A 27-year-old woman in Canada has just been given permission to end her life, not because she suffers from a terminal ailment but because she has autism. Though her father attempted to stop his daughter from accessing “Medical Assistance in Dying” in court, a judge ruled that not providing MAiD would cause her “irreparable harm,” as if death for some is less harmful than living.  

No one should be told, especially by agents of the state, that they are better off dead. The Hippocratic oath of “do no harm” has long guided Western medicine, but it is now, in many nations, being redefined or even dismissed. This leads those who have the most knowledge and the most power to help people to instead tell them their lives are not worth living because of their disabilities. And this leads those who have disabilities, like this young woman, to disbelieve those who love her the most.