Two bioethicists at the University of Toronto, Amy Mullin and Kayla Wiebe, make the argument in the Journal of Medical Ethics that offering euthanasia to the poor ought to be socially acceptable.
"They're saying it's just too costly," explains Rita Marker of the Patients Rights Council. "In Canada, there have been articles that have said really, when you think about it, it costs so much if people need medical care that it's better for everybody financially for a person to just die or to be killed."
In recent months, some poor and/or disabled individuals in Canada who say they cannot meet basic expenses because the government does not give them sufficient funds have reportedly been seeking euthanasia. Looking ahead, Marker warns that now is the time for Americans to show up and fight.
"Another thing they have to show up for and another thing they have to let people know is not just to make people aware of what's happening in Canada," Marker continues. "This is going to spread across the world if people don't try to stop it. It's definitely going to spread to the United States, and so we have to be very, very cautious."
Canada already has the highest rate of doctor-assisted suicide and euthanasia in the world.
