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Disabled man on a wheelchair
Humanize From Discovery Institute's Center on Human Exceptionalism
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Canadian Disabled Seek Euthanasia Because of Poor Social Services

Published at National Review

Disability-rights activists are some of the greatest and most effective opponents of assisted suicide/euthanasia, correctly identifying it as a form of discrimination.

Canadian cuts in social services for the disabled during COVID proves their point. Some poor people with disabilities in Canada are growing so desperate, they are asking their doctors to kill them — not because of their disability, but because of financial desperation. From the City News story:

Kim is a recipient of Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) and says her life has been “pure hell” during the pandemic. CityNews has honoured Kim’s request not to use her last name.

“It’s like I’m being punished for being born disabled, like I committed some kind of crime,” said Kim.

According to the story, such desperation is becoming ubiquitous among the disabled community. That has led some to seek euthanasia as the only way out:

The COVID-19 pandemic has made things even more dire for those with disabilities. A Stats Canada survey released last week found 61 per cent of people with disabilities are struggling to pay rent or buy medications as the cost of living goes up.

Even more chilling is that some are talking online about applying for Medically Assisted Dying (MAID). One woman on Twitter said she enrolled because she “can no longer afford to live, nor can I afford the food and medicine I need to get better.”

Kim says she knows of more than 50 people who have applied for MAID while some, she says, are taking other routes. “I’ve lost six friends to suicide since [the beginning] of COVID,” said Kim. . . . “They don’t want to live this way anymore, there is no safety net at all for people that are disabled,” said Kim.

Kim admits she has thought about applying for MAID herself. She says her landlord is evicting her because he can get an additional $400 a month on AirBnB and she can’t afford that. Paying $1,400 in rent would leave her with $21 a month for food and all expenses.

And here’s the thing. The reason for wanting to die could be lack of access to social services and an inability to afford to live. But all the doctor committing the legal homicide will see is the disability. “Of course, you want to die,” he or she will be saying by agreeing to the lethal jab. “Who wouldn’t?”

But, but Wesley. Euthanasia is about compassion!

No, it is about abandonment. Just ask Kim.

Wesley J. Smith

Chair and Senior Fellow, Center on Human Exceptionalism
Wesley J. Smith is Chair and Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism. Wesley is a contributor to National Review and is the author of 14 books, in recent years focusing on human dignity, liberty, and equality. Wesley has been recognized as one of America’s premier public intellectuals on bioethics by National Journal and has been honored by the Human Life Foundation as a “Great Defender of Life” for his work against suicide and euthanasia. Wesley’s most recent book is Culture of Death: The Age of “Do Harm” Medicine, a warning about the dangers to patients of the modern bioethics movement.