

Again, all of this shows we need to enforce MAiD safeguards, not get rid of it.

@csstrowbridge
From CAMH:

Will there be additional safeguards when MAiD for mental illness becomes legal?

Right now, there are additional safeguards for MAiD requests where a person’s death is not reasonably foreseeable (they are not close to the end of life). It is expected that these safeguards will apply to MAiD requests where mental illness is the only medical condition, but it is not known at this time if there will be more safeguards when MAiD for mental illness becomes legal.
...

@csstrowbridge
...
Currently, the following safeguards exist for people with physical conditions whose death is not expected soon:

At least 90 days must pass between the day the MAiD eligibility assessment begins and the day the person receives MAiD.
Two health care practitioners, independent of one another, must conduct assessments and confirm that the person is eligible for MAiD. One of those assessors must be a specialist in the condition that is causing the person unbearable suffering.