Former funeral director. I understand what this doctor is saying. I’ve sat with many people planning assisted death and they were understandably happy that their pain and suffering will soon end. It’s normal to be afraid of death and not understand why someone would want to die until you sit across from someone with bones growing out through their skin because of cancer or someone who will soon lose the ability to move their muscles and be trapped in their paralyzed body until they die. The most common reason to not follow through with a planned death is death. As in, the person waited until the last possible moment to request assisted death. Nobody wants this until they really need it, and when they really need it, they’re thankful.

A while ago the ethical question was raised about MAID in Canada on how they’re supposed to distinguish between “genuinely ill people making good use of the service” and “depressed people who have simply lost hope and are using MAID as a more formal way to kill themselves.” As far as I know, they really can’t. Not to mention the stories of people turning to MAID as an alternative to dealing with Canada’s broken healthcare system. A healthy society doesn’t encourage its members to kill themselves.