Thanks to government messaging around COVID-19, Tracey Thompson wants to die. 

Thompson, a 50-year-old living in Toronto, says “Long Covid” and a lack of adequate financial support has forced her to apply for medical assistance in dying through MAiD (Medical Assistance in Dying). MAiD first became legal under Canada’s socialized medical system in 2016.

After experiencing a bout of COVID-19, also known as the seasonal flu, two years ago, Thompson, a former chef, laments that she continues to suffer from fatigue and is unable to work. 

“MAiD is exclusively a financial consideration,” she recently told a state-funded media outlet in Toronto.

Not able to work for more than two years since the onset of symptoms and with no job prospects or financial support from the government, Thompson claims she will be broke in a matter of months. 

“My choices are basically to die slowly and painfully, or quickly,” she said.

SO LONG, LONG COVID?

While Thompson has found sympathy in her quest to die from some doctors, others are unsure she meets the medical or ethical criteria for euthenasia. 

“While I can’t legally diagnose a patient without seeing them, this sounds like a serious mental issue rather than a physical one,” says one mental health doctor speaking on the condition of anonymity. 

The doctor, who specializes in depression at one of the nation’s leading hospitals for mental disorders, adds that while “Long COVID” is ‘probably real’, it is a syndrome, not a disease.

“A disease can be explained as a health condition that has a clearly defined reason behind it,” philosophizes our Doctor Who. 

“A syndrome–which comes from the Greek word meaning run together–however, may produce any number of symptoms without an identifiable cause. While this woman’s symptoms may be real, they sound suspiciously like they were cut and pasted from WebMD.”

Thompsons stated symptoms from long COVID include: 

• an inability to read books or text longer than a paragraph 
• blurred vision around sunset
• difficulty digesting food
• altered taste and smell
• difficulty breathing 

Thompson also bears scars on her heart due to the swelling she experienced from myocarditis after first contracting COVID-19. 

(Myocarditis is also a well-documented side effect of MRNA vaccines. It is unknown if she has been vaccinated – ed) 

Prior to last year, medically assisted suicide in Canada was only accessible to those with terminal illnesses whose natural death was reasonably expected. The legislation was amended, however, to include anyone with an “intolerable” and “irreversible” illness, disease or disability who may not be near the natural end of their lives but can also be eligible for state sanctioned euthanasia. 

Recent data from the country’s federal health department, Health Canada shows that there were nearly 8,000 citizens euthanized in 2020 – accounting for a whopping 2.5 per cent of the country’s deaths. That shocking figure is a 34 per cent increase over the previous year.

STAY HOME, STAY SAFE

“From being able-bodied and employed to bedbound. I can’t get up on average for 20-plus hours. I have very little capacity to expend the energy physically, mentally and emotionally, so I try to stay home all the time,” Thompson confesses. 

Our top doctor worries that since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic the federal and provincial governments have scared people with unreasonable fear of the respiratory virus. So much so that they just don’t know how to cope with everyday living and the normal side effects of aging.

“It could be “Long Covid” but it could just as easily be middle age.” 

And the good doctor is pointing his stethoscope pointedly at the government for the public’s paranoia.

“Two plus years of fear mongering will do this to people. They don’t know if they’re sick or just repeating the programming from government officials that the sky is falling. The government would have to admit that the flu wasn’t as serious a threat as they made it out to be and their response to it was reactionary, overblown and damaging.”

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS

It’s not that Thompson wants to die. 

“I’m very happy to be alive. I still enjoy life. Birds chirping, small things that make up a day are still pleasant to me, they’re still enjoyable. I still enjoy my friends,” she said. “There’s a lot to enjoy in life, even if it’s small.”

But she says that the world where she can’t access an income is not one she thinks she’ll be able to live in. She says that current government subsidies barely cover rent for her expensive Toronto apartment.

“I don’t relish the idea of suffering for months to come to the same conclusion. When support is not coming, things aren’t going to change,” she said. “It seems irrational to put myself through that just to die in the end.”

While this may be a valid point, our dear doctor disagrees.

“If the state begins killing people because they’re poor and cost too much money to support, what’s to stop them from creating more poor people to kill – to get rid of them too?”

It should be noted that once the eligibility criteria is reached for assisted suidice the applicant has up until the moment before the procedure to withdraw consent and choose not to die.

While Thompson is still working through the bureaucratic procedures and approvals, she’s certain she’ll be approved.

“As best I know, I would meet the criteria. I’m very ill. There is no treatment. There is no cure. You don’t have to be terminally ill,” she said.

MORE DEATH MAiD POSSIBLE

While Thompson may be eligible for MAiD now, there is a new group of Canadians who will also soon be able to apply. 

Beginning on March 17, 2023, applicants with a mental illness as their sole underlying medical condition will qualify for MAiD in Canada.

Our medical doctor who works on the frontlines with the metally ill calls the coming changes ‘insane’.

“These are people who are in need of help living, not who need help dying.”