Left-wing newspaper The New York Times has called for mentally ill people to be euthanized, arguing that the expansion of “assisted suicide” is “moral progress.”
In a recent article, the NY Times makes its case for people “suffering from psychological torture” to be put out of their misery.
Ironically, while pushing for expanded “suicide” laws, the Times also admits many who experience intense mental suffering eventually “find themselves grateful for their lives once the suicidal moment or attempt has passed.”
The piece, titled “Medical Assistance in Dying Should Not Exclude Mental Illness,” was penned by Canadian writer Clancy Martin.
Martin begins by describing his own personal suicide attempts when he was younger.
“My first attempt to kill myself was when I was a child,” he writes.
“I tried again as a teenager; as an adult, I’ve attempted suicide repeatedly and in a variety of ways.”
Despite his failed efforts, the author admits to being grateful for having survived each attempt.
“And yet, as a 55-year-old white man (a member of one of the groups at the highest risk for suicide in America) and the happily married father of five children, I am thankful that I am incompetent at killing myself,” he writes.
Martin, who serves as a professor of philosophy at the University of Missouri in Kansas City, expressed his belief that “almost every suicide can be prevented, including my own, with access to good behavioral health systems.”
“I have talked many, many people ‘off the ledge,’” he added.
Martin notes how Canada has been rapidly expanding the legal right to request medical assistance in dying (MAID).
Slay News has previously reported on Canada’s radical euthanasia laws.
MAID was legalized in Canada in 2016 for candidates whose natural death was imminent and that wanted to die quickly, rather than live through the pain.
However, it was later amended to include Canadians enduring an “intolerable” and “irreversible” illness, disease, or disability.
The laws are now being expanded to include people with minor conditions, mentally ill patients, and those who are poor or homeless.
A recent case was recently reported in which a man was euthanized against his family’s wishes over a problem with his hearing.
Aside from bouts of depression over his hearing, Alan Nichols, 61, was otherwise healthy.
However, his brother claimed doctors railroaded Nichols into killing himself.
The age limit is also changing to expand the program from adults to also include “mature” children.
Meanwhile, as Canada continues to expand its euthanasia laws, plans to start euthanizing infants are also gaining support, as Slay News reported.
Recently, Live Action News reported that the Quebec College of Physicians has made a recommendation that infants who experience “grave malformations” where life expectancy is “basically nil” should be eligible for euthanasia under Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) laws.
A report from the National Post reveals that some parents are already asking for their children to be euthanized.
According to the Post, some Canadian doctors have said, “that specific and explicit requests for MAID have come from parents involving very young children.”
In his article for the NY Times, Martin describes the acceptance of such legislation — which “has been spreading” to many other countries and districts — as “moral progress.”
“When a person is in unbearable physical agony, suffering from a terminal disease, and death is near, surely it is compassionate to help end the pain, if the person so chooses,” he writes.
He then highlights the current debate in Canada surrounding the inclusion in MAID of those “living with severe, incurable mental illness” — a part of the law scheduled to take effect next year.
Yet, despite Martin admitting that “many people who want to end their lives because of intense mental suffering find themselves grateful for their lives once the suicidal moment or attempt has passed,” he still promotes the idea of euthanizing those suffering from mental illness.
“One might expect that as someone who has repeatedly attempted suicide and yet is happy to be alive, I am opposed to euthanasia on psychiatric grounds,” he writes.
“But it is because of my intimacy with suicide that I believe people must have this right.”
Though requests for euthanasia on psychiatric grounds should be treated with “particular care” because of our uncertainty surrounding psychological suffering, Martin insists that the lack of clarity “is in fact a reason to endorse a prudent policy of assisted suicide for at least some psychiatric cases.”
“When people are desperate for relief from torment that we do not understand well enough to effectively treat, giving them the right and the expert medical assistance to end that misery is caring for them,” he writes.
He also notes that major depression “is one of the psychiatric diagnoses most common to suicidal people, and approximately two-thirds of people who die by suicide are depressed at the time of their death.”
In addition, he claims, “the knowledge that there is a way out may alleviate the terrifying claustrophobia so common to suicidal people like me and to people in acute suffering more generally.”
According to Martin, when people are given the right to physician-assisted suicide, “they may opt not to use it.”
“People should be granted the right to this assistance,” he argues.
“It does not follow they will exercise that right.”
“If we are willing to help people end their physical suffering by assisting their death, can we in good conscience deny them that help for their mental suffering?” he asks.
Canadian religious leaders have expressed growing concern over the looming activation of new policies that would allow those suffering from mental illness to be euthanized with considerable speed.
The policies will see people killed just 90 days after two doctors approve a request for assisted suicide.
In November, leading Canadian fashion retailer La Maison Simons launched an ad campaign titled “All Is Beauty” that was accused of “promoting” and “romanticizing” assisted suicide.
WATCH:
Canadian clothes retailer Simons is marketing their products with suicide. Normalizing assisted suicide as a treatment for mental illness, PTSD and even children with defects is the next step for depopulation. pic.twitter.com/EFwsJaSpaY
— Jack Steyr (@JSteyr) November 27, 2022
In the roughly three-minute clip, a now-deceased terminally-ill woman in her 30s named Jennyfer describes her coming to grips with the choice to end her life.
She talks about seeing the “beauty” all around as she presents euthanasia as “the most beautiful exit.”
READ MORE: Canada Advances Plan to Euthanize Children Without Parental Consent
