: A “reasonably foreseeable” death may arise some time in the future, but when the individual has lost capacity for judgment. The legitimacy of advance directives in end-of-life decisions has been well established in Canada and should include the option of assisted death, should the individual choose this.As a psychiatrist, a researcher on medical assistance in dying and an assessor for MAID requests, I find some assumptions in The Globe’s editorial concerning.
Assisted death is never a “no questions asked” scenario. Rigorous assessments are already required, and the current legislation already includes numerous safeguards. The new legislation will almost certainly further include additional safeguards for vulnerable populations.In Justice Minister David Lametti’s mandate letter, part of his to-do list includes amending the law on medical assistance in dying to remove the “reasonably foreseeable death" requirement across Canada.
Even though we did not ask to enter life, it seems that once we are in it, we are supposed to be stalwart even beyond what is reasonable. It’s as if a restaurant serves us a terrible meal and refuses to let us leave until we have eaten 99 per cent.Requesting death can be done in a moment of something other than weakness. It can be done in a moment of maturity and realism. Let us applaud and respect such moments of strength.