Tag: euthanasia

Doctor who ‘giggled’ while speaking about euthanising people – and claimed ‘nobody is more grateful than her patients’ – leaves viewers feeling ‘uneasy’ about Liz Carr’s Better Off Dead? documentary

A Canadian doctor who has personally euthanised more than 400 people has left viewers feeling ‘uneasy’ as she ‘giggled’ while discussing the solemn topic with a disability rights campaigner in a new BBC documentary.

Speaking to Liz Carr’s programme, Better Off Dead?, Dr Ellen Wiebe, who works with Dying With Dignity, had audiences feeling uncomfortable as she laughed and smiled while discussing assisted death.

‘I love my job,’ she said in the show, which aired on Tuesday night. ‘I’ve always loved being a doctor and I delivered over a 1000 babies and I took care of families but this is the very best work I’ve ever done in the last seven years.

‘And people ask me why  and I think well doctors like grateful patients and nobody is  more grateful than my patients now and their families.’Many found the comments ‘disturbing’, and took to social media to voice their concerns.

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Doctors Confirm Vaccine Connection after Young Ontario Woman Paralyzed after Moderna Shot – Then Offer Her Euthanasia as Remedy

A young mother’s life has been turned upside down in the wake of receiving her Moderna COVID-19 booster shot, which has left her paralyzed from the neck down, The Canadian Independent reported.

Kayla Pollock, a 37-year-old from Mount Albert, Ontario, has had her vibrant life of motherhood and community involvement brought to a sudden halt due to what doctors have diagnosed as a severe vaccine-related reaction.

Kayla, who suffered an abusive childhood, had overcome her past to find joy in her work as a behavioral trainer for exotic animals and later as an educational assistant. The single mother, known for her active lifestyle, was compelled to get vaccinated to ensure she could continue visiting her father in his long-term care facility.

However, after receiving her booster shot on January 11, 2022, Kayla began experiencing alarming symptoms, culminating in her complete paralysis less than two weeks later. Despite initial skepticism from emergency department staff, an MRI revealed a significant lesion on her spinal cord.

A neurologist, documented on an audio recording, expressed his belief that the vaccine was the likely cause of Kayla’s condition, a view later confirmed with a diagnosis of transverse myelitis – a rare inflammatory disorder caused by damage to the spinal cord.

The once active mother has since spent several months in hospital and rehabilitation centers, even being offered MAID – Medical Assistance in Dying – which she refused.

Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) in Canada is a legal and voluntary form of euthanasia, allowing eligible adults to request assistance from a medical practitioner to end their lives.

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Former Dutch Prime Minister and Wife Die Together in Dual Euthanasia Procedure

Former Dutch Prime Minister Dries van Agt and his wife committed legally assisted suicide by simultaneous euthanasia this week, the non-profit organisation founded by the ex-Dutch leader has revealed.

Public broadcaster Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS) reported on Friday that former Dutch Prime Minister Dries van Agt (93), who led the Netherlands from 1977 to 1982, and his wife Eugenie van Agt (93) opted on Monday to take their lives in a joint act of euthanasia, which is legally permitted under medical supervision in the Western European nation.

Gerard Jonkman, the director of The Rights Forum non-profit founded by Van Agt in 2009, said that the former prime minister had discussed the option of assisted suicide after suffering a brain haemorrhage in 2019, saying that he said it was an “option if life and suffering became unbearable.”

Since then, Van Agt’s health, as well as his wife’s, steadily declined, according to Jonkman, who said: “His health became more and more fragile, and he wanted to focus his attention on his wife, children and grandchildren.” He said that their decision to commit assisted suicide hand in hand came from a feeling that they “couldn’t live without each other”.

The couple, who were married for seven decades, were buried together on Thursday. The Dutch public broadcaster noted that assisted suicide was a curious decision by Van Agt, given that he was a lifelong Roman Catholic — a faith which preaches against suicide — and a former member of the socially conservative Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA).

However, Jonkman noted that the former prime minister was always “idiosyncratic” and that Van Agt “never checked whether his own views are completely in line with those of a party or institution.”

Jonkman went on to note that Van Agt had also become more “progressive” in his later years, even going so far as to cancel his membership in the CDA over the party’s support for Israel in the conflict with Hamas, and in his view ignoring the “immense suffering inflicted on the Palestinian people”.

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Forget pro life, America’s becoming pro death! Map reveals how 29 US states have either legalized euthanasia or are considering it

A majority of US states have either legalized medically assisted suicide or are considering legislation that would do so.

The pro-medical-dying movement has seen a groundswell of support since struggling to rack up wins in the 90s, with most successful initiatives only coming into practice after 2013. 

In ten states and Washington, DC, euthanasia is legal, while 19 other states are considering their own legalization measures.

Most of the states where it is legal allow doctors to administer life-ending medications to a person with six months or fewer to live, but the exact criteria varies by state depending on who is in charge there.

The US population is aging rapidly – by 2040, about one in five Americans will be 65 or older. At the same time, more than 170 million Americans could be living with one or more chronic conditions by 2030.

But while many state leaders and health professionals are advocating for assisted dying as a new option for end of life care, many doctors argue that the practice runs counter to the foundation of their profession.

Efforts in the 90s to legalize medically assisted suicide crashed more often than not, with the exception of Oregon, which, in 1997, became the first state to legalize what it calls ‘death with dignity.’

Authors of the Oregon legislation were careful in writing it not to characterize the act as a suicide, assisted suicide, mercy killing, or homicide, part of an effort to rebrand and reposition it as a medically sanctioned and regulated procedure.

The term ‘assisted suicide’ and others like it are now considered by doctors to be outdated, opting instead to call it ‘medical aid in dying’ because the patient controls when they take the death-inducing medication prescribed by a doctor.

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Statistics Canada excludes assisted-dying deaths from annual mortality report

Medically assisted suicide is the sixth-leading cause of death in Canada, according to its federal health agency — a reality Statistics Canada excluded in a recent report.

The Public Health Agency of Canada confirmed that 13,241 Canadians accessed the medical assistance in dying (MAID) procedure last year, accounting for one in 25 deaths (4.1%).

However, a Statistics Canada report showed cancer (24.7%), heart disease (17.2%), COVID-19 (5.90%), accidents (5.50%), cerebrovascular diseases (4.17%), and chronic lower respiratory diseases (3.73%) caused most of the 334,081 reported deaths in Canada for 2022. 

“In the database, the underlying cause of death is defined as the disease or injury that initiated the train of morbid events leading directly to death. As such, MAID deaths are coded to the underlying condition for which MAID was requested,” Statistics Canada posted on its X feed.

If a cancer patient accesses MAID to end their life, cancer would be listed as their cause of death.

A StatsCan spokesperson told the Epoch Times they excluded MAID-related deaths over the absence of an official classification by the World Health Organization (WHO).

“Causes of death are coded using the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) 10th revision (ICD-10) […] There is no code for MAID in the ICD,” reads the email statement.

In addition, some provinces do not attribute MAID on medical certificates of death when the procedure is carried out. Provincial and federal vital statistics registries rely on this data, reported True North.

“Therefore, Vital Statistics is not a reliable source for tracking MAID. Stats Can will continue to classify deaths according to the WHO ICD rules,” said Health Canada.

Approximately 31,664 Canadians accessed MAID between 2016 and 2021, with an average year-over-year growth rate of 66%. In the previous data year, the feds recorded 10,029 such deaths — up 34.7% from 7,446 deaths in 2020. 

MAID accounted for 3.3% of all deaths in Canada in 2021, up from 2.4% of all reported deaths in the previous year.

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Canada Will Legalize Medically Assisted Dying For People Addicted to Drugs

Canada will legalize medically assisted dying for people who are addicted to drugs next spring, in a move some drug users and activists are calling “eugenics.” 

The country’s medical assistance in dying (MAID) law, which first came into effect in 2016, will be expanded next March to give access to people whose sole medical condition is mental illness, which can include substance use disorders. Before the changes take place, however, a special parliamentary committee on MAID will regroup to scrutinize the rollout of the new regulations, according to the Toronto Star. 

Currently, people are eligible for MAID if they have a “grievous and irremediable medical condition”, such as a serious illness or disability, that has put them in an advanced state of irreversible decline and caused enduring physical or psychological suffering—excluding mental illness. Anyone who receives MAID must also go through two assessments from independent health care providers, among meeting other criteria. 

The contentious idea of including people who are addicted to drugs is being discussed this week at a conference for the Canadian Society of Addiction Medicine in Victoria, British Columbia.  

“I don’t think it’s fair, and the government doesn’t think it’s fair, to exclude people from eligibility because their medical disorder or their suffering is related to a mental illness,” said Dr. David Martell, physician lead for Addictions Medicine at Nova Scotia Health, who is presenting a framework for assessing people with substance use disorders for MAID at the conference.  “As a subset of that, it’s not fair to exclude people from eligibility purely because their mental disorder might either partly or in full be a substance use disorder. It has to do with treating people equally.” 

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Canadian Hospital Suggests Euthanasia to Suicidal Woman Who Went There For Help

A Canadian woman who went to a hospital for help managing her suicidal thoughts and chronic depression was asked if she had considered euthanasia.

Kathrin Mentler, 37, says that she went through a traumatic event earlier this year. When seeking psychiatric help at the Vancouver General Hospital, the doctor suggested the nation’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) program.

The Globe and Mail reports, “Ms. Mentler says a clinician told her there would be long waits to see a psychiatrist and that the health care system is ‘broken.’ That was followed by a jarring question: ‘Have you considered MAID?’”

“She was like, ‘I can call the on-call psychiatrist, but there are no beds; there’s no availability,’” Mentler explained. “She said to me: ‘The system is broken.’”

Mentler said that she had not considered MAID but had considered overdosing on pills herself. The doctor told her that attempting suicide on her own could lead to brain damage and other harm but that the euthanasia program would be a more “comfortable” process as she would be sedated.

“I very specifically went there that day because I didn’t want to get into a situation where I would think about taking an overdose of medication,” Mentler said. “The more I think about it, I think it brings up more and more ethical and moral questions around it.”

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Netherlands euthanizing autistic and intellectually handicapped people, researcher finds

Netherlands programs have euthanized otherwise healthy individuals with autism and intellectual handicaps in recent years, researchers have found. 

Five individuals under the age of 30, who cited autism as a factor in their decision to seek legal euthanasia, are among the cases reviewed by specialists at the U.K.’s Kingston University. 

“Factors directly associated with intellectual disability and/or ASD were the sole cause of suffering described in 21% of cases and a major contributing factor in a further 42% of cases,” Kingston University’s report on the issue found. 

The study noted that in many cases, doctors determined there was “no prospect of improvement” for intellectually challenged individuals because there is no treatment for their handicap.

“Reasons for the EAS [euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide] request included social isolation and loneliness (77%), lack of resilience or coping strategies (56%), lack of flexibility (rigid thinking or difficulty adapting to change) (44%) and oversensitivity to stimuli (26%). In one-third of cases, physicians noted there was ‘no prospect of improvement’ as ASD and intellectual disability are not treatable,” the study reads.

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New Zealand Allows Euthanasia for Coronavirus Patients ‘in Some Circumstances’

New Zealand’s Ministry of Health has confirmed that patients suffering from the Wuhan coronavirus could be eligible for a right to a lethal injection under the nation’s new euthanasia law.

The End of Life Choice Act 2019, which came into force last month, was enacted “to give persons who have a terminal illness and who meet certain criteria the option of lawfully requesting medical assistance to end their lives; and to establish a lawful process for assisting eligible persons who exercise that option.”

The Health Ministry responded to a request for clarification regarding provisions of the Act, declaring that “in some circumstances a person with COVID-19 may be eligible for assisted dying,” the Catholic Herald reported last week.

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