MAID requires the cooperation of other people.\u00a0 Autonomy implies self-initiation.\u00a0 But how many fatal prescriptions are first suggested or initiated by the patient\/victim’s family, friends, medical staff, social workers, caregivers, insurance companies, or Artificial Intelligence?\u00a0 How often are people who have not requested or agreed to MAID presented with a fatal prescription, with at least some of the necessary signatures, possibly including one made electronically on their behalf?\u00a0 Euthanasia policy scholar Wesley J. Smith has noted, \u201cStudies show families rather than patients generally decide when the time has come for euthanasia.\u201d1<\/sup> When must an individual take active steps to avoid<\/em> MAID?<\/p>\n Many terms that are used to degrade staying alive in certain conditions relate to the effect on other people.\u00a0 \u00a0Concepts like “undignified” (implying shameful and disgraceful), “irresponsible, “selfish,” “immature,” “burdensome,” “occupying organs that could benefit someone else,” and “squandering heirs’ money” can pertain to responsibility.\u00a0 Is not submitting to death-hastening out of a sense of responsibility or duty the opposite<\/em> of autonomy?<\/p>\n Un<\/em>assisted suicide is an autonomous action.\u00a0 So is foregoing medical attention for months or years until one dies naturally.\u00a0 But actively speeding death is as interventionist as extraordinary efforts to prolong life.\u00a0 If the majority of non-sudden deaths are hastened, it will be living until one’s body dies naturally that will be the autonomous action.<\/p>\n Claims that laws against MAID laws are examples of government intrusion into personal lives can divert the discussion into the appropriateness of any<\/em> government intrusion.\u00a0 Actually, the discussion should be about what <\/em>intrusion by the government or equivalent is appropriate for.<\/p>\n Are not most of the people whom anti-MAID laws interfere with those who want an individual dead?\u00a0 Such laws protect<\/em> the individual from these people, as well as from care facilities and insurers who find it more profitable and efficient to have them dead.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t laws allowing MAID give free rein to these people to pressure, bully, and shame the individual into accepting death-hastening?\u00a0\u00a0 Don\u2019t they allow care facilities, caregivers, and insurers to set policies of killing, expelling, and\/or overcharging anybody with certain conditions in certain circumstances?\u00a0That these are private entities doesn\u2019t make their policies any less intrusive or any less strict than government laws.<\/p>\n And in places where medical facilities are part of government services or heavily supported by the government, the facility\u2019s deciding to kill a person is government intrusion to caus<\/em>e death.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t pro-MAID laws give justification to claim that to live until one’s body dies naturally,\u00a0or to stay alive in certain conditions, is unpatriotic, sinful, obscene,\u00a0cowardly, the equivalent of not paying taxes, or “just not done”? That to want to stay alive in certain conditions is a clinical sign of \u201cirrationality\u201d?<\/p>\n Will many people, from policymakers to caregivers to the general public, think the only alternates to quick MAID are \u201cslow\u201d death-hastening, like terminal sedation and medication mini-overdoses?\u00a0 Will even many who reject quick MAID feel anything that smells of life-maintenance is \u201cwrong\u201d or \u201clooks bad\u201d?<\/p>\n Doesn\u2019t the availability of MAID change people\u2019s conception of what is appropriate and possible?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n NOTES<\/p>\n 1Wesley J. Smith, Forced Exit<\/a><\/u>: The Slippery Slope from Assisted Suicide to Legalized Murder<\/em>.\u00a0Times Books (Random House),\u00a0 1997, p. 103<\/p>\n ===============<\/p>\n For more of our posts on euthanasia, see:<\/p>\n Figuring out Euthanasia<\/a>: What Does it Really Mean?<\/p>\n Euthanasia by Poverty: Stories from Canada<\/a><\/p>\n MAID in Despair<\/a><\/p>\n Grieving for John<\/a><\/p>\n How Euthanasia and Poverty Threaten the Disabled<\/a><\/p>\n What\u2019s Cruel for the Incarcerated is Cruel for the Terminally Ill<\/a><\/p>\n Assisted Suicide as the Next Roe v. Wade: Time to Pay Attention<\/a><\/p>\n Assisted Suicide is Inequality, Just Like All Legal Violence<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/blog-euthanasia.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n