Remember a couple of weeks ago when we shared that short film about Medical Assistance in Dying from the Canadian fashion house Simons? The one that shared the story of MAID recipient Jennyfer Hatch? I had said in our newsletter that week that ‘I think it nicely illustrates the beauty of choice’.
Well, last week CTV news reported: ‘[…] she is the same woman who spoke to us in June about her struggles to find treatment for a rare and complex connective tissue disease, prompting her to seek Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) as a last-ditch effort for palliative care.’
Simons has privatized the video on their YouTube channel, though it is available elsewhere.
More from CTV News: ‘Hatch asked us to use the pseudonym "Kat" as she described chronic pain and other debilitating symptoms for which she found insufficient support in B.C.’s health-care system, despite battling for years, whereas a MAID application was approved within weeks. Hatch was emaciated by Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and other complications when she died in October at age 37.’
Jennyfer Hatch under the pseudonym “Kat” in June:
I feel like I'm falling through the cracks so if I'm not able to access health care am I then able to access death care?' And that’s what led me to look into MAID and I applied last year. […] From a disability and financial perspective as well, I can't afford the resources that would help improve my quality of life. Because of being locked in financially as well and geographically, it is far easier to let go than keep fighting.
The week I shared the short film from Simons, I also shared something about the Better World argument from the very helpful newsletter,
. Here is a reminder:The world right now is deficient in some way, which is causing people to choose MAiD who otherwise might not.
We can imagine a better world where, due to some societal improvements, people might not choose MAiD in the same situations.
Therefore, we should ban MAiD in some forms until we reach that better world.
I then asked: Why should those who wish to access MAID be told to wait and continue to suffer while we clean up our act? How long will they have to sit tight?
And after learning more about Jennyfer Hatch’s story, I ask: What about the bare minimum? Is a general practitioner too much to ask for?
Perhaps it’s much too Canadian of me to wish everyone could have universal access to primary care the way that the Canada Health Act meant for us to. Perhaps it’s not that we are being idealistic, but we are in need of the bare minimum we are entitled to.
Contrast our discussions about MAID with this beautiful piece from The New Yorker:
A French Village’s Radical Vision of a Good Life with Alzheimer’s
One of the most radical aspects of the Village is its insistence that a person with Alzheimer’s is not just diminishing into the sum of her symptoms, but flourishing and evolving as a human being until the end.
At Café Bioethics, we have some new publications from our incredible authors we would like to share:
How Bioethics Can Improve Responses to Social Media Health Disinformation
By: Gianna Strand
The rapid rise and continued evolution of social media has created a new and uniquely modern digital vector for the spread of health information. Without the oversight or integrity clauses of print and digital media, social media has proven culpable of perpetuating dangerous public health threats. Read more:
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-Nipa