MAID and Mental Health
Sent: December 2, 2022 1:59 PM To: 'david.lametti@parl.gc.ca' <david.lametti@parl.gc.ca> Cc: 'jean-yves.duclos@parl.gc.ca' <jean-yves.duclos@parl.gc.ca>; 'carolyn.bennett@parl.gc.ca' <carolyn.bennett@parl.gc.ca>; 'Gray, Tracy - M.P.' <Tracy.Gray@parl.gc.ca>; 'pierre.poilievre@parl.gc.ca' <pierre.poilievre@parl.gc.ca> Subject: MAID and Mental Health
Mr. Lametti,
I write to you to address your delusional and harmful statements made on Toronto Star’s “It’s Political” podcast earlier this week. You stated that medically assisted suicide (aka “medical assistance in dying”, or “MAID”) “provides a more humane way” for “a group within the population who, for physical reasons and possibly mental reasons, can’t make that choice themselves . . . “. Let’s not even address the blatant arrogance and presumptuousness of any public official believing that he or she has the wisdom to make the decision as to when someone’s life should be terminated when said Government can’t even issue a passport (or identify 11 treasonous Chinese-funded MP’s) in a timely manner.
As you are (or should be) aware, in many cases relating to depression, suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. I can only imagine how many Canadian citizens were feeling depressed and suicidal during COVID-19 restrictions when your Government unilaterally and unlawfully imposed quarantines of healthy people, shut down thriving businesses and closed down houses of worship and places of community; just think of how many “useless eaters” the Liberals could have gotten rid of had this program been implemented sooner!! (I have faith the Liberals will find another way to destroy innocent lives soon enough – death, taxes, and tyranny being Canada’s new guarantees!)
It appears that you have conflated medical assistance in dying with any suicide that is chosen in the desperation of mental illness. I’d like to take the time to explain to you my personal experiences with suicide due to depression so that you may understand where the system failed my loved ones. And (spoiler alert) the Government’s failure was not at the last step, where they didn’t have the chance to choose a “humane” method via lethal injection versus more violent means; it was all the way along their long journeys of mental health “interventions” as each medical professional failed their Hippocratic Oath and turned their backs on these vulnerable people.
I have experienced two very personal suicides in my life. Let’s analyze the common denominators of both of these tragedies:
Both of my loved ones spent over 20 years feeling anxious, depressed and hopeless, and reached out to many medical professionals for assistance.
Both of my loved ones were prescribed anti-depressant, anti-psychotic and anti-anxiety medications.
Both of my loved ones felt, over time, that the efficacy of said medications was waning, and sought assistance from their doctors and therapists to adjust dosages, try new medications, etc.
Both of my loved ones were dismissed by the medical “professionals” who had prescribed these very powerful and mind-altering medications when they sought further help, with their doctors effectively washing their hands of all responsibility once the medications failed. These doctors negligently and recklessly prescribed dangerous medications that alter brain chemistry, and then failed to even be on call when the treatments caused even deeper depression and suicidal ideation.
Both of my loved ones killed themselves violently after a medical “professional” prescribed new medications without properly supervising both the weaning of the original medication or the dosing of the new medication.
Have you ever received a phone call at 5:00 am from a police officer advising you that someone you loved has offed himself because he had a psychotic episode caused by a psychiatrist negligently changing medication? Have you ever had to drive yourself to coroner’s office in a strange city to pick up the contents of your loved one’s pockets after he decided to end his life? How about going through his car to find hints and clues of the spiraling of mania that is clearly evident once you start looking for it? Have you ever hosted a funeral for a person who chose to kill himself because he felt like the doctors couldn’t help him – after they got him hooked on multiple medications that ultimately led to his psychotic break and suicidal ideations? And have you ever had the “pleasure” of talking to the medical professional in question, who admitted completely missing all of the signs of suicidal ideation when assessing your loved one?
While you may argue that MAID would have made the passing of these two individuals “easier” for their friends and family, you are entirely missing the point. The suicide of young, vibrant, loving and empathetic people is never easy. It is always a tragedy, whether the death is violent or “humane” – whatever that means. The devastation and sadness I felt by both of these deaths was not because of the way in which they died; it was because their deaths were wholly unnecessary. And, let’s be very clear, here: the reason for both of these suicides was not because of mental illness. The root cause was the negligence of the medical profession in first prescribing very powerful and potentially dangerous medications in extremely complex situations, and then failing to adequately supervise or take responsibility for the subsequent mental health problems those medications caused.
I note that there has been a call for your resignation due to your failure, as a lawyer as well as the Minister of Justice, to resign from the Cabinet when it unlawfully invoked the Emergencies Act. Please accept my request that you resign, not only for your refusal to protect Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms during Mr. Trudeau’s unlawful invocation of the Emergencies Act, but also for your complete inability to understand that many suicides caused by “mental illness” are actually the result of the medical profession failing to adequately care for and monitor their patients. The answer to medical negligence, of course, not being to reward this community by granting it the power to kill people with complete and abject disregard for the Hippocratic Oath. The depravity of the Liberal Party reaches new heights every day.
I also point you to the disgusting ad recently released by Simons which appeared to romanticize Canada’s MAID program, and I note that Google tells me you have three children. I’m assuming they are grown at this point, and they may even have children of their own. Can you please think about what happens when one of your grandkids is bullied at school, or dumped by a mate, or endures any other number of potential teenage traumas? Do you think it is appropriate to have advertisements providing subliminal (and not-so-subliminal) commentary on “[t]he most beautiful exit” that he or she can make? Never mind the imagery of the blue whale found in that ad, whose meaning of which, up until a few days ago, I was blissfully ignorant, but now understand it to be a challenge to cause teenagers to commit suicide.
May you never experience the pain of suicide due to medical incompetence, nor may you ever conflate it with a “humane choice” again. As Jesus said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”.