It’s been said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. By this metric, the proponents of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill are surely insane. Not for thinking that their bill will become law this time – alas, it might – but rather for thinking that their bill will escape the problems that have bedevilled every other parallel piece of legislation worldwide.
In every jurisdiction where assisted suicide has been legalised, rampant abuses have swiftly followed. In the Netherlands, parents can now kill their 12-year-old child provided the child faces intense suffering with no prospect of improvement, and provided the child consents to being killed. In Belgium, adults who experience “constant and unbearable” mental suffering are eligible for voluntary euthanasia. In Canada, over 16,000 people opt for medical assistance in dying (MAID) each year, accounting for 5 per cent of all deaths in the country.
