141: Does Canada Want Suffering Citizens to Die? (w/Taslim Alani-Verjee)

Is Canada trying to euthanize the mentally ill?

Self-professed "theocratic fascist" Matt Walsh says so. So does the OG anti-woke agitator, James Lindsay. Both cravenly distort Canada's proposed expansion of its Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) laws to include people suffering from mental illness.

But are they entirely wrong? From the left, Jeremy Appel writes in Jacobin:

I’ve come to realize that euthanasia in Canada represents the cynical endgame of social provisioning within the brutal logic of late-stage capitalism — we’ll starve you of the funding you need to live a dignified life, demand you pay back pandemic aid you applied for in good faith, and if you don’t like it, well, why don’t you just kill yourself?

Psychologist and ethics professor Dr. Taslim Alanii-Verjee joins Matthew to discuss the ethical labyrinth of MAiD expansion, and how the altruistic quest for patient autonomy and dignity can run afoul of the neoliberal state's failure to provide the necessaries.

Show Notes

Dr. Taslim Alani-Verjee

Federal government moves to delay MAID for people suffering solely from mental illness | CBC News

The Problems With Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying Policy

Special Joint Committee on MAiD - Dr. Sonu Gaind

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