Andy Potter

I’m sorry you went through stage four cancer, and I’m glad you survived with the care of our public healthcare system. But stop using your cancer experience to politicize your views on MAID. My mother died of lung cancer during the pandemic. She also had dementia and could not choose MAID because she no longer had the capacity to consent. She always said she would rather choose MAiD then to suffer needlessly before she was diagnosed with dementia. We cared for her at home with palliative care, but she still suffered the worst death I have ever witnessed. I know what it is like to watch someone you love suffer to the bitter end. How dare you judge someone else for choosing MAID? What someone chooses with their own body, within the law, is their business, not yours. Suggesting that Canada currently allows MAID for mental illness alone is false. Parliament voted to keep that exclusion in place until March 17, 2027. That is a delay, not a permanent rejection, but claiming it is already happening misrepresents the law. MAID requires eligibility assessments, informed consent and safeguards. The process can be lengthy. If someone has a terminal disease, meets the requirements and does not want to suffer to the bitter end, let them go in peace. That decision belongs to them. Blending your cancer survival with the claim that healthcare now “offers death instead of care” is disgusting and awful. There are people who never survived their cancer, and survivors who respect other people’s choices about MAID. Your survival does not give you the right to judge their suffering or speak for them. I’m sick and tired of you politicizing this. I’m glad you recovered, thanks to public healthcare. However, Doug Ford is destroying our public healthcare in Ontario, and Danielle Smith is doing the same in Alberta. You should be focusing on bettering our public healthcare so people can access treatment, support and palliative care not using cancer and MAID for political gain. Mind your own business.