The Tragedy of Kenneth Law

MAID up

Kenneth Law will be sentenced in the coming weeks for his involvement in the suicides of 14 individuals in Ontario. The court has just finished with 74 ‘victim’ impact statements – that’s more than 5 per suicide.

Counselling or assisting suicide is a criminal offence under Canadian law (and in most other countries). Yet we also have laws in Canada that allow assisted suicide under medical supervision

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Suicide is a reality. Approx 4500 people take their own lives in Canada every year. I worked for many years in the lab at the local hospital and suicide attempts were seen on a regular basis. Most were cries for help – “I’m suffering I’m in pain. Help me” (Statistics are hard to find but attempts appear to outnumber actual suicides by up to 2,000 for each successful suicide). That’s a lot of pain, suffering and cries for help. We have suicide help lines now but it’s clearly not enough.

For those 14 people who took their lives, it was not a spur of the moment decision. They would have thought about it and researched it for months, they would have eventually found Law’s website and ordered his Sodium Nitrite, paid for it, and waited for it to arrive in the mail, then mix the powder and drink it

The people who filed those ‘victim’ impact statements were there throughout. Almost certainly they were well aware of the pain and suffering but instead of providing the support that was needed, they now blame Law for the deaths of their ‘loved’ ones. Perhaps they should be looking in the mirror.

Kenneth Law saw a need and an opportunity. That’s the essence of every successful business. If Law had not not been there with his mail order packets of Sodium Nitrite, these people would have almost certainly found another way, possibly one that would be a whole lot messier. Law appears to have been aware of the law but likely felt that because he had no physical contact with these people, he would be in the clear. What Law did was reprehensible but the people who stood by and watched the slide towards suicide should not be regarded as victims. Society as a whole needs to provide better options.

But while the ‘victims’ are busy blaming Law for the deaths of their ‘loved’ ones the MAGA right-to-life outrage industry in the US (including some senior senators) is up in arms about an 83 year old Canadian woman in a nursing home with stage 4 stomach cancer who was granted a medical assisted death (MAID). At some point she had requested MAID but might or might not have changed her mind and may have lacked the mental capacity (a requirement) at the time to consent. I’m in favour of MAID and I can’t get excited about the death (under any circumstances) of an 83 year-old with stomach cancer. If something was done wrong it needs to be investigated and changes made to insure it doesn’t happen again.

For people who qualify for MAID, there is counselling available. It’s a compassionate, supportive process, the very things that those 14 people who drank Law’s cocktail were looking for. Death is part of life and MAID should be available to anybody who wants it. Many will decide against it but 16,500 people received MAID in Canada in 2024.