Ms. Kay mentions a topic feared by media and public in her article:
Barbara Kay: Fear the slippery slope | National Post.
4,000 people take their lives every year in Canada, and we don’t like talking about it. “We might encourage others,” they say. I’m not sure whether this feeling is based on evidence or emotion.
Physician assisted suicide forces us to discuss the suicide epidemic in Canada and many other things besides.
A slippery slope exists when no meaningful stop could halt the progression from one end to the other. The burden of evidence lies with those who insist there is no slide. So far, all the evidence supports the slope and our movement along it.
Thank you, Ms. Kay, for having the courage to say so.
(photo credit: http://uofme.blogspot.ca/2012/12/fallacy-alert-slippery-slope-of-gun.html)
Shawn, I totally agree. But as long as governments fail to acknowledge the elephant in the room that mental health is, we will never make progress. Imagine if the $2 Billion wasted on registering inanimate objects in the long-gun registry (and the ongoing $65 million per year for the handgun registry) had been put toward frontline mental health, more Canadian lives would have been saved, than the reliance on a piece of paper showing where a shotgun might be. We need direct investment in frontline mental health and psychiatry rather than feel-good legislation with negligible results.
Dr. O. Ramirez
Chief of Staff ASMH
Hey Ozzy!
Thanks so much for taking the time to comment. You make a great point: all the wasted money over the past few years could have saved many lives.
Feel free to comment on anything else that interests you!
Cheers
Shawn