I know that over here quite a few people working low on the totem pole at low positions* at nonprofits are making significantly less than minimum wage when you look at how many hours they work. So unless you guys are a lot nicer, I wouldn't assume it!
*I am told this is an offensive phrase. Thank you. Changed.
Yes. To me euthenasia has the connotations of someone else making the decision (as in the case of pets). MAID is initiated by the individual themselves not by others.
I'm not going to comment beyond this one thing, as this discussion has been vastly improved by me shutting up, but when I clicked on that link it said "Canadian euthanasia" and then the page refreshed itself and the header said "Assisted dying." There's a note indicating that the lede was revised and why, but nothing about the header. And there's an article linked to at the bottom which refers to "euthanasia" in Canada for the mentally ill. Brits and Canadians will of course use words that make sense to them, but to me "euthanasia" has not a connotation but a denotation of someone else making the decision.
Unsurprisingly, the word euthanasia doesn't seem to appear anywhere in the annual report itself.
The BBC article starts with:
The rate of medical assistance in dying - also known as euthanasia - has grown in Canada for the fifth straight year, albeit at a slower pace.
Given that euthanasia can be voluntary, non-voluntary or involuntary, this seems somewhat misleading.
[time passed]
Several hours later, regarding Ruth's post, if I reload the page, I see it now says:
Medically-assisted dying – also known as voluntary euthanasia – accounted for 4.7% of deaths in Canada in 2023, new government data shows.
And a note has been added at the end that says:
Clarification 12 December: This article's introduction has been amended to be clearer about the fact that these figures relate to voluntary euthanasia and to more clearly and prominently explain the background to the data for two groups who successfully sought medically assisted dying.
So I guess someone eventually gave it a bit more thought.
Min wage should be entry level jobs with no experience or skills required. Does anyone think people doing EoL care should be entry level first job unskilled workers? Shouldn't we want people who've already gained qualifications, experience and skills in social and health care first?
The race to the bottom is highly inappropriate in this sphere. It's already an endemic problem in social care.
I agree, and it's only now that I realise some of you may have taken my initial comment as supporting those management decisions rather than criticising them.
How a woman at the end of her life is being cruelly mistreated and neglected by the NHS funded continuing healthcare (CHC) service.
This stuff really needs fixed - otherwise they're just going to drive people into wanting to take their own lives through cruelty and neglect. Why isn't helping people to live a major priority for our lousy government?
How a woman at the end of her life is being cruelly mistreated and neglected by the NHS funded continuing healthcare (CHC) service.
This stuff really needs fixed - otherwise they're just going to drive people into wanting to take their own lives through cruelty and neglect. Why isn't helping people to live a major priority for our lousy government?
Isn't that one of the arguments the anti-Assisted Dying side have? That it is cheaper for governments to allow people to more seriously consider taking up the Assisted Dying option; than providing more effective end-of-life care? Now that - so the argument will go - the administration has agreed to put in place the apparatus for enabling people to take this option, why worry too much about funding hospice and properly effective palliative care? I don't know how the sums work out, so I can't comment either way.
The Canadian cleric, Michael Coren, who initially supported MAID, was writing in The Church Times this week about his subsequent change of mind. He said this was partly on account of his being requested by one woman to support her application because she was lonely, depressed and in despair. He had no idea, he says, whether or not she could possibly have been accepted for MAID, given that criteria. But what struck him was the assumption she had that feeling so helpless and hopeless, death was to her the only viable resort. Coren said she was introduced to a community who welcomed her, fixed her up with access to the internet and since then all mention of assisted dying has ceased. He implied that recent moves to extend MAID to mental health suffering conditions alone (in 2027?) might also be seen as something of a slippery slope.
I feel like I am far enough away from my own grief-induced ideations to finally comment on this thread.
I used to work in the very fancy dining room of a very fancy "retirement community" whose members were what I would call "pharmacological personae" - people able to get themselves dressed and down to supper but whose personalities were heavily regulated by their daily cocktail of medications. I saw enough of that to decide that I never want to live like that.
My father's stroke paralyzed his right side and his swallowing and speech centers. It happened three weeks before physician assisted suicide was legalized in Ontario, and he was the very first to request it from his hospital. They didn't even have a protocol set up. In the end he died by suicide - he had a living will that the hospital refused to acknowledge until the seventh time he pulled his feeding tube, after which the nurses did their usual thing by upping the morphine until his organs shut down.
My Mom's stroke happened in exactly the same location in the brain as my Dad's, and she collapsed after her favorite Chinese takeout meal six months after Dad left. She didn't pass right away, and it took me 24 whole hours to travel home from Spain where I was living, and the hospital was amazed she hung on as long as she did. I knew she was upset about Dad passing without us at his side so I knew she wouldn't pass alone. She passed eight hours after I arrived.
So I came to the conclusion that leaving the earth suit is as much of a decision as it is coming into it.
For myself I won't be asking anybody's permission to take the exit. Everyone wants to die in their sleep doing something they love. [redacted]. I hope that day is still long in the future - because verything good in my life has come to me through the love I've received and given and I feel I still have love left to give.
@A Feminine Force I am sorry to edit what is clearly a heartfelt post - but this is a publicly viewable site and we are concerned that the specific statement redacted could put you and us at legal risk.
@A Feminine Force I am sorry to edit what is clearly a heartfelt post - but this is a publicly viewable site and we are concerned that the specific statement redacted could put you and us at legal risk.
Doublethink, Admin
Oh duh. So stupid of course. Thanks for watching out for me. I take these things too matter of factly and this isn't the first time. Thank you from my heart.
Following the vote to proceed with the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill in Edinburgh earlier this week (70 votes to 56).
Tomorrow being a Friday, it's Private Members' Bills day in the House of Commons, starting with Kim Leadbeater's Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which should include voting (on amendments, etc). A number of MPs have indicated that they've changed their position since the last vote or that they would do so if certain amendments weren't incorporated.
Comments
*I am told this is an offensive phrase. Thank you. Changed.
It's the word we commonly use when we do exactly the same thing to our pets. Is it commonly used of MAID for pet animals in Canada?
https://www.grammarly.com/commonly-confused-words/connote-vs-denote
The BBC article starts with: Given that euthanasia can be voluntary, non-voluntary or involuntary, this seems somewhat misleading.
[time passed]
Several hours later, regarding Ruth's post, if I reload the page, I see it now says: And a note has been added at the end that says: So I guess someone eventually gave it a bit more thought.
And me....
Min wage £11.34/hr
Lowest NHS pay scale - £12.08
So yes, but by very little.
Min wage should be entry level jobs with no experience or skills required. Does anyone think people doing EoL care should be entry level first job unskilled workers? Shouldn't we want people who've already gained qualifications, experience and skills in social and health care first?
The race to the bottom is highly inappropriate in this sphere. It's already an endemic problem in social care.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/28/terminal-illness-care-england-motor-neurone-disease
How a woman at the end of her life is being cruelly mistreated and neglected by the NHS funded continuing healthcare (CHC) service.
This stuff really needs fixed - otherwise they're just going to drive people into wanting to take their own lives through cruelty and neglect. Why isn't helping people to live a major priority for our lousy government?
Isn't that one of the arguments the anti-Assisted Dying side have? That it is cheaper for governments to allow people to more seriously consider taking up the Assisted Dying option; than providing more effective end-of-life care? Now that - so the argument will go - the administration has agreed to put in place the apparatus for enabling people to take this option, why worry too much about funding hospice and properly effective palliative care? I don't know how the sums work out, so I can't comment either way.
The Canadian cleric, Michael Coren, who initially supported MAID, was writing in The Church Times this week about his subsequent change of mind. He said this was partly on account of his being requested by one woman to support her application because she was lonely, depressed and in despair. He had no idea, he says, whether or not she could possibly have been accepted for MAID, given that criteria. But what struck him was the assumption she had that feeling so helpless and hopeless, death was to her the only viable resort. Coren said she was introduced to a community who welcomed her, fixed her up with access to the internet and since then all mention of assisted dying has ceased. He implied that recent moves to extend MAID to mental health suffering conditions alone (in 2027?) might also be seen as something of a slippery slope.
I used to work in the very fancy dining room of a very fancy "retirement community" whose members were what I would call "pharmacological personae" - people able to get themselves dressed and down to supper but whose personalities were heavily regulated by their daily cocktail of medications. I saw enough of that to decide that I never want to live like that.
My father's stroke paralyzed his right side and his swallowing and speech centers. It happened three weeks before physician assisted suicide was legalized in Ontario, and he was the very first to request it from his hospital. They didn't even have a protocol set up. In the end he died by suicide - he had a living will that the hospital refused to acknowledge until the seventh time he pulled his feeding tube, after which the nurses did their usual thing by upping the morphine until his organs shut down.
My Mom's stroke happened in exactly the same location in the brain as my Dad's, and she collapsed after her favorite Chinese takeout meal six months after Dad left. She didn't pass right away, and it took me 24 whole hours to travel home from Spain where I was living, and the hospital was amazed she hung on as long as she did. I knew she was upset about Dad passing without us at his side so I knew she wouldn't pass alone. She passed eight hours after I arrived.
So I came to the conclusion that leaving the earth suit is as much of a decision as it is coming into it.
For myself I won't be asking anybody's permission to take the exit. Everyone wants to die in their sleep doing something they love. [redacted]. I hope that day is still long in the future - because verything good in my life has come to me through the love I've received and given and I feel I still have love left to give.
AFF
(ETA redacted for legal risk, DT Admin)
Doublethink, Admin
Oh duh. So stupid of course. Thanks for watching out for me. I take these things too matter of factly and this isn't the first time. Thank you from my heart.
AFF
Tomorrow being a Friday, it's Private Members' Bills day in the House of Commons, starting with Kim Leadbeater's Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which should include voting (on amendments, etc). A number of MPs have indicated that they've changed their position since the last vote or that they would do so if certain amendments weren't incorporated.