GuelphToday received the following letter to the editor from Sue Woodward regarding the article Upcoming changes to MAiD has CMHA developing policy published on Nov. 23.
In response to the article about the CMHA working on protocols for the extension of medical assistance in dying (MAiD) to the mentally ill: it doesn't take much reading between the lines to detect what an appalling dilemma must be facing those with this task. How many people are going to seek MAiD because the treatment they so desperately need simply isn't available or isn't available in time? You quote Helen Fishburn, CEO of CMHA Waterloo-Wellington, saying, “For us, we strongly believe that mental illness is a treatable condition and that recovery is possible."
Has anyone among those politicians who have brought in this dreadful legislation stopped to think about what is going to happen? Of course, many more mentally ill people are going to die – suicidal ideation is part of mental illness! Suicide prevention has long been the strategy to help those who are temporarily convinced that this is the only way out. If requests for MAiD are accepted – and let no one be naive enough to believe that there will be sufficient safeguards in place – this final solution will leave many, many shocked and grieving friends and family of those who could have been helped to recover.
Sue Woodward, Guelph
