Canada’s assisted death rush is a grim warning

Melanie Phillips writes that last year, more than 15,000 Canadians chose to be helped to end their lives. A Canadian bioethics professor, Jaro Kotalik, told the health and social care select committee last year that, from the legalisation of assisted dying in 2016 until 2022, the numbers choosing this option jumped by about one third every year.

She argues that "There’s the danger of pressure from unscrupulous relatives or those who can’t bear the suffering of their loved one. The terminally ill patient may be frightened of becoming a burden on the family. Other frail and elderly people might also want to spare the overstretched NHS. The most vulnerable who need the greatest protection are likely to be the greatest victims of this.

Some who have had to watch loved ones suffering terminal illness or merely chronic frailty have experienced pressures from clinical staff using emotional manipulation on both patients and relatives to agree to procedures that hasten death. Once doctors become seen as potential executioners, patients' overall trust vanishes for ever."

Read the full article here in the Times (£)