Swiss assisted suicide deaths increase. Problems continue.

Swiss assisted suicide deaths increase. Problems continue.

by Administrator
Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Swiss Exit suicide organization reported that they assisted 1282 suicide deaths in 2020 up from 1218 in 2019.

Swissinfo reported that:

EXIT Deutsche Schweiz, which covers the German and Italian-speaking parts of the country, saw a rise of 51 assisted suicides as it helped 913 people terminate their lives in 2020. More people living in French-speaking Switzerland also ended their lives last year, as 369 people used the services of EXIT Suisse Romande.

The article states that fewer people died by assisted suicide from March to May 2020 due to COVID -19.
… Read More “Swiss assisted suicide deaths increase. Problems continue.”
Assisted Death may be a Cruel Death

Assisted Death may be a Cruel Death

by Administrator
Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Dr Joel Zivot who is an assistant professor of anesthesiology/critical care at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, was published today in Medpage Today explaining, based on the pharmacology, how an assisted death happens.

I have written on this topic in the past. If Zivot is correct, assisted death may be torturous not peaceful.

In his Op-Ed Zivot writes:

As a Canadian physician and anesthesiologist working in the United States, this debate is of interest to me. I was a witness in these Senate hearings because I am an expert in the opposition to lethal injection, the most common form of execution in the U.S.

… Read More “Assisted Death may be a Cruel Death”
Portugal’s President did not sign euthanasia bill and sent it to the country’s Constitutional court for evaluation.

Portugal’s President did not sign euthanasia bill and sent it to the country’s Constitutional court for evaluation.

by Administrator
Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Portuguese parliament passed a euthanasia bill on January 29, a bill that allows euthanasia for people who are not terminally ill but rather suffering from permanent injuries or a grave and incurable illness.


Article about the bill (Link).

Similar to Canada’s euthanasia law, the bill allows euthanasia based on subjective not objective considerations. Even if the “suffering” can be alleviated, euthanasia would be permitted based on whether or not the person considers the treatment acceptable.

The term suffering also includes psychiatric suffering, which means, euthanasia for psychiatric conditions would be permitted when the person asking to be killed considers the treatment options unacceptable.

… Read More “Portugal’s President did not sign euthanasia bill and sent it to the country’s Constitutional court for evaluation.”
Stephen Mendelsohn – Testimony opposing Connecticut assisted suicide Bill HB 6425

Stephen Mendelsohn – Testimony opposing Connecticut assisted suicide Bill HB 6425

by Administrator

Testimony in strong opposition to HB 6425 

An Act Concerning Aid in Dying for Terminally Ill Patients February 26, 2021 

Senator Abrams, Representative Steinberg and members of the Public Health Committee:

Stephen Mendelsohn, Second Thoughts

I am an autistic adult and one of the leaders of Second Thoughts Connecticut, a coalition of disabled people opposed to the legalization of assisted suicide. Our group works with national disability rights organizations including Not Dead Yet and the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund to oppose such legislation. Second Thoughts Connecticut is a member of the Connecticut Suicide Advisory Board. Personally, I serve on the board of directors of Euthanasia Prevention Coalition-USA and previously served on the Connecticut MOLST Task Force. 

… Read More “Stephen Mendelsohn – Testimony opposing Connecticut assisted suicide Bill HB 6425”
California Bill to Force M.D. Participation in Assisted Suicide

California Bill to Force M.D. Participation in Assisted Suicide

by Administrator
This article was published by National Review online on February 11, 2021
Wesley Smith

By Wesley Smith

When activists successfully legalized assisted suicide in California, they persuaded the California Medical Association to shift from opposition to neutrality with the promise that no doctor would be forced to participate. But here’s the thing with assisted suicide: Such promises are made to be broken.

Now that assisted suicide is well-ensconced in California culture, a bill has been filed that would destroy medical conscience for doctors who oppose assisted suicide. From SB 380 (new text in italics):

(3) If a health care provider is unable or unwilling to carry out a qualified individual’s request under this part and the qualified individual transfers care to a new health care provider or health care facility, the individual’s medical records shall be provided to the individual and, upon the individual’s request, timely transferred with documentation of the date of the individual’s request for a prescription for aid-in-dying drug in the medical record, pursuant to law.

… Read More “California Bill to Force M.D. Participation in Assisted Suicide”
Legal euthanasia makes killing the norm, not the exception

Legal euthanasia makes killing the norm, not the exception

by Administrator
By Henk Reitsema
Henk Reitsema

Henk Reitsema wrote an insightful article that was published in the Times UK on February 23, 2021. Reitsema is responding to the campaign to legalize euthanasia in Scotland. Reitsema comments on the expansion of euthanasia and the growth in acceptance of other acts that cause death, but are not defined as euthanasia. He writes:

Campaigners plan a new move to legalise assisted suicide in Scotland this year. The Netherlands, which legalised euthanasia in 2001, should offer a cautionary tale. My country expected a fall in backdoor euthanasia and the stopping of incremental extension by pinning down the definitions in law.

… Read More “Legal euthanasia makes killing the norm, not the exception”
Trudeau government agrees to permit euthanasia for mental illness alone.

Trudeau government agrees to permit euthanasia for mental illness alone.

by Administrator

Sign the petition: 

No to euthanasia for mental illness and incompetent people! (Link)

Contact your member of parliament to reject the Senate amendments and Bill C-7. Members of Parliament contact list:  https://www.ourcommons.ca/Members/en/search

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Last week I reported that Canada’s Senate passed Bill C-7, the bill to expand Canada’s (MAiD) euthanasia law, with dangerous amendments that further expands the law.

As bad as Bill C-7 was, the Senate passed five amendments to Bill C-7. The primary amendments were expanding euthanasia to people with mental illness alone (with an 18 month reprieve for the federal government to develop rules) and incompetent people who had requested death in their advanced directive.
… Read More “Trudeau government agrees to permit euthanasia for mental illness alone.”
Netherlands Child Euthanasia …Gone too far.

Netherlands Child Euthanasia …Gone too far.

by Administrator

Margreet van der Valk: They just killed my mother.

Narrator: Consent to euthanasia is sometimes ignored in the Netherlands.

Margreet: And I said the cause of death, what is the cause of death and she said pneumonia and heart failure, but I thought, I was laying in bed, no it was not, it was that lethal injection you gave her.

Narrator: And in neighboring Belgium, people with disabilities are being targeted.

Lionel Roosemont: We were walking with our child in her wheelchair and we would have people who we do not know, and they would come towards us, and they would ask us, why don’t you have euthanasia with that child.

… Read More “Netherlands Child Euthanasia …Gone too far.”
No to euthanasia for mental illness and incompetent people!

No to euthanasia for mental illness and incompetent people!

by Administrator
Petition to the Political Party Leaders.
 
Sign the petition: No to euthanasia for mental illness and incompetent people! (Link)

Canada legalized euthanasia (MAiD) in June 2016. At that time the legislation was sold to Canadians as a compromise by permitting euthanasia for physical or psychological suffering but requiring that a person’s “natural death be reasonably foreseeable” before they qualified to be killed by lethal injection.

In September 2019, a Quebec Superior court judge, in Truchon, struck down the requirement in the law that a person’s natural death be reasonably foreseeable. The government did not appeal the decision.

… Read More “No to euthanasia for mental illness and incompetent people!”
What the assisted suicide lobby doesn’t want you to know.

What the assisted suicide lobby doesn’t want you to know.

by Administrator
Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.

Assisted suicide is a hotly debated issue in 2021 even though many States legislatures have COVID-19 restrictions making communication with elected representatives difficult.


States that are currently debating the legalization of assisted suicide include: Arizona, Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Nevada, New Mexico, and New York.

2021 is also the year that the assisted suicide lobby is trying to  expand current assisted suicide laws. Assisted suicide expansion bills are being debated in California, Hawaii, Vermont and Washington State.

The media wants you to think that there is a tidal wave of support for assisted suicide. 
… Read More “What the assisted suicide lobby doesn’t want you to know.”
Wider access to euthanasia will be catastrophic for people with disabilities.

Wider access to euthanasia will be catastrophic for people with disabilities.

by Administrator

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Barbara Kay

An excellent article by Barbara Kay was published in the National Post today titled: Wider access to assisted dying in Canada will be catastrophic for the disabled. Kay is writing about Bill C-7, the bill to expand euthanasia in Canada, that will be voted-on in Canada’s Senate next week.

Kay explains that Bill C-7 is the government’s response to the Quebec Truchon court decision that struck down the requirement in the law that a person’s death be reasonably foreseeable to qualify for euthanasia. She explains how Bill C-7 goes far beyond Truchon.

… Read More “Wider access to euthanasia will be catastrophic for people with disabilities.”
I was frustrated with the lies told during the New Mexico assisted suicide HB 47 legislative hearings.

I was frustrated with the lies told during the New Mexico assisted suicide HB 47 legislative hearings.

by Administrator
Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
New Mexico legislature

Yesterday was the second time that I presented (by zoom) before a New Mexico legislative committee hearing concerning HB 47 the bill to legalize assisted suicide.

My concern with the legislative committee hearing was not the one minute given to every witness. Not much can be said in one minute but one minute applied to every witness.

My frustration related to the lies told by the “expert” witnesses, who had more time, concerning the bill.

1. The “expert” witnesses claimed that HB 47 is one of the tightest assisted suicide bills anywhere.

… Read More “I was frustrated with the lies told during the New Mexico assisted suicide HB 47 legislative hearings.”
MAiD (euthanasia) for Mental Illness: Myths and Facts.

MAiD (euthanasia) for Mental Illness: Myths and Facts.

by Administrator
Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
Dr John Maher

Possibly the best article ever written about Canada’s Bill C-7 and the push to expand MAiD (euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada via Bill C-7, was recently written and published by Psychiatrist Dr John Maher titled: MAiD for Mental Illness: Myths and Facts.

Maher responds to the key issues related to Bill C-7, and the proposed amendments to Bill C-7 by Canada’s Senate. The amended version of Bill C-7 be voted-on in the Senate. It will then go back to parliament. Parliament will then vote on the Senate amendments to the bill.

… Read More “MAiD (euthanasia) for Mental Illness: Myths and Facts.”
Assisted Death may be a Cruel Death

Assisted Death may be a Torturous Death

by Administrator
Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Dr Joel Zivot who is an assistant professor of anesthesiology/critical care at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, was published today in Medpage Today explaining, based on the pharmacology, how an assisted death happens.

I have written on this topic in the past. If Zivot is correct, an assisted death is torturous not peaceful.

In his Op-Ed Zivot writes:

As a Canadian physician and anesthesiologist working in the United States, this debate is of interest to me. I was a witness in these Senate hearings because I am an expert in the opposition to lethal injection, the most common form of execution in the U.S.

… Read More “Assisted Death may be a Torturous Death”
A dangerous path: Why expanding access to medical assistance in dying keeps us up at night

A dangerous path: Why expanding access to medical assistance in dying keeps us up at night

by Administrator

This article was published by Menafn.com on February 8, 2021

By Dr Heidi Janz and Dr Ramona Coelho, a family physician in London, Ont.

When a government starts making laws based on the premise that some lives are not worth living, it is setting out on an extremely dangerous path.

That is the path that Bill C-7, the proposed law to expand access to Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) to people whose death is not imminent, sets Canada on.

This is what keeps us — two MDs and a PhD on wheels — up at night. We each have a different perspective on the dangers of expanding MAiD eligibility to people who are not dying.

… Read More “A dangerous path: Why expanding access to medical assistance in dying keeps us up at night”
Doctors say No to Washington state assisted suicide expansion bill HB 1141.

Doctors say No to Washington state assisted suicide expansion bill HB 1141.

by Administrator

No on Washington state HB 1141,
by Kenneth R. Stevens, Jr., MD,
Professor Emeritus & former Chair Department of Radiation Oncology,
Oregon Health & Science University.
President, Physicians for Compassionate Care Education Foundation, pccef.org

When the citizens of Washington state voted in 2008 in favor of Initiative 1000, Washington’s Death with Dignity Act, they did it with the understanding that there were “safeguards” in the new law.

HB 1141 seeks to remove some of those safeguards.

1) It removes the safeguard that only medical physicians can be both the attending and consulting physicians. It expands qualifications to those with lesser medical expertise.

… Read More “Doctors say No to Washington state assisted suicide expansion bill HB 1141.”
Belgian euthanasia law is broken, says academic study

Belgian euthanasia law is broken, says academic study

by Administrator
This article was published by Mercatornet on February 1, 2021.
Michael Cook

By Michael Cook

Its scope is ever-widening and the safeguards are failing.

E

very once in a while, a bioethics article appears which is so powerful an indictment of injustice that it sends shivers up the spines of its readers. In 1949 Leo Alexander published “Medical Science under Dictatorship” in the New England Journal of Medicine, about the atrocities committed by Nazi doctors. In 1966 Henry K. Beecher published “Ethics and Clinical Research”, also in the NEJM, whose bland title belied its searing message about ethical catastrophes in contemporary American medicine.
… Read More “Belgian euthanasia law is broken, says academic study”
Tell Portugal’s President to veto the euthanasia bill.

Tell Portugal’s President to veto the euthanasia bill.

by Administrator

On Friday, January 29, the Portugal Parliament legalized euthanasia. President Marcelo de Sousa can veto the bill (Article about the bill).

Link to send your message to President de Sousa. https://www.presidencia.pt/?action=3

President Marcelo de Sousa

Email: belem@presidencia.pt

Dear President Marcelo de Sousa

I urge you to veto the euthanasia bill that recently passed in the Portuguese Parliament.

Euthanasia is a form of homicide. It allows medical practitioners to lethally inject a patient upon request.

… Read More “Tell Portugal’s President to veto the euthanasia bill.”
North Dakato debates assisted suicide bill HB 1415

North Dakato debates assisted suicide bill HB 1415

by Administrator

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The assisted suicide lobby intends to legalize assisted suicide throughout the US. North Dakota is not a state that has debated assisted suicide in the past, but seven legislators have sponsored HB 1415, a bill to legalize assisted suicide in North Dakota.

HB 1415 is similar to the Oregon assisted suicide law.

Several states that have legalized assisted suicide, such as Oregon, Washington State and Hawaii, are now debating the expansion of their assisted suicide laws. If HB 1415 passes the assisted suicide lobby will move to expand it in future years.

… Read More “North Dakato debates assisted suicide bill HB 1415”
What the COVID Crisis Tells Us About the Dangers of Assisted Suicide

What the COVID Crisis Tells Us About the Dangers of Assisted Suicide

by Administrator
This article was published by the disability rights group, Not Dead Yet on February 2, 2021.
Diane Coleman, Not Dead Yet

By Diane Coleman

The COVID pandemic revealed that people with disabilities have been denied treatment for the virus due to their disabilities and pervasive biases about their “quality of life”. This denial of care raises the very real issue that persons with disabilities are and will face similar discrimination under assisted suicide laws.

Healthcare providers are the gatekeepers of assisted suicide in states where it’s legal, rendering a terminal prognosis, certifying lack of coercion, etc. Assisted suicide laws immunize providers (and other persons) from criminal and civil liability in the death of an individual.

… Read More “What the COVID Crisis Tells Us About the Dangers of Assisted Suicide”
Let’s offer humane and dignified living not lethal injection

Let’s offer humane and dignified living not lethal injection

by Administrator

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Psychiatrist, Dr Sephora Tang, and lawyer, Dylan McGuinty Jr, were published by the Ottawa Citizen on February 3, 2021, urging Canada to focus on humane and dignified living before offering a lethal injection.

Tang and McGuinty explain how Canada’s euthanasia (MAiD) regime and it’s expansion through Bill C-7 is changing healthcare and how this affects vulnerable Canadians:

Poor mental health, coupled with the stress of insufficient financial, personal and/or social supports, often leads to death wishes in people overwhelmed by their circumstances. Current pressure to remove the exclusion of mental illness as a sole eligibility criterion in Bill C-7 would make suicide prevention methods ineffective for individuals over the age of 18 who are contemplating suicide and suffering solely from psychological distress.

… Read More “Let’s offer humane and dignified living not lethal injection”
Physicians should not be forced to make referrals for (MAiD) euthanasia.

Physicians should not be forced to make referrals for (MAiD) euthanasia.

by Administrator
Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Dr’s Bouchard, Coelho and Herx have written an important article that was published in the Ottawa Citizen today. Bouchard, Coelho and Herx write that physicians should not be forced to make referrals for euthanasia. Now that Bill C-7, if passed, will allow people who are not terminally ill to die by euthanasia, pressure to refer for euthanasia needs to stop. Link to the original article in the Ottawa Citizen.

Bill C-7, passed by the House of Commons and now in front of a Senate committee, raises even more ethical challenges than the original legislation.

… Read More “Physicians should not be forced to make referrals for (MAiD) euthanasia.”
Disability is not a reason to sanction euthanasia.

Disability is not a reason to sanction euthanasia.

by Administrator

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

United Nations experts published a press release yesterday expressing alarm at a growing trend of nations enacting legislation enabling access to medically assisted dying based largely on having a disability or disabling conditions, including old age (Link to the Press Release).

The timing of this statement should cause the Canadian government to rewrite Bill C-7, which expands Canada’s euthanasia law by eliminating the terminal illness requirement and permitting euthanasia for people with chronic or conditions related to disability.

In April 2019, the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities expressed concern about Canada’s euthanasia law (Link). 

… Read More “Disability is not a reason to sanction euthanasia.”
Hawaii debates bill to expand assisted suicide law.

Hawaii debates bill to expand assisted suicide law.

by Administrator

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Hawaii assisted suicide law came into effect on January 1, 2019. Only two years after legalizing assisted suicide, the Hawaii legislature is now debating the expansion of assisted suicide with Bill SB 323.

SB 323 proposes to expand assisted suicide by:  

  • Reducing the reflection period to 15 days and then allowing the reflection period to be waived if the requester is deemed to be nearing death, 
  • Allowing registered nurses to also approve and prescribe lethal assisted suicide drugs,
  • Allowing clinical social workers to counsel people with questionable consent.

The 2019 Hawaii assisted suicide (“Our care, our choice act”) report indicated that in the first year of assisted suicide:

  • 30 people were prescribed lethal drugs,
  • 15 people died by assisted suicide,
  • 8 people received a lethal prescription died but did not die by assisted suicide, and 
  • 7 people remained alive at the end of 2019. 
… Read More “Hawaii debates bill to expand assisted suicide law.”
Portugal to vote on euthanasia bill on January 29. No terminal illness requirement.

Portugal to vote on euthanasia bill on January 29. No terminal illness requirement.

by Administrator

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Portugal parliament is set to vote on a euthanasia bill on January 29, a bill that allows euthanasia for people who are not terminally ill but rather suffering from permanent injuries or a grave and incurable illness. 

Similar to Canada’s euthanasia law, the bill allows euthanasia based on subjective not objective considerations. Even if the “suffering” can be alleviated, euthanasia would be permitted based on whether or not the person considers the treatment acceptable. 

The term suffering also includes psychiatric suffering, which means, euthanasia for psychiatric conditions would be permitted when the person asking to be killed considers the treatment options unacceptable.

… Read More “Portugal to vote on euthanasia bill on January 29. No terminal illness requirement.”