Top Tweets for #AidNotMaid

"Why are you so concerned about MAiD?" Because a lack of access to care, failure to provide treatment and support, and discrimination based on age, disability, poverty, or other vulnerabilities can influence a person's request for MAiD and also unconsciously affect the MAiD provider's decision to approve them. Choices are not made in a vacuum. Because I've been notified of cases that troubled me enough to report. Because families have described traumatic deaths. Because MAiD protocols have not always been followed. Because a man in his 40s was approved for MAiD after a single assessment at a Tim Hortons despite untreated addiction and mental illness. They're real people who matter. My conversation with Andrew Brown on London Morning: https://t.co/Nk1sYKbhAi

More than 90 disability and mental health organizations from across the country are registering their concerns about the further expansion of Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) law. The groups are opposed to MAiD access being widened to people whose sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness. They have shared this position in an open letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney, Justice Minister and Attorney General Sean Fraser, and Health Minister Marjorie Michel. The letter was copied to the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying (AMAD) comprised of MPs and Senators. Inclusion Canada is one of the signatories to the letter. People with disabilities and mental illness who face poverty, housing insecurity, social isolation, and barriers to timely health care need help and hope — not MAiD. Please share this letter with your local Member of Parliament and Senator and urge them not to expand assisted suicide and also repeal the discriminatory Track 2 pathway to MAiD that is only for people with disabilities. Letter: EN --> https://t.co/gCCJr35z2B FR --> https://t.co/5FoP9H98q7 Full press release: https://t.co/qQ8Cn9c57m

This news story requires a subscription but we wish to share the essence. "The heads of psychiatry at 13 Canadian medical schools are calling on the federal government to halt the expansion of assisted dying to people whose sole condition is mental illness. In a letter addressed to the parliamentary committee that is exploring this issue, the chairs argue that there is no accurate way to determine when a mental disorder is incurable, no way to distinguish between suicidality and a MAID request, and no way to adequately protect vulnerable patients." Beyond not expanding MAiD any further - the second access point for assisted suicide in Canada should be repealed. Track 2 MAiD discriminates against persons with disabilities who want access to the economic and social supports they need to live a good life. 2,050 people died from it between 2021 and 2024. Six out of 10 victims were women.

The Special Joint Committee on MAiD has been brought back together. This committee of MPs and Senators will consider whether the government should legalize MAiD for mental illness. It meets for the first time tomorrow (Tuesday) evening. We urge the committee to start by considering how Canada’s current MAiD law is working. Our infographic shows some clear problems. The data is from Health Canada’s most recent MAiD monitoring report, the 6th annual report: https://t.co/N5lv2Iiee4 View the accessible PDF version of the infographic here: https://t.co/CoSVoiC804

Until you’ve sat beside your mother as a terminal illness slowly takes everything from her, you don’t get to judge this conversation. During the pandemic, my 88-year-old mom was dying of lung cancer. She was in pain. She was bedridden. She lost her independence, her voice, her dignity piece by piece. Because dementia had already begun, she couldn’t qualify for MAID. She didn’t get the choice. Being confined to a bed led to severe pressure sores exposing her spine despite care another layer of suffering no family should have to witness. We had to watch her endure when compassion should have meant options. MAID is not about “giving up.”
It’s about autonomy.
It’s about safeguards.
It’s about allowing mentally capable adults to decide when enough is enough. Learn what it actually is before condemning the people who have lived it.

"When the United Nations released a scathing report on Canada’s treatment of disabled people last spring—calling out inadequate financial supports and urging Ottawa to halt the expansion of medical assistance in dying—the federal government was silent. Nearly a year later, it still is." This is completely unacceptable. We want action from this government. #EndTrack2MAiD https://t.co/0xd25YepIS