Suicide Prevention – Care Not Killing

Suicide Prevention

Key Points

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Society should try to prevent suicide, not assist it.

The business of suicide prevention is seriously undermined by passing an “assisted dying” law because it changes suicide from being something that society regards as detrimental and to be discouraged into something that is regarded as a valid option.

Laws send social messages.

This bill sends a dog whistle message to the terminally ill, vulnerable, elderly and disabled people, especially those on low or fixed incomes that their lives are worth less than others and that ending those lives is an appropriate function of the state.

A growing body of data shows that legalising assisted suicide seems to be associated with an increase in the numbers taking their own lives in the general population.

Oregon was associated with an increase of 6.3 per cent in the numbers of suicides, once all other factors had been controlled. Among over-65s the figure was more than double that.

KATHRIN MENTLER

Kathrin was experiencing suicidal ideation and went to the Vancouver General Hospital for help. She was told by a counsellor that there were no available beds and the earliest that she could talk to a psychiatrist was in five months.

She was then asked, “Have you ever considered MAiD?” The clinician said that overdosing at home could lead to brain damage whereas a MAiD death was more ‘comfortable.’

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