Canada's Growing Euthanasia Program

By Dr Paul Saba (pictured left).

When Canada legalized assisted dying/suicide/euthanasia in 2016, it was supposed to be for only a “few” terminal illness patients with only days to live. As of December 31, 2023 approximately 60,000 Canadians had their lives ended by physician assisted dying (at the end of 2022 there were 44,958 assisted medical deaths). (Article Link).

Canada is the fastest growth assisted dying/suicide/euthanasia deaths of all countries where it has been legalized. 

Since March of 2021 the law has been further expanded to those with disabilities with decades to live and in 2027 those with only mental illness will be eligible for assisted suicide.

Quebec Scheduled to Begin Granting Requests for Assisted Suicide & Euthanasia (MAID)

By Joe Bongiorno, The Canadian Press 

MONTREAL — Quebecers who want to arrange a medically assisted death before their condition leaves them unable to grant consent can do so as of next month, the province announced Saturday as it unveiled details of a plan to grant such requests without waiting for Ottawa to update the country’s criminal code.

[Quebec Premier Francois Legault, left, walks to a cabinet meeting with Quebec Health Minister Christian Dube in Quebec City]

Quebec’s government said last month it would stop waiting for the federal government to implement the requested amendments and forge ahead with plans to grant early MAID requests. On Saturday, the province announced such requests could be granted as of Oct. 30.

Euthanasia: Canada's Doctors Can Kill You

Original publication, 09/03/24  

By Alex Schadenberg

Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

An article by Nicholas Tomaino that was published by WSJ.com on September 2, 2024 titled: Welcome to Canada, the Doctor Will Kill You Now exposes how Canada legalized euthanasia (MAiD). Tomaino writes:

Canada has undergone a crash course in what the country calls “medical assistance in dying,” or MAID. The experiment began in 2015, when the Canadian Supreme Court ruled in Carter v. Canada that “laws prohibiting physician-assisted dying interfere with the liberty and security” of people with “grievous and irremediable” medical conditions. Parliament codified the decision the following year.

Lawmakers thought they were imposing limits. “We do not wish to promote premature death as a solution to all medical suffering,” then-Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould said. The plaintiff’s lead lawyer in Carter argued that “in almost every case,” doctors will want to “help their patients live, not die.” “We know physicians will be reluctant gatekeepers.”

New Jersey Update

By Alex Schadenberg (pictured at right)*

The New Jersey 2023 assisted suicide report states that there were 101 reported assisted suicide deaths in 2023 up from 91 in 2022. Assisted suicide started in New Jersey on April 12, 2019.  According to the report:

101 people were known to have died by assisted suicide, 

13 people received the lethal poison but died a natural death, 

3 people received the lethal poison but had not died and 

2 people received the lethal poison and died but the cause of death is unknown.

When the cause of death is unknown, it usually means that no report was submitted. Therefore it may have been an assisted suicide death, but no report was filed.

Ex-Doctor Pleads Guilty to Manslaughter in Connection with Suicide of Upstate New York Woman

BY  MICHAEL HILL 

Updated 2:57 PM MDT, September3, 2024

KINGSTON, N.Y. (AP) — An 85-year-old former doctor from Arizona charged for his role in the suicide of a woman in an upstate New York motel room pleaded guilty to manslaughter Tuesday under an agreement that spares him from prison.

Stephen Miller, of Tucson, was arrested earlier this year on a charge of second-degree manslaughter under a provision of New York law that allows the charge for intentionally causing or aiding another person’s suicide.

Under a plea agreement, Miller was sentenced to five years of probation after his guilty plea in state court. His attorney said Miller is infirm and did not want to die in prison.

West Virginia Ballot Initiative Would Prohibit Euthanasia

By Alex Schadenberg  (pictured right)

The Washington Stand published an article by Sarah Holliday on September 2, 2024 that reports on the West Virginia Ballot Amendment 1 which, if passed, would prohibit euthanasia and assisted suicide in the state constitution.

Holliday reports:

Amendment 1 has recently been added to the state’s November ballot with the intention of providing “protection against medically assisted suicide.” Ultimately, “the amendment just places what’s already illegal in West Virginia into the state constitution for more security going forward,” said Pat McGeehan (R), a West Virginia state delegate, on Tuesday’s episode of “Washington Watch.” If this amendment is passed, West Virginia would become the first state to amend their constitution to prohibit assisted suicide.

Disability Rights Opponents of Assisted Suicide Are Not a “Vocal Minority”

By Meghan Schrader [pictured right]  

Original publication 08/01/24

Meghan is an autistic person who is an instructor at E4 - University of Texas (Austin) and an EPC [Euthanasia Prevention Coalition]-USA board member.

Over and over again assisted suicide proponents claim that disabled people who oppose assisted suicide are a “vocal minority.” For instance, American euthanasia advocate Thaddeus Mason Pope ridiculously wrote on X that “millions” of disabled people want the right to have “MAiD.” Well, it’s not true. 

Off Topic: The Bombing

By Margaret Dore, Esq.

My mother had always thought that Silas "Trim" Bissell of the Bissell Vacuum Fortune, and of the SDS, (Students for a Democratic Society), had bombed our Seattle home.

The bomb, dynamite, had been thrown on the roof above my parents' bedroom closet adjacent to our carport. She was home with my four siblings. My father, a state legislator, and I were in the state capitol, staying at different places. I was 12 years old.  It was 1970.

A Thump on the Roof

My mother told me that she had heard a thump on the roof above her bedroom closet, which had caused her to put her head in the closet, under the bomb, to try and figure out what had caused the noise.

She then went outside the house and into our carport, once again, physically placing herself under the bomb.

Blinded by Tradition: The Politics Of Medicine vs. Optometry

By Margaret K. Dore, Esq., MBA

AS PUBLISHED IN THE JOURNAL OF OPTOMETRIC VISION DEVELOPMENT. *

THE CASE HISTORY

As a child, I had double vision when I looked at an object close to my face, for example, a pencil or a finger. I now understand that this was due to “convergence insufficiency.” My eyes had an inability to converge (come together) at near. With convergence insufficiency, a person’s ability to read can be compromised. But I had a milder version and was a good reader.

As a college student, I noticed a change. To study took more effort and had I thought about it, I no longer read much for pleasure. I now understand that college reading demands were overloading my compromised visual system. My ability to read and comprehend was gradually decreasing. In short, it was becoming harder for me to learn.

Delaware Medical-Aid-in-Dying Bill (Assisted Suicide & Euthanasia) in Limbo

By Melissa Steele, July 26, 2024.

The Cape Gazette  

The fate of medical-aid-in-dying bill that cleared the General Assembly in June is uncertain as it has yet to be delivered to Gov. John Carney to sign.

Sponsor of the bill, Rep. Paul Baumbach, D-Newark, said July 15, the bill still resides in the House.

“Thus far, the governor has not led me to believe that he will sign the bill when it makes it to his desk,” Baumbach said.

Baumbach did not say when he plans to deliver the bill to the governor, or whether he has heard if Carney will veto it.