Canadian citizen wants to be euthanized by the government in order to avoid becoming homeless

Amir Farsoud, 54, lives in chronic pain owing to a back injury he suffered several years ago. While the problem underlying the pain that often prevents him from sleeping and sometimes leaves him "crying like a 5-year-old" is not deadly, the help he now seeks from the Canadian government would be.

Farsoud, a resident of St. Catharines, Ontario, is reportedly in the process of applying for Canada's taxpayer-funded and state-administered euthanasia, euphemistically termed medical assistance in dying (MAID).

Farsoud told CityNews that the pain is not what prompted his decision, but rather the prospect of ending up homeless. "I don't want to die but I don't want to be homeless more than I don't want to die," he said.

While Farsoud presently lives on social assistance in a rooming house with two other people, it is currently up for sale in a booming and fiercely competitive real estate market. Should he have to move, Farsoud doubts he will be able to find someplace he can afford.

"I know, in my present health condition, I wouldn't survive it anyway. It wouldn't be at all dignified waiting, so if that becomes my two options, it's pretty much a no-brainer," he said.

When asked whether access to stable housing might preclude him from considering euthanasia, Faroud indicated he wouldn't "even be close to it yet."

'New chapter of death on demand'

Canada's supreme court decided unanimously in 2015 to allow doctors to assist patients in killing themselves. In June 2016, the federal government under Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau passed the Medical Assistance in Dying Act, legalizing the practice nationwide.

Originally, those seeking state-facilitated death were required to be at least 18 years of age with a "grievous and irremediable medical condition" causing "enduring physical or psychological suffering that is intolerable" to them. Additionally, they had to be in an "advanced state of irreversible decline," with death a likely outcome in the foreseeable future.

A Quebec Superior Court judge ruled in 2019 that people who were suffering but not dying also had a constitutional right to be put down.

The law concerning euthanasia was amended accordingly in 2021, such that the prospect of imminent death no longer was a requirement. Thereafter, to qualify one must only "have a serious and incurable illness, disease or disability," "be in an advanced state of irreversible decline in capability," and "have enduring and intolerable physical or psychological suffering that cannot be alleviated under conditions the person considers acceptable."

Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, said the amended law made Canada "the most wide-open euthanasia regime in the world."

Cardinal Thomas Collins of Toronto stated that this "is a new chapter of death on demand. Canada has cast aside restrictions at a far quicker pace than any other jurisdiction in the world that has legalized euthanasia."

The law is "probably the biggest existential threat to disabled people since the Nazis' program in Germany in the 1930s," said Tim Stainton, director of the Canadian Institute and Citizenship at the University of British Columbia.

As of March 17, 2023, Canadians whose only medical condition is a mental illness will be able to request state-assisted euthanasia. That will include persons suffering from depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD, and various other mental issues.

Dr. Sonu Gaind, former president of the Canadian Psychiatric Association and physician chair of the MAID team at Humber River Hospital in Toronto, anticipated cases like Farsoud's.

The National Post reported that earlier this year, Gaind expressed concern over the overlap of isolation and poverty, saying, "We know there is so much overlap with all sorts of psycho-social suffering."

Gaind noted that "when you expand it to sole mental illness conditions, the entire demography shifts, and it's people who have unresolved life suffering that also fuels their request."

By the tens of thousands

Over 10,000 Canadians were put down by the state via MAID in 2021, making up 3.3% of all deaths in Canada that year. 31,664 Canadians have been killed via the MAID program since 2016.

81% of euthanasia requests were approved.

Canadian Alan Nichols, age 61, for instance, who had a history of depression and medical issues — none of which were life-threatening — was hospitalized in June 2019 as a preventive measure, as he was considered suicidal. His family asked that he be released, but he never came home.

Citing hearing loss as the cause, Nichols, whose capacity to provide consent was in doubt, applied to be killed. Those tasked with preventing his suicide facilitated it. His brother Gary Nichols stated, "Alan was basically put to death."

University of Toronto law professor Trudo Lemmens told CTV News that euthanasia rates are "rising remarkably fast."

Canada has been roundly criticized, both domestically and internationally, for its keenness to kill the weak, the infirm, and the mentally unwell.

Marie-Claude Landry, the head of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, said euthanasia "cannot be a default for Canada's failure to fulfill its human rights obligations."

German professor of law and disability studies at the Protestant University for Applied Sciences Theresia Degener said the "implication of (Canada's) law is that a life with disability is automatically less worth living and that in some cases, death is preferable."

In August, an employee of Veteran Affairs Canada raised the possibility of euthanasia to a Canadian Armed Forces veteran seeking support for his PTSD. The ordeal prompted outrage as well as concern that it was far from being an isolated incident.

In November 2020, Roger Foley, a man with a severe neurodegenerative disease, testified to the House of Commons that "the hospital ethicist and nurses were trying to coerce me into an assisted death. ... I felt pressured by these staff raising assisted dying rather than relieving my suffering with dignified and compassionate care."

Whereas previously, minors were ineligible for MAID, that standard is similarly slipping, with euthanasia activists advocating not just for teens to qualify but infants as well.

Earlier this month, Dr. Louis Roy of the Quebec College of Physicians suggested in his address to the House of Commons' Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying that euthanasia be made available for babies born with "severe malformations" and "grave and severe symptoms."

Krista Karr, executive vice president of Inclusion Canada, denounced the suggestion, stating that Canada, which has no limits on abortion, "cannot begin killing babies when doctors predict there is no hope for them. Predictions are far too often based on discriminatory assumptions about life with a disability."

The financial dimension

Just like the voiceless, the penniless are also apparently fair game.

In April, Yuan Yi Zhu posed the question, "Why is Canada euthanising the poor?" in the Spectator. Zhu noted that in Trudeau's Canada, the rich and poor alike can be put down by the state. "In fact, the ever-generous Canadian state will even pay for their deaths. What it will not do is spend money to allow them to live instead of killing themselves."

A 51-year-old Canadian woman who was sensitive to chemicals had trouble finding affordable housing that didn't reek of cigarette smoke and aggravate her symptoms. After years of her inability to find healthy housing, the state agreed to put her down in February. She was killed eight days after she stated on camera, "The government sees me as expendable trash, a complainer, useless and a pain in the ass."

Like Farsoud, the chemically sensitive woman wanted to live, but, according to Rohini Peris, president of the Environmental Health Association of Quebec, "she couldn't live that way."

A 31-year-old Toronto woman with a comparable sensitivity is also reportedly pursuing death, enabled and facilitated by the state, not because of her illness but owing to financial restraints.

The Spectator noted how, prior to the legalization of the MAID amendments, Canada's parliamentary budget officer released a report indicating how much money would be saved as a result of Bill C-7, which broadened and loosened the language of Canada's euthanasia law. Extra to the $86.9 million per year previously saved by state-facilitated killings, an additional $62 million in costs would be reduced.

The Trudeau government recognized that it could save money by taking lives, even if the taxpayers had to pay $2,327 every time a fellow citizen reached the breaking point.

CityNews reported that Farsoud is one doctor's signature away from saving the Trudeau government money.

Fears people choosing MAiD because they can’t afford to liveyoutu.be