Vancouver Hospital Defends Suggesting MAID to Suicidal Patient

Well, I’m not sure how asking someone if they’ve considered MAID is a reliable way to gauge whether someone is suicidal, but the rest of the article led me to believe that the suicidal patient didn’t actually want to die at the time MAID was offered, or now. This doesn’t mean her mental distress isn’t significant (or made worse by the mention of MAID), she obviously required support, and did the right thing in seeking it - but I find her response is actually quite interesting in terms of helping to understand some distinctions between suicidal ideation vs committing suicide and the moments that lead up to it.

Note that "MAID" refers to medically-assisted death (euthanasia). The hospital was not suggesting the suicidal patient hire a housemaid.

(Edit - I mentioned this because title preciously lacked the correct capitalization).

> (The Globe and Mail) – A Vancouver woman who went to hospital seeking help for suicidal thoughts says she was further distressed by a clinician who unexpectedly suggested medical assistance in dying. Kathrin Mentler, 37, lives with chronic depression and suicidality, both of which she says were exacerbated by a traumatic event early this year. Feeling particularly vulnerable in June, she went to Vancouver General Hospital looking for psychiatric help in dealing with feelings of hopelessness she feared she couldn’t shake. Instead, Ms. Mentler says a clinician told her there would be long waits to see a psychiatrist and that the health care system is “broken.” That was followed by a jarring question: “Have you considered MAID?”

"'I live in the Managerial Age, in a world of "Admin.' The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid "dens of crime" that Dickens loved to paint. It is not done even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices" - C.S. Lewis

EDIT: Also the actual article is located here: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/amp/canada/british-columbia/...

EDIT EDIT:

> Ms. Mentler had not considered MAID before, but told the clinician of her past attempts to end her life by overdosing on medication. She said the clinician replied that such a method could result in brain damage and other harms, and that MAID would be a more “comfortable” process during which she would be given sedating benzodiazepines among other drugs.

I think that kind of spits in the face of the claim that "they were just trying to gauge here suicidality"

Perhaps they also offer drugs to patients in addiction rehabilitation centers "just to assess their risk"