Canada Releases its First Accredited Assisted Suicide Training Curriculum

Canada Releases its First Accredited Assisted Suicide Training Curriculum
Expanding the Culture of Death.
By Christine Williams

Canada has now released its first national training program in medical assistance in dying for licensed physicians and nurse practitioners. The suicide training curriculum is accredited by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and the College of Family Physicians of Canada.

In Canada, an individual does not need to have a fatal, terminal condition to be eligible for what is warmly called MAID, the clever abbreviation for Medical Assistance in Dying. According to Health Canada: The Trudeau government “committed to supporting individuals who meet the eligibility criteria to have their MAID request considered in a fair, safe and consistent manner, while supporting efforts to protect those who may be vulnerable, including persons who suffer from a mental illness.”

How many Canadians trust the Trudeau government to be “fair, safe and consistent,” and supportive of the most vulnerable, as it promises to do in the MAID program? Trudeau promised in 2019: “A re-elected Liberal government will make sure every Canadian has access to a family doctor, to mental health services, to affordable prescription drugs and to national pharmacare,” and “to boost health care funding by $6 billion over the coming four years.” As expected, the big spender Trudeau lied. But there’s one area to which he has proven to be dedicated: his government’s assisted suicide program.

According to official Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre, “some people are suffering from mental health disorders because of the government’s policies.”

After eight years of Justin Trudeau, everything feels broken and people feel broken. That’s why many are suffering from depression and they’re losing hope.

Conservative MP Ed Fast added that “it is deeply concerning that this government appears to be moving from a culture of life to a culture of death.”

In 2019, Trudeau announced his intention to “bring in legislation to expand access to medical assistance in dying” and commissioned “expert panels” to investigate “other areas of assisted death, including advance requests and extending the right to mature minors and people with severe psychiatric disorders.” In case you might be wondering what a “mature minor” means, it refers to a child who is deemed by a healthcare provider to be mature enough to give consent to his or her death. So MAID-participating healthcare providers are afforded the powers of the state to decide whether to give their stamp of approval to this decision, with no sufficient oversight possible. Canadians must simply trust in their opinions in a way that is very different from healing and the pledge to “do no harm.”

The Conservatives are now working to repeal the MAID law. In the face of opposition:

On February 2, 2023, the federal government announced plans to delay MAID eligibility for people whose sole medical condition is mental illness until March 17, 2024. This is a one year delay from the original timeline. They said that this delay will provide them with more time to develop practice standards and training, and to allow for better data collection and sharing.

Bear in mind that mental health is a legal factor in weighing the ability of an individual to participate in court proceedings. That’s because the individual may not be reliable, due to the instability caused by mental illness. When one applies this reasoning to MAID accessibility, how can a mentally and psychologically sound decision be made by a deeply distressed mentally ill individual?

Society lacks resources to care for the suffering. Given the financial and emotional demands in Western societies, devoted caregivers are in scarce supply, so the state has moved in with a solution to end their lives, rather than create more humane ways to care for them. Meanwhile, the Trudeau government’s waste is profuse and record breaking. No other government in Canadian history has seen such reckless spending. Then there is Trudeau’s unethical spending. Add in Trudeau’s suicidal immigration policies (no pun intended), and all this is breaking the backs of taxpayers in a severely broken system that he created.

Trudeau’s solution to help those in need is to offer services to end their miserable lives legally, in their deepest moment of despair. He continues to make headway. In February, a parliamentary committee recommended in a report tabled in the House of Commons that medical assistance in dying “should be expanded to include minors” with a restriction attached. The child’s natural death must be “reasonably foreseeable.” Last year, the Trudeau government even funded an assisted suicide activity book for kids: The Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) Activity Book.

What about medical practitioners who are opposed to participating in any part of the MAID process on religious grounds, or simply as a matter of conscience? According to the website Dying With Dignity, the practitioner is allowed to decline. However, this isn’t straightforward. They cannot simply decline and then leave the matter up to the patient to pursue. In Ontario, “objecting providers must make an ‘effective referral to a non-objecting, available, and accessible physician, nurse practitioner or agency.’” So while a practitioner may be unwilling to participate, he or she is bound to do so by making a referral. This is reminiscent of a section in the criminal code that prohibits counseling someone to commit suicide. It states:

241 (1) Everyone is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than 14 years who, whether suicide ensues or not,

(a) counsels a person to die by suicide or abets a person in dying by suicide; or

(b) aids a person to die by suicide.

To some health practitioners, forcing them to “make an effective referral” would be regarded as a morally egregious offense that would be no different from counseling someone to commit suicide. Such a requirement violates a practitioner’s right to exercise his or her moral conscience and religious freedom.

The moral decay in Canada and woeful disregard for human and religious rights across the board is becoming increasingly evident and severe. Take, for instance, the “rights” afforded by the state to a child to make life-altering decisions about gender at a turbulent time in life. A National Post article, Some parents object as Canadian schools quietly aid students’ gender transition, revealed that school boards “are urging schools to both automatically honor request to change a student’s name and pronouns, and not to tell parents if requested.”

The Trudeau government’s MAID program is presented as kind and caring, as is “gender affirming care.” Many, in their moments of pain, will trust their government to be “fair, safe and consistent,” as the government promises. Yet ironically, if a poll were taken on how many Canadians actually trust the Trudeau government, the results will be dismal for Trudeau.

Original Article