Read on Twitter
CW MAID assisted suicide
Why sign this petition against #BillC7? A thread.
https://www.change.org/p/no-to-bill-c7-do-not-eliminate-reasonably-foreseeable-death-requirement-from-assisted-suicide-legislation-maid 1/9
Why sign this petition against #BillC7? A thread.
https://www.change.org/p/no-to-bill-c7-do-not-eliminate-reasonably-foreseeable-death-requirement-from-assisted-suicide-legislation-maid 1/9
The petition says, "This bill would expand eligibility for MAID to almost everyone who is disabled and/or has a chronic illness in Canada", which includes me. I do not have many assistance needs but I would like to outline a few and how hard it is to get help. 2/9
I am an ambulatory wheelchair user. I don't typically need it in my apartment, but to do most things beyond my door I do. It took 3.5 years to get my custom chair through the province. First, I had to find an accessible apartment I could afford. 3/9
Why? Because you won't be considered for a wheelchair if there isn't level entry to your house. Once I'd managed that, it still took nearly a year (from May to March) to go through the associated bureaucracy required to get my chair prescribed, ordered, built and shipped. 4/9
Over the years I've also blown through the various oral DMARDs for autoimmune disease, with each of them working for a while and then losing efficacy. Finally, the only option left was biologics, which for the one I'm on costs about $21,700/year. 5/9
There's provincial assistance for biologics, if you meet specific criteria. I, however, slid neatly between their boxes, and thus it took four months for my biologics nurse to sort through that and get me on compassionate supply from the manufacturer. 6/9
CW suicide
This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of difficulty in accessing the care disabled people in Canada need. And yet, if I wasn't exceptionally stubborn and didn't have wonderful friends to help, I very likely would not be here today. 7/9
This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of difficulty in accessing the care disabled people in Canada need. And yet, if I wasn't exceptionally stubborn and didn't have wonderful friends to help, I very likely would not be here today. 7/9
#BillC7 would mean that someone like me, could have access to MAID drastically faster than they could have access to the meds/assistive devices/therapy/support they need to live (i.e. 90 days v. 120 days (biologics) v. 1500 days (wheelchair)) 8/9
Canada should uphold the UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People, and facilitate the right to live, not the right to die, for disabled people. A key step is not passing #BillC7, so please, sign the petition, and write your MP. 9/9
