Juno News - October 20, 2022


We need to talk about assisted suicide in Canada


Episode Stats

Length

15 minutes

Words per Minute

140.26994

Word Count

2,179

Sentence Count

92

Misogynist Sentences

4

Hate Speech Sentences

2


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hi everyone, welcome back to the Rupa Subramanya show. It's great to have you here with me once
00:00:23.340 again. If you're joining for the first time, thanks for tuning in. Today's show is going
00:00:29.140 to be a little different. We're not going to have a guest today that I'll be interviewing,
00:00:33.920 but instead you'll have me sharing some thoughts on a very important debate that is currently
00:00:39.920 unfolding in Canada on assisted suicide, officially known as MAID, which stands for Medical Assistance
00:00:47.540 in Dying. Now it's a very innocuous sounding acronym for a rather grim procedure. Now some
00:00:56.180 of you might have seen my long piece for Barry Wise's Common Sense, which interviewed a range
00:01:02.620 of different people who wanted to apply for assisted suicide in Canada and their reasons
00:01:07.920 for wanting to get it. In none of these cases was their death imminent or foreseeable, which
00:01:14.100 used to be the norm before the rules were considerably relaxed back in 2021. If you haven't read it,
00:01:21.380 I would really encourage you to check it out. I spent two months researching and writing it and
00:01:27.100 interviewing the people who went into the story. And many of the stories I heard from people
00:01:33.740 applying for MAID or contemplating applying for MAID were absolutely disturbing and heartbreaking.
00:01:41.900 But today I wanted to chat with you at a much broader level about the rationale for MAID in the context
00:01:49.140 of a democratic and free society like Canada. Now I'll be very honest with you. It's been a challenge
00:01:55.720 for me as someone who identifies as being on the libertarian end of the spectrum on various issues
00:02:04.200 to wrap my head around this particular issue. But here's the thing. In morality as in economics,
00:02:11.100 there are often two definitions of who the decider is. Sometimes it's described as the individual or the
00:02:21.100 agent, as they say in economics. And sometimes it's described as the household, which is the family.
00:02:27.680 All sounds fairly simple and innocuous, but that makes a huge difference to how we look at issues
00:02:34.360 like MAID, whether a family and an individual member of the family may be at odds.
00:02:39.860 Now a libertarian who believes the individual is all that matters and that the family is irrelevant
00:02:46.640 would argue that the individual can choose whatever they want, as long as they're of sound body and mind.
00:02:53.200 And it doesn't matter what their family thinks because it's the individual is all that counts.
00:02:58.940 So if they want to die by suicide or get someone's help to do it, they should be allowed to do that.
00:03:04.220 Ironically enough, the view of the individual is everything and the family is nothing.
00:03:10.500 And this is a view that is actually echoed by the far left as well, who believe that the family,
00:03:16.720 as we've had it for thousands of years, in fact, for all of recorded history,
00:03:22.000 is nothing other than a patriarchal construct suppressing women.
00:03:27.140 And this concept just needs to be destroyed, essentially.
00:03:31.460 Now, this is one strange situation where the far left and a pure individualistic libertarian
00:03:38.480 actually happen to agree that it's the individual that counts, although they think so,
00:03:44.380 for very, very different reasons.
00:03:47.140 But now let's look at the other side of the coin and the definition of the basic unit as the family
00:03:53.620 or as economists call the household, and you get a totally different understanding.
00:03:59.080 On this view, individuals are bound together in a family and the decision that one individual
00:04:05.120 makes within the family impacts everybody else.
00:04:09.940 Again, in the language of economics, it's the household that is optimizing for the best outcome
00:04:15.580 and not the individuals within the household doing so separately.
00:04:19.460 Now, this gives you a very different perspective on medical assistance in dying or MAID.
00:04:25.940 You have to consider the totality of the impact on a family and, by extension, the larger community
00:04:33.800 or society, which is, after all, a web of interconnected families as compared to where everyone just
00:04:40.900 decides for themselves.
00:04:43.240 Surely, when you've had to contemplate a tough decision in life, and I'm not even talking about
00:04:49.240 something as grim and existential as MAID, you know, it could be anything from whether
00:04:54.020 you want to change your job or you move to a different place or break up with a partner.
00:05:00.240 You generally tend to discuss these issues with the people in your life, the people you care
00:05:06.200 about, whether they're your family or your close friends, and what they say will likely inform
00:05:11.520 and influence your final decisions, I would imagine.
00:05:15.260 But what's happening in Canada, we seem to be moving towards a situation where these family ties
00:05:22.840 are broken apart by government policy.
00:05:25.980 And every individual, and perhaps even a minor, if the government gets its way,
00:05:30.960 can make up their own mind on whether to end their life without considering the impact
00:05:36.460 on your family or your loved ones more generally and without taking their concern into account.
00:05:42.760 Again, for specific examples of what I'm talking about, I'd really recommend you take a look
00:05:48.060 at my piece for Barry Wise's Common Sense, which brings all of these points that I'm making
00:05:54.040 into sharp relief.
00:05:55.940 Now, philosophers and writers have also held forth on the question of suicide, and by extension,
00:06:04.000 assisted suicide.
00:06:05.980 For example, the great French writer and philosopher Albert Camus wrote a classic short essay called
00:06:13.320 The Myth of Sisyphus, which I'm sure you read when you were in high school.
00:06:18.860 It's a Greek myth in which an unfortunate individual has been condemned by the gods to push this heavy
00:06:25.540 rock up the side of a hill.
00:06:27.940 He spends all day doing it.
00:06:29.840 At the end of the day, the rock slides down, and he has to start all over again the next
00:06:36.860 day.
00:06:37.760 And this goes on day after day, exactly the same way for all of eternity, basically arduous
00:06:46.600 labor that ends up being completely meaningless, completely useless, and resulting in not much
00:06:52.840 of a life in the end.
00:06:53.900 Now, Camus wondered whether such a situation might provide a valid rationale for suicide,
00:07:02.580 but he decided that it didn't.
00:07:06.000 In the end, Camus valued human relationships and human solidarity above everything else.
00:07:12.780 And he thought, ultimately, we would find our salvation in relationships with our fellow
00:07:19.140 human beings, with fellow men and women.
00:07:21.460 And this would be our escape from the absurdity of life, lived as a single individual connected
00:07:28.760 with anyone else.
00:07:31.860 This is also the point of his classic novel, Letranger, translated either as the outsider
00:07:38.860 in the UK or the stranger in the US.
00:07:42.960 Yes, it's about an individual completely alone in the world.
00:07:46.660 He has no reason to live.
00:07:48.340 And in the end, he commits a murder just so he's arrested by the police, and then he's
00:07:53.360 sent to the guillotine.
00:07:54.780 It's a tragic story of what happens to an individual who's completely cut off from people
00:08:00.700 around him, has no family or friends, and feels he has no reason to live, no stake in life.
00:08:06.780 Likewise, there's a classic poem called Titonus by the British poet Lord Tennyson, which is
00:08:15.640 again based on a Greek myth about an individual who's asked and received a boon from the gods
00:08:23.060 for immortal life.
00:08:25.140 How great is that?
00:08:26.480 But he forgets to ask one important thing, which is immortal youth.
00:08:30.640 So year after year, over the centuries and millennia, he's still alive, but he grows more and
00:08:38.300 more frail.
00:08:39.420 He's getting older and eventually wishes for death, which of course he never gets.
00:08:46.640 The most famous line in this great poem is a quote, after many a summer dies the swan.
00:08:53.760 It refers to the swan, which lives year after year and finally succumbs to death, something
00:08:59.220 Titonus is wishing for.
00:09:02.280 But let's step back from the world of literature and poetry and philosophy to our real world,
00:09:09.140 where individuals are bound together by family and community ties.
00:09:13.980 And a decision to apply for something as irreversible as medical assistance in dying sends shockwaves
00:09:22.500 through family and members of the community.
00:09:25.620 Now, of course, it's important to note that there's a difference between someone who is
00:09:31.720 terminally ill and in excruciating pain and suffering is just extraordinary for whom
00:09:40.440 maid is genuinely an option, a blessing.
00:09:44.340 And many of us might agree that someone in this situation should have a right to speed
00:09:51.360 things up and save themselves some of this excruciating pain and suffering and die with
00:09:59.340 some dignity.
00:10:00.960 But what about an able-bodied person?
00:10:04.180 What about an able-bodied young person like Keanu Vafayan in my story for Common Sense?
00:10:12.180 Someone like that applies for maid for reasons other than that their death is within sight and
00:10:17.880 that they're living in constant excruciating pain for which there is no cure and no treatment.
00:10:24.540 And it's granted under Canada's increasingly permissive maid laws.
00:10:29.080 This just seems absolutely perverse, right?
00:10:32.840 It's more like maid is actually substituting for social services and family support or maybe
00:10:39.720 it's a new form of eugenics to cull the unwanted who are seen as a drain on resources
00:10:45.080 and whose life is not considered intrinsically valuable.
00:10:50.480 If all of this sounds familiar, you might recall a classic dystopian science fiction film called
00:10:56.060 Soylent Green, which I watched many, many years ago, in which the elderly are forced to
00:11:02.980 go in for assisted suicide where they have a great last meal and evening and then they're
00:11:10.260 listening to their favorite music and they're burned to death.
00:11:13.280 As it turns out, the cynical society wants to kill its old people because from the remains
00:11:18.920 of the dead, they produce artificial chemical products that keep society alive.
00:11:23.920 It's a very scary and dystopian vision.
00:11:27.600 And while we're not there yet, we might as well be heading in that direction here in Canada.
00:11:34.400 Now, again, I would encourage you to read the stories of the people that I interviewed for
00:11:40.520 Common Sense, the folks who are grappling with the decision to apply for MAID or not.
00:11:45.480 For my part, for those who are in a truly terminal situation, living in excruciating pain, they're
00:11:54.120 suffering every day.
00:11:56.180 And it would seem, in my opinion, it would seem cruel to deny them this opportunity, an opportunity
00:12:03.720 to lessen that pain and suffering if they're of sound mind to make that decision for themselves.
00:12:09.220 But here's the thing, so many cases of MAID recently seem far removed from this threshold
00:12:18.700 and MAID just comes across as being some kind of a substitute for a well-functioning society.
00:12:27.100 It's really hard to disagree with those who point to this as a sign of serious moral decay
00:12:33.100 in Canada and perhaps a bellwether for what is to come in other Western societies.
00:12:40.420 So why should we care about the ultra-permissive rules that allow assisted suicide in Canada?
00:12:47.640 Why is this an issue?
00:12:49.220 Why should we care?
00:12:50.920 We seem to be on a slippery slope with assisted suicide in Canada where just about anything
00:12:57.520 is enough to qualify for medical assistance in dying.
00:13:01.600 The law is currently being studied and reviewed for next year when it could possibly be extended
00:13:10.640 to mature minors and it will be expanded to those with mental illness where mental illness
00:13:20.760 would be the sole underlying condition to qualify for MAID.
00:13:24.540 You no longer need to have a physical ailment, but mental illness would be the sole underlying
00:13:30.480 condition.
00:13:31.520 Now, even the most hardcore libertarian would have serious issues when it comes to minors
00:13:38.840 being allowed to opt for medical assistance in dying without their parents' consent.
00:13:45.360 Mature minors can't vote, they can't drive a car, they cannot purchase a gun or join the army
00:13:53.640 for that matter, but they're going to have a right to assisted suicide.
00:13:58.780 This frankly seems completely insane.
00:14:02.060 And as for mental illness, what exactly qualifies as mental illness?
00:14:11.060 Who decides?
00:14:12.420 Mental illness is not like having cancer.
00:14:14.960 If you have cancer, that can be established by a battery of different tests, different medical
00:14:19.800 tests.
00:14:20.600 There's no judgment involved.
00:14:22.000 But who decides if someone has a mental illness apparently so bad, so severe that they should
00:14:28.820 be allowed to end their lives or they should be, they should receive help to end their lives.
00:14:34.640 I think this is a dangerous territory.
00:14:38.560 I think we're heading in a very dangerous direction here.
00:14:43.120 And the law has just been made progressively.
00:14:47.760 It's just getting progressively looser and looser and more liberal.
00:14:51.740 And chances are that unless there's a very strong opposition to where we're going with MAID,
00:14:58.300 I think the experts will support it and the government will go along with it.
00:15:04.920 So for conservatives and pragmatic libertarians, where we're heading with assisted suicide ought
00:15:12.880 to be of great concern.
00:15:15.880 I'd love to hear your thoughts.
00:15:17.780 What do you think?
00:15:18.920 Do you think that Canada is on a slippery slope to assisted suicide on demand?
00:15:24.640 I'm worried that we are.
00:15:26.080 With that thought in mind, I want to thank you for tuning in and see you again next week.