Assisted Suicide: A Recipe for Elder Abuse and a Threat to Individual Rights

Elder abuse includes physical, psychological and financial abuse. Financial abuse is the most commonly reported type. Elder abuse is, however, largely unreported and can be very difficult to detect. This is due in part to the reluctance of victims to report. 

If assisted suicide were to be legalized [in Canada], new paths of abuse would be created against the elderly. The most obvious path would be due to [the] lack of required witnesses at the death. Without disinterested witnesses, an opportunity is created for a family member, or someone else who will benefit from the patient's death, to administer the medication to the patient without his consent. Alex Schadenberg