Criteria in place’

Dear Editor:

RE: Life worth living, Nov. 24.

In reply to Catie Leistra’s letter, I am choosing to let the CEO of Dying with Dignity Canada, Helen Long, speak, using her words.

She wrote, “However, as eligibility (for MAID) has expanded, so too has confusion,  misinformation  and numerous sensational headlines about the alleged inappropriate use of MAID ...

“In recent months, we have been asked to speak to the misleading assumption that people struggling to secure adequate housing, disability support, home care and more and more will be able to access MAID based on that criteria ... we are confident that the eligibility criteria for MAID does not allow vulnerable people to access an assisted death solely on the basis of a lack of social supports.”

The Wellington Advertiser, back in September, printed a letter to the editor from Long, a part of which I will quote. She wrote, “MAID is a choice made by an individual; there are robust criteria and safeguards in place to rule out coercion,  including that the person must be approved by two independent assessors; there is no slippery slope.”

I have a problem with people who would demand suffering people continue suffering, just to satisfy themselves.

Janice Corbett, Fergus