Better dead than disabled?

The consequences of extending access to Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) to disabled people
Posted on March 11, 2023
April 25, 2023 @ 2:00pm – 4:00pm ET
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Disabled people are Canada’s largest minority group, at 22%. MAiD eligibility was extended in 2021 to disabled Canadians not near death, ignoring their human rights. Because no other group was targeted, this glaring inequity constitutes endemic ableism and eugenics.
During the debate on extending MAiD, disability activists argued that, because supports for disabled people have been cut, those who cannot access services they need might access MAiD instead. Media are now documenting such deaths and the social conditions that prompt them: poverty-level incomes, inadequate housing, and being forced into long-term-care institutions. Healthcare practice enables ableist eugenics. Prospective parents are pressured to have genetic screening and then to abort fetuses with conditions such as Downs Syndrome. Now no-one with this disability is born in Iceland. These policies and practices contradict decades-long advocacy to expand services for disabled people so they can lead dignified lives.
Panelists with lived experience of disability will describe the consequences of extending MAiD to disabled people not near death. The presentations will stimulate reflection and action among audience members to re-imagine a world that honours human differences.