This post is the first in a series that I am calling “Quote of the Week (and It’s Only Thursday)”. For on many Thursdays henceforth, I will post a variously provocative, memorable, unforgettable, edgy, etc. passage or sentence (or maybe just a word) that I read somewhere–whether in an article or book, on social media or another blog–during the previous seven days, that is, previous week.

My quote of the week (though it’s only Thursday) for this post is taken from Christopher Lyons’s article “Words Matter: ‘Enduring Intolerable Suffering’ and the Provider-Side Peril of Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada,” which appears online at Journal of Medical Ethics. In this innovative and perspicuous article, which comprises an analysis of the discourse surrounding MAiD in which bioethicists and other MAiD providers and promotors engage, Lyons writes:

“Euthanasia is described by some prolific public-facing MAiD providers in Canada and other countries as leaving them ‘hyped up on adrenaline’ and feeling ‘very good’; ‘heartwarming’, ‘liberating’ or like part of a ‘crusade’; causing an ‘urgent and pressing need for sex’; and provokes laughter in providers discussing how to force provision on resisting patients or upset families. The providers experiencing these emotions are among those with the highest known provision rates (hundreds of deaths each) and vocal advocates for MAiD. In Canada, they fall into the less than 18.3% of MAiD clinicians (336/1837 in 2022) who most likely conduct the majority of provisions. These concentrations of deaths concern other MAiD providers. Such sentiments are disquieting because death is usually a deeply painful or difficult moment for the patients and their loved ones, which may be compounded by questionable provider behaviours. Pleasure, on the other hand, is a categorically inappropriate affective response to causing or observing harm, suffering, or death in others. Expressions of pleasure from providers are also a reminder that the psychological impact on providers from involvement in MAiD is an outstanding question” (p. 6).

[For brevity and clarity, I have removed several in-text superscript references to endnotes. Please consult the article for these notations.]

The article is here: https://jme.bmj.com/content/early/2024/03/05/jme-2023-109555]