Reddit discussion link: Canadians Turn to Euthanasia as Solution to Unbearable Poverty
https://www.reddit.com/r/boringdystopia/comments/x9359o/_
Commenter: How are you going to convince anyone that someone mentally ill enough to not live can make the clear decision to end themselves? I thought Canada was supposed to be friendly? Starting to sound like Texas.
Commenter #2: No, Texas doesn't support a legal framework for self-electing to die. The Texas way is to generally not provide substantial aid or services, including aided suicide.
Texas has it's own kind of awful, but this is a sort of faux-compassionate that Texas wouldn't touch.
Commenter #3: I’m more referring to the fact that Texas likes killing the mentally ill. But yeah.
Me (responding to commenter #1): Also what I don’t understand. Normally, if someone is suicidal and a harm to themselves, we take action (in the US).
I also see a problem with someone choosing to commit slow suicide (by gaining so much weight that they can’t breathe, for example). How is that not classified as a mental illness that warrants intervention?
Say in the future you’re able to get a brain scan and an AI determines that your future is bleak/pain level high enough -and- you’re of sound enough mind to make that kind of decision (or you were of sound enough mind when you made that decision before mental deterioration). Why aren’t other avenues being explored/funded, like pain medication/thought editing/even a full-on brain transplant into a 3 or 4-D printed new body? In terms of effective altruism, this would save lives in a concrete and immediate way, and would continue to do so for the foreseeable future. I thought we’ve had 3-D printed organs for years now. Who’s getting them? The rich? I never hear about this option being offered to the people who need it most. Where’s the funding for the hardware and whatever goes into the refills/“printer ink?” Where are the philanthropies that could help people whose only alternative is assisted suicide? Where’s the universal healthcare that should cover life-or-death care like this?
