This week I’ve put together a list of things that contribute to the MAID pretzel in my brain.
As mainstream media covers more about expanded access to Medical Assistance in Dying, more people outside of medicine, law, and academia are confronted with these impossible ethical questions.
As a bioethicist, the more I learn, the more difficult these questions get.
One of the central questions that keeps me up at night is this:
Should we create policy based on how the world is or how it should be?
First, check out this story about Amir Farsoud, a man from Ontario who applied for MAID.
“He doesn’t want to die but homelessness is not an option.”
Mr. Farsoud’s story went viral this week, and the outrage was clear - many people felt that the government is callously creating a cheaper avenue that gets rid of those with disability and/or mental illness instead of investing in social supports to elevate their quality of living.
After an outpouring of support, CityNews reports that Mr. Farsoud is no longer seeking MAID since a GoFundMe page raised over $60k for him. (I highly recommend reading this follow-up from CityNews - it discusses Mr. Farsoud’s life as an Iranian refugee, and how the Iranian community supported him after his story went viral.)
Yet, one can’t help but think of the thousands of Canadians like Mr. Farsoud, whose stories don’t go viral. There are countless individuals in need of support, without GoFundMe campaigns, who may reluctantly turn to MAID. What about them?
This is where the Better World Argument comes in, from the eloquent and timely article from
by Eric Mathison that was published yesterday. (I highly recommend subscribing if you are interested in sophisticated and accessible ethics publications - it's free just like us!)As an excerpt, here is the Better World Argument:
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.
This argument touches on my previous question - Should we create policy based on how the world is or how it should be? And it leads me to another question -
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?
What do you think, reader?
To balance the difficult emotions elicited from Mr. Farsoud’s story, I leave you with this short film from the Canadian fashion house Simons - I know, hear me out on this. I think it nicely illustrates the beauty of choice.
Here is a helpful article expanding on Jennyfer’s story.
Call for papers on MAID
I’ve seen many hot takes on MAID these past few weeks - if you would like to publish on Café Bioethics, reply to this email and pitch your idea! I will consult with my amazing editors and get back to you. If you have a topic in mind beyond MAID, we’d love to see that pitch too.
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