It was recently ruled in Canada that MAiD for mental illness alone is not going forward as an option, at least not for now. I wanted to discuss how I feel about this subject:
I honestly agree with this decision, I think it becomes a slippery slope when the state becomes involved if a person wishes to die for reasons like this. Considering how terrible my psychological state was many years ago, I probably would have been issued a lobotomy in another decade, so - considering that MAiD has randomly been recommended even to elders who have gone into hospital for non-terminal concerns, such as having a broken leg, it concerns me that a doctor or nurse might have recommended MAiD to me at my worst, it's entirely possible that this might have eventually been encouraged for many if this legislation had gone through. I certainly was encouraged to see myself as forever dependent on medications, perhaps even dependent on long term care, they also insisted that my mother see it that way when they talked to her about my prognosis. I proved that notion wrong by willing finer states over the years with spiritual self-discipline, alternative medicine, and understanding that the root of my pain with "psychosis" was in fact religious/occult, and not of the brain itself.
In a world that often ignores the soul, I imagine that many of these unwanted psychological states are constructs of a time, suffrage we know not only from a sad state of affairs related to injustice, trauma, a world that has grown too loud and too fast, but often from not leading the lives we were born to live, culturally treating the ecosystem like a prostitute and not like our sacred mother, there are many reasons suffrage might happen to the mind that go beyond just having a sick brain. There is a disclaimer at the front of every DSM edition that states that there are no biomedical markers to definitively diagnose any of these conditions. Perhaps if there were, it wouldn't be psychiatric illness anymore, it would be a variant of neurological disease. It is all that, my personal history and recovery and the miracle recoveries of those I have known and more that mean that I simply can't agree with MAiD for mental illness.
What I do want to see is the expansion of alternative medicines for mental health in mainstream hospital settings, particularly in the widespread availability of drugs like ibogaine, a treatment that can solve not only addiction, but also certain forms of mental illness, PTSD included. This treatment is often too expensive for people who could really benefit from it, and I would love to see it covered by OHIP. (Although there is a risk of cardiovascular problems with ibogaine in certain individuals, it would benefit many who are ideal candidates, one must remember that many mainline treatments have difficult side effects, chemotherapy is one example that comes to mind. I think ibogaine should at least be explored more because of its miracle properties.) It wasn't doctors who discussed ibogaine with me, it was random people I had talked to. I am shocked by the tone of those who deem it "progressive" to say things like "if a person is going to kill themselves anyway, why not help them do it with the hand of a medical practitioner?" It's a statement that reeks of "I don't care about humanity", and with sentiments like that, I imagine we would go into a time where definitely forensic mental health patients might even be encouraged to consider it by medical professionals (and certainly by the public), simply for having crossed a line while sick. We do not have the death penalty in Canada, but some might go there in their thinking for the chronically mentally ill who are incarcerated, or under the Ontario Review Board, as an example.
I don't consider my opinion difficult, maybe some who suffer from mental illness would disagree, but I know there is so much room for error in even getting a diagnosis right, and such a need for better care overall, that this would just be a crime to me, a failure of the state in taking care of its citizens, if this were to move forward.
In my darker states, I had mused on this blog about MAiD for myself if it were to go through, I now disagree with these feelings, I would never do such a thing. My recovery is going well, I am off Latuda, and I will never consider suicide again.
-Saraƒin
