New York faces a "slippery slope" with assisted suicide.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Christine Gauthier

Hollie McKay published an interesting article in the New York Sun on June 22, 2025 warning of the slippery slope that is likely to happen if New York implements it's assisted suicide bill.

McKay begins her article by interviewing Canadian veteran Christine Gauthier:

Christine Gauthier, a disabled Canadian veteran, says she was“completely shocked” when a government caseworker several years ago offered her medical aid in dying instead of basic disability support. As New York considers a similar path, her story serves as a stark warning.

“I was really depressed because of what I have been through,”Ms. Gauthier tells The New York Sun. “You won’t give me the equipment I need to live but will let me die. It was surreal.”

A former artillery expert who served during the Gulf War, Ms.Gauthier suffered irreversible spinal damage during military training in 1989. Despite undergoing multiple surgeries and competing in the 2016 Paralympics and Invictus Games, she says she’s spent the past several years fighting for a wheelchair ramp and other basic accommodations.

McKay explains that if New York's Governor Hochul does not veto the assisted suicide bill that has passed in New York's Assembly and Senate then similar stories could happen in New York.

Alex Schadenberg

McKay interviewed me, Alex Schadenberg, about the New York assisted suicide bill:

“The New York assisted suicide bill is wider than most assisted suicide laws because it does not have a waiting period and it does not have a residency requirement. The lack of a residency requirement fulfills the goal of the assisted suicide lobby that anyone in America can die by assisted suicide,” the executive director at the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, Alex Schadenberg, tells the Sun.

“And the no waiting period means that a person can have a same-day death.”

McKay also reported that I said:

Mr. Schadenberg added that in many cases, both the evaluating doctors and the second assessors are closely tied to assisted suicide organizations, weakening oversight.

“There is no independent third party ensuring the law is being followed,” he said, highlighting that both eligibility and oversight are undermined, with many doctors involved in the process directly referred by pro-assisted suicide organizations.

Jessica Rodgers

McKay also received comments from Jessica Rodgers, director of the Patients Rights Action Fund:

Critics warn that once assisted death is legalized, eligibility often broadens beyond initial guardrails. “In states where assisted suicide is legal, the eligibility has expanded in practice — even without voters or lawmakers changing the laws,”

McKay explains what has happened in Canada:

While New York’s proposed law includes more restrictions than Canada’s, critics often point north to highlight how safeguards can erode. Canada’s “medical assistance in dying” program was legalized in 2016 for adults with incurable conditions and was expanded in 2021 to include those without terminal illnesses. By 2023, more than 15,000 people died through MAID — accounting for roughly one in every 20 deaths in Canada.

That’s five times higher than when the law was first enacted in2016, raising concerns that the expansion of eligibility may be fueling the rise

Canada’s MAID law is now among the most permissive globally, and by 2027 it will include patients with mental illness as their sole condition — even in the absence of any physical disease. Most recipients cite severe pain, loss of dignity, or inability to enjoy life as primary reasons for ending their lives. Canadian media have also documented cases where people sought MAID due to poverty, lack of housing, or inadequate disability benefits.

McKay examines the issue of whether or not suicide rates are affected by the legalization of assisted suicide. I responded:

“When comparing the suicide rate in the Netherlands to other European countries that have not legalized assisted death, you notice an increase in the suicide rate in the Netherlands and a decrease in the suicide rate in countries that have not legalized,” noted Mr. Schadenberg.

McKay looks further into the issue and writes:

Contrary to early hopes, legalizing assisted dying has reportedly not reduced overall suicide rates. A 2021 study in Oregon shows a 32 percent increase in the general suicide rate since legalization. European data point to similar trends— with countries like Belgium, after euthanasia legalization in 2002, reporting by 2016 the highest non-assisted suicide rate in women across Europe. In Switzerland, the female suicide rate, including assisted deaths, nearly doubled between 1998 and 2017. Assisted death has been legal since 1941, with statistics tracked since 1998. 

McKay interviews an assisted suicide lobby leader who emphasizes the support for assisted suicide in New York. McKay refers to my interview and states:

“The concept that assisted suicide is about compassion or autonomy is simply not true. These laws work by giving doctors the right in law to be involved with causing your death. That isn’t autonomy,” said Mr. Schadenberg.

“Once it is decided that death can be an answer to a difficult human condition, then it becomes discriminatory to deny it to others in a similar condition. The reality is that people can die a peaceful death without being killed. This should be the focus because this is what people want.”

McKay ends her article with a quote from Christine Gauthier:

For the likes of Ms. Gauthier, however, basic needs to get through daily life would be a long-awaited step in the right direction.

“Things are not really moving; I am back to not being able to use the elevator. I have to deal with that on top of the medical and emotional effects of it all,” she added. “I am still waiting for the surgeries. I am still isolated, so I haven’t been able to hear from anyone much.”

Links to similar articles:

• Physicians group urges New York Governor to veto assisted suicide bill (Link).
• Veterans Affairs offers euthanasia to a former Paralympian (Link).

Catholic hospital answers MAiD onslaught with authentic medical care.

This article was published by Terry O'Neill on his blog on June 20, 2025.

Terry O'Neill

By Terry O'Neill

As I reported earlier this month, the B.C. government and its operatives at Vancouver Coastal Health have relentlessly forced euthanasia facilities into or near several Catholic spaces in the Metro Vancouver area.

Given the Catholic facilities’ pro-life beliefs, this can only be seen as a grave incursion. It’s certainly one that has profoundly upset many of the faithful.

But what are the consequences within those facilities? How deeply has this fatal infection reached? And how rigorously has Providence Health Care, the Catholic medical-care agency, been able to maintain its pro-life principles?

The answers I recently received to these questions give me some hope, and I’ll will share them below. First, though, a quick review.

Door from St Paul's
to the Shoreline Space

My original story found that a Vancouver-Coastal-operated Medical Assistance in Dying facility on the campus of the Providence-operated St. Paul’s Hospital has been operating since January 6 of this year. It’s called the “Shoreline Space” and is attached, with no intervening corridor, to a wall of the hospital. See photo.

To my eyes, it’s a carbuncle—a death chamber facilitating homicide and, in doing so, performing a function that is exactly the opposite of the medical care to which St. Paul’s is dedicated.

Shoreline Space

My story also disclosed how I had discovered, through a freedom-of-information application, that Vancouver Coastal is planning to impose a 2,800-square-foot MAiD facility on the new St. Paul’s, which is scheduled to open in 2027. No agency—not the B.C. government, Vancouver Coastal, Providence, or the Archdiocese of Vancouver (which oversees Providence)—has ever announced this.

And finally, my story reported that Vancouver Coastal has established MAiD rooms in the same buildings as two Providence-operated hospices. Providence does not own those buildings.

The story has now received international coverage. Alex Schadenberg, of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, featured it on his blog. The Canadian Catholic News website carried my story. Campaign Life Coalition carried the news on its Facebook page. Two pro-life websites, lifenews.com and liveaction.org, reported on it. And, finally, anti-MAiD firebrand Kelsi Sheren wrote about on her Substack space.

My reporting on MAiD was sparked five years ago by acquaintances who told me that, while in hospital, they had been pestered by hospital staff about accepting MAiD, even though they weren’t dying.

I was shocked and launched an investigation into what the MAiD-delivery policy was at one large, public health agency, Fraser Health. My freedom-of-information request found that its policy was that MAiD is supposed to be a patient-led process.

But, clearly, if hospital staff were pestering patients about MAiD, such a policy isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.

Moreover, I discovered that at Fraser Health hospices, staff are instructed to inform every incoming patient that, among the services they were entitled to, was a cocktail of deadly drugs. The policy led to the resignation of at least one doctor.

I also learned that at least one Australian health agency maintains a policy prohibiting staff to initiate any discussion about euthanasia. This, I believe, should be the policy everywhere.

Hospital patients are in a vulnerable state. They’re sick, often elderly, and sometimes harbouring feelings that they are being a burden on their families.

Suggesting MAiD to such patients can be misinterpreted as recommending it. And when the question is asked over and over again, day after day, patients will undoubtedly feel pressured.

With all this in mind – the imposition of MAiD at Providence and the must-mention MAiD policy of Fraser Health – I asked Providence how exactly it handled requests for MAiD and whether it had a policy about initiating discussions about MAiD.

I am happy to report now that a Providence spokesperson, Shaf Hussain, very promptly sent me a detailed policy statement on how staff should respond to a request for MAiD.

But, I responded, does Providence allow its staff to actually initiate a discussion about MAiD?

“To clarify, no, we don’t proactively mention MAiD as an option to consider,” Hussain wrote. “We never initiate an offer of MAiD. If a patient enquires about it, we contact the VCH MAiD team. From PHC’s perspective, we ensure the patient is provided information about all [non-MAiD] end-of-life options, so the patient can make an informed decision.”

Hussain then quoted from a policy document that further explained the policy:

“A person can ask a member of their care team about MAiD if it is something they want to explore.” The document states. “Assessments for MAiD eligibility will be conducted by two doctors and/or nurse practitioners. A health authority MAiD care coordination service, like the [Vancouver Coastal] Assisted Dying Program, leads arrangements for assessment.

“To assist with making an informed decision, both the care team at PHC and the MAiD assessors will discuss the person’s medical condition with them. They will also discuss services and treatments that are available to relieve suffering.

“Services and treatments may include adjusting a current treatment plan, engaging palliative care services, community support services or other options. A person does not have to accept any of these services, but it is legally required for a person requesting MAiD to be offered care options to address the person’s suffering.”

All this is good to know—good that Providence is adhering to authentic, pro-life medical care in the midst of a very difficult situation.

Let's pray that Providence is able to sustain and grow its admirable pro-life policies and practices. After all, it's a life and death matter.

Previous articles on this topic:

• Vancouver euthanasia clinic imposed on Catholic hospital (Link).
• Euthanasia clinic forced onto Catholic hospital is now operational (Link). 
• They built a death chamber at a Catholic hospital. You paid for it (Link).

The International disability rights community is concerned with Canada's euthanasia law.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Sarah Ritchie reported for the Canadian Press on June 19, 2025 that Canada's Liberal government is giving no sign if it intends to amend existing legislation on medical assistance in dying — something a UN committee called for earlier this spring.

On March 21, 2025; the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Committee’s Concluding Observations on Canada’s Disability Rights Record report was released. Among the many recommendations, Sections 19 and 20 of the UN Committee report outlined their response to Canada's (MAiD) euthanasia law. (Link to the report).

Section 20 of the report urged the Canadian government to:

(a) Repeal Track 2 Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD), including the 2027 commencement of Track 2 MAiD for persons whose “sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness”;

(b) Not support proposals for the expansion of MAiD to include “mature minors” and advance requests;

Ritchie explains that the report stated:

“(T)he concept of ‘choice’ creates a false dichotomy, setting up the premise that if persons with disabilities are suffering, it is valid for (Canada) to enable their death without providing safeguards that guarantee the provision of support,”

Canada's federal government has scheduled to allow euthanasia for mental illness (alone) beginning in March, 2027. A report by the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying (AMAD) that was tabled in the House of Commons in February, 2023 called for an expansion of euthanasia to include children "mature minors" and patients with mental illnesses and that patients with dementia be permitted to make an advance request for euthanasia.

Ritchie reported that The federal minister responsible for disabilities spoke at a hearing of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities last week, about two months after the committee called on Canada to repeal the 2021 law that expanded eligibility for assisted dying to those whose deaths were not reasonably foreseeable.

According to Ritchie Government Minister Patty Hajdu stated:

“It’s about, for me, making relationships in this space and making sure that I have a really strong connection with the community, which I think is really important to be a good minister,” she said in an interview after the speech.

Her address did not cite the committee’s report, which was released in late March as the federal election got underway.

A spokesperson for Minister Hajdu said the government thanks the committee for its report. Ritchie reported a spokesperson as stating:

“MAID is a deeply personal choice. We will make sure that the rights of persons with disabilities are upheld and protected,” said Jennifer Kozelj.

Ritchie restated that the report said that the committee is “extremely concerned” about Canada’s policy on track 2 medical assistance in dying.

Disability rights groups in Canada have argued the law singles out people with disabilities who are suffering because they’re unable to access proper support. Ritchie reported:

Last September, Inclusion Canada was among a group of organizations that filed a Charter of Rights challenge against what’s known as track 2 MAID.

In court documents, they argued the law “allows people with disabilities to access state-funded death in circumstances where they cannot access state-funded supports they need to make their suffering tolerable.”

The organization’s CEO, Krista Carr, said she wants to see Ottawa deliver an action plan on implementing the recommendations in the UN report.

“It was crystal clear — the United Nations said they need to repeal track 2 medical assistance in dying,” she said.

Garnett Genuis, the Conservative employment critic, also attended the UN event. Ritchie reported:

Genuis is worried about Canada’s international reputation being harmed by what he called Ottawa’s. “failures to uphold our obligations to protect the rights of people with living with disabilities.”

“There is a lot of concern internationally within the disability rights community about what’s happening in Canada around euthanasia and people living with disabilities,” he said.

Richie asked other federal Ministers and received these responses:

The offices of Health Minister Marjorie Michel and Justice Minister Sean Fraser did not say whether Ottawa is considering changes to the assisted dying law as a result of the report.

A spokesman for Michel cited strict eligibility requirements and “multiple robust safeguards” in the current law.

Ritchie reported on why Canada expanded its euthanasia law, and it's effect.

Canada’s medical assistance in dying law was updated in 2021 after the Quebec Court of Appeal found that limiting access to people whose deaths were reasonably foreseeable amounted to discrimination.

The federal government opted not to take that ruling to the Supreme Court, and instead changed the law to broaden eligibility.

The latest annual report on medical assistance in dying shows that 622 of the 15,343 people who had an assisted death in 2023 were part of that track 2. They included 210 people who self-identified as having a disability.

More articles on this topic:

• United Nations Committee directs Canada to repeal Track 2 euthanasia deaths (Link).
• Canada's euthanasia deaths continue to rise with approximately 16,500 euthanasia deaths in 2024 (Link).
• Has Canada's euthanasia law gone too far (Link).

Petition: The US Food and Drug Administration must investigate assisted suicide drug cocktails

To the FDA's Compounding Incidents Program, (Link to the online petition). (Link to the paper petition).

The petitioners draw your attention to the following:

Whereas the compounded drug cocktails being used for assisted suicide have had high rates of overdose, failure of expected pharmacological action, and adverse experiences associated with their use for assisted suicide; and;

Whereas the experiments that continue to be done to develop the compounded drug cocktails used for assisted suicide violate the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ regulations for the protection of human subjects under 45 CFR part 46;

Therefore, we call on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to investigate the adverse drug experiences with the compounded drug cocktails used for assisted suicide.

(Link to the online petition). (Link to the paper petition).

Information:

Despite claims that assisted suicide is a painless death, complications with assisted suicide remain common, and in fact have increased over the last decade. The FDA’s Compounding Incidents Program aims to protect the public against poor quality compounded drugs, yet no research has been done on whether the assisted suicide cocktails currently in use meet current standards.

An article by Manuela Callari published by Medscape on March 13, 2025, asked the question, “Do We Know Enough About Assisted Dying Drugs?” (1) Claud Regnard, MD, a retired palliative medicine consultant in the UK told Medscape:

“The amount of evidence supporting the use of these drugs is astoundingly small. The last study looking at efficacy and side effects was published 25 years ago, using data from 10 years earlier. 

“You wouldn’t allow this in any way with any other sort of drugs,” Regnard said. In a 2022 study, he found that drugs used for assisted dying have not undergone the usual level of scrutiny.(2)

The pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of these drugs at high doses remain poorly understood. “We extrapolate from therapeutic doses, but we have no proper data on what happens at lethal doses,” Regnard said. “That’s not science—that’s guesswork.”

Based on the Oregon data we know that there are serious problems with the use of compounded drugs for assisted suicide. 

The 2023 Oregon Death with Dignity Act report indicated that the longest time for an assisted suicide death was 137 hours (five days plus 17 hours) and the assisted suicide complications rate was almost 10%. In Oregon, complications are only reported when a health care provider is present at the death. In 2023, there were ten known complications based on 102 reports from health care providers. (3)

Regarding the assisted suicide drug trials, JoNel Aleccia reported the following for The Seattle Times on March 5, 2017:

[Dr. Carol] Parrot and [Dr. Robert] Wood are part of a seven-member group of doctors in the Northwest who came up with the three-drug protocol after Valeant Pharmaceuticals Inc. acquired the rights to secobarbital, known as Seconal, in 2015 and raised the price sharply. 

“We wanted the new drug regime to be safe, reliable and effective—and cost $500 or less,” said Parrot.

Earlier in the article, Aleccia states,

The first Seconal alternative turned out to be too harsh, burning patients’ mouths and throats, causing some to scream in pain. The second drug mix, used 67 times, has led to deaths that stretched out hours in some patients—and up to 31 hours in one case. (4)

Lisa Krieger’s article, published in Medical Xpress on September 8, 2020, also reported on the lethal drug cocktail trials:

A little-known secret, not publicized by advocates of aid-in-dying, was that while most deaths were speedy, others were very slow. Some patients lingered for six or nine hours; a few, more than three days. No one knew why, or what needed to change. 

“The public thinks that you take a pill and you’re done,” said Dr. Gary Pasternak, chief medical officer of Mission Hospice in San Mateo. “But it’s more complicated than that.” (5)

Doctors who participate in assisted suicide developed lethal compounded drug cocktails with human trials. The developers were concerned with the lethal efficacy and cost of the drug cocktail as opposed to the negative consequences associated with its use. The assisted suicide drug cocktail trials appear to have violated the Nuremburg Code.

We, the petitioners, call on the FDA to perform an investigation into the use of compounded drug cocktails used for assisted suicide based on the high rates of adverse experiences and into the experiments done to develop the assisted suicide drug cocktails that appear to have violated 45 CFR part 46.

References:

1. Manuela Callari, “Do We Know Enough About Assisted Dying Drugs?” Medscape, March 13, 2025 https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/do-we-know-enough-about-assisted-dying-drugs-2025a100064q?form=fpf, accessed June 16, 2025.
2. Worthington, A., Finlay, I., and Regnard C. (March 10, 2022). Efficacy and safety of drugs used for ‘assisted dying’ British Medical Bulletin. 142:15-22. https://doi.org/10.1093/bmb/idac009
3. Oregon Death with Dignity Act 2023 report https://www.oregon.gov/oha/PH/PROVIDERPARTNERRESOURCES/EVALUATIONRESEARCH/DEATHWITHDIGNITYACT/Documents/year26.pdf, accessed June 16, 2025.
4. JoNel Aleccia, “Northwest doctors rethink aid-in-dying drugs to avoid prolonged deaths,” The Seattle Times, October 5, 2017, https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/northwest-doctors-rethink-aid-in-dying-drugs-to-avoid-prolonged-deaths/, accessed June 16, 2025.
5. Lisa Kreiger, “Doctors seek life-ending drugs that smooth the way for the terminally ill,” The Medical Express, September 8, 2020, https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-09-doctors-life-ending-drugs-smooth-terminally.html, accessed June 16, 2025.

Honoring Juneteenth: Reflections on Love, Justice and Forgiveness

Meghan Schrader

By Meghan Schrader

Meghan is an instructor at E4 - University of Texas (Austin) and an EPC-USA board member.

Before I delve into the main part of this post, I want to refer readers to the Juneteenth blog post I wrote last year, which contains information about the history and further empowerment of BIPOC disabled persons, such as articles and tweets written by BIPOC persons with disabilities, discussion of admonishments that BIPOC disabled persons have given to white people in the disabled community, books and articles written by historians, etc. But on this Juneteenth I am going to tell a personal story; I hope it will inspire readers to listen to the experiences of BIPOC persons, especially those with disabilities, and integrate their concerns into our culture, while also inspiring readers of all races to reflect on the intersection of justice, love and forgiveness in this collaborative process.

My biological mother, Meg, had a very painful childhood. In addition to beating his children, her father was a leader in the Ku Klux Klan. So, until she was about seven, poor Meg learned that oppressing black African Americans was good, and that black people were evil.

On her first day of second grade, my biological mother walked into her classroom to find that the teacher was a large black woman. Given the racist lies her father had taught her, my biological mother panicked. “She’s gonna kill me!” Meg screamed before running out of the room.

The school called Meg’s mother, and she and some of the other staff got Meg to go back into the classroom. When Meg re-entered the classroom, the teacher gave her a big hug. “It’s going to be okay,” the teacher said gently.

This was one of the only hugs that my bio mother had ever had in her life, and the experience of being hugged was surprising for her. Meg told me that her fear went away because she felt cared for and safe, and the teacher continued to nurture her throughout the school year, acting as one of the best teachers Meg had ever had.

I do not know if the teacher knew that Meg ran out of the room because she was a black woman, but I assume she did, and I want to make sure I acknowledge that this interaction was horribly unfair to the teacher. BIPOC people with and without disabilities have spoken out about how exhausting and traumatic it is to try to instruct or interact with people who have prejudiced or uninformed beliefs, and how unjust it is that this process essentially involves giving expert advice for free.

But, I am so grateful to this teacher for having mercy on the seven-year-old child that Meg was, and giving Meg one of the first hugs she had ever experienced in her life. I can only hope that in my own work with other people who have developmental disabilities, I can emulate the compassion and generosity of that teacher; who lovingly mentored my abused bio-mother, a seven-year-old who had no way of understanding that racism was wrong. I think the intervention of that teacher is one of the reasons that Meg did not grow up to be a racist person.

Not all interactions related to redressing systemic racism and ableism are going to be touching like the one I just described. But I hope that the story, and the resources referenced in my previous Juneteenth post, can help inspire members of the anti assisted suicide movement to thoughtfully engage issues related to systemic oppression, and extend grace to one another as we work on what Stephen Mendelsohn’s faith called “tikkum olam,” or “repairing the world.”

A Canadian hospital is slowly starving and abusing a disabled man to death

Meghan Schrader

By Meghan Schrader

Meghan is an instructor at E4 - University of Texas (Austin) and an EPC-USA board member. 

Sign the petition: Roger Foley needs to be fed (Link).

A hospital in Canada is slowly starving and abusing a disabled man to death. 

Seriously, can someone airlift Roger Foley out of there?

Hospital staff have, of course, offered Roger Foley “MAiD.” It’s not that “MAiD” made the hospital staff abuse Foley, doctors and nursing staff bully disabled people all the time in jurisdictions where “MAiD” is not legal. However, now healthcare staff have a new, lethal implement of structural oppression at their disposal: they have the power to bully Foley into being offed by a state-sanctioned serial killer. This is an example of the disgusting consequences of a movement run by privileged individuals who are willing to subject disabled people to a new implement of degradation and violence; all so they can plan their deaths like they planned where to go to a first tier college. For instance, in “A Designed Death: Where and When the World Allows it, Avovah Wittenberg Cox asserts:

“For Boomers used to planning and controlling many of life’s choices, from when to have children to what kind of milk in their coffee, defining a good death seems like something they may want to discuss with their families – and decide for themselves.”

Roger Foley

An agenda of allowing any and every Boomer to control their deaths implies expanding “MAiD” beyond the terminally ill, and I think this quote aptly illustrates the privilege of most MAiD supporters. If you are a wounded soul whose terminally ill loved one shot themselves in the head and then left a suicide note saying they wished they could have used “MAiD,” then I empathize deeply with you. Of course people who have endured that type of trauma would think “MAiD” is a good idea. However, if you are not a horribly suffering person who is simply willing to sacrifice marginalized people so that you can design a boutique death, then I do not sympathize with you. You want to control your death like you planned when to have your children? I want a house next to the ocean in Fiji.

Maybe some of the proponents who are not suffering horribly and are just willing to sacrifice disabled people so that they can plan their deaths like they planned where to have their weddings should consent to being locked up in a hospital, deprived of food, water and toileting and subjected to bright lighting that hurts their bodies; while bullies stand over their beds urging them to die by assisted suicide. It might help them put some of their current fears about suffering and their demands for autonomy into perspective.

Previous articles by Meghan Schrader (Articles Link). 

Previous articles about Roger Foley (Articles Link).

They Built a Death Chamber at a Catholic Hospital. You Paid for It

This article was published by Kelsi Sheren on her substack on June 17, 2025..

This Is Not Medicine. It’s Modern Extermination. Inside the St. Paul’s Death Chamber in a Catholic Hospital.

Kelsi Sheren

By Kelsi Sheren

Hey! Look over here!

Your taxes are building eugenics facilities!

St. Paul's hospital in BC has just installed a new killing centre. Now servicing BC patients' the government has decided are to expensive to actually care for. A Recent decision by the British Columbia government to forcibly establish MAiD killing centres adjacent to the Catholic operated St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver represents where Canada is at when it comes to helping its citizens. This is a unprecedented shift in Canada’s healthcare practices, raising profound ethical, religious, and societal concerns.

These new locations popping up across the country are designed for effective and fast killing. A one stop shop for death.

You come in and you never come out. This is Canadian health care…. so they say.

St. Paul's Hospital

In June 2023, pro death cult advocates significantly escalated their pressure campaign, utilizing the tragic case of Samantha O'Neill as leverage. If you haven’t heard of this case, let me give you the Coles notes. Samantha O’Neill had requested to be killed at St. Paul's Hospital, but in alignment with its longstanding Catholic ethical stance against euthanasia, the hospital transferred her compassionately to St. John's Hospice.

Instead of recognizing this action as a respectful accommodation of religious ethics and patient choice, the pro death cults of Canada leveraged intense media scrutiny to insist that Catholic hospitals should directly provide euthanasia, I.E. DEATH. They framed transfers as inhumane and insensitive. Just a quick side bar, I think killing someone is more inhumane and insensitive then moving some one, but I digress.

Shoreline Space

Naturally the weak BC government gave into the pressure and public controversy. By December 1, 2023, it expropriated land from Providence Health, the Catholic entity overseeing St. Paul's, and proceeded rapidly to construct a dedicated killing facility, now known as the "Shoreline Space." This facility, described as utilitarian and starkly institutional, sits discreetly (INTENTIONALLY) within an interior courtyard of the existing St. Paul's Hospital.

Hidden behind security fencing and gates, and shielded from public awareness. As do all bad things happen, hidden away from prying eyes and in the dark.

This structure symbolizes a horrific new reality: killing administered covertly yet deliberately close to faith-based medical institutions dedicated to preserving life.

Even more alarming is the government’s intention to replicate this controversial approach. Detailed investigative reporting by independent journalist Terry O'Neill uncovered evidence that planning for yet another killing facility is already well underway at the new St. Paul's Hospital, currently under construction at False Creek Flats. This new facility, expected to open by 2027, just in time for the new expansion of MAID in the mentally ill. This side example of health care will further embed killing in a setting historically committed to life-affirming care.

Internal emails and documents obtained through freedom-of-information requests reveal extensive logistical planning to ensure seamless integration of killing services, including specific requirements regarding proximity to the pharmacy, emergency services access, and even parking logistics.

The graphic and chilling reality extends beyond St. Paul's Hospital. O'Neill’s reporting has shown that Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) already operates MAiD facilities within buildings housing Catholic-run hospices, May’s Place and St. John Hospice, despite Providence Health’s explicit, longstanding prohibition against killing. Providence Health, constrained by contracts and lease agreements, remains powerless to prevent these facilities from operating so intimately close to their hospice patients, creating a profound ethical conflict and confusion for staff, patients, and families alike.

Grafeneck castle

Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, highlights the chilling historical parallels to Germany's notorious Aktion T4 euthanasia program. Specifically, he references Grafeneck Castle, initially a compassionate Lutheran care facility forcibly expropriated by the Nazi regime to become the first euthanasia killing center. The similarities in governmental overreach, forcible land expropriation, and ethical disregard raise uncomfortable and necessary historical comparisons.

Vancouver physician Dr. Will Johnston further underscores the severity of these actions, characterizing the imposition of euthanasia-killing facilities into traditionally life-affirming spaces as an expression of governmental totalitarianism. Johnston argues that such policies demonstrate not inclusion or respect for diversity, but a dangerous intolerance toward those with conscientious objections, effectively marginalizing religious and ethical convictions from healthcare delivery.

The pro-death cult are jumping up and down, bragging at their events that they finally broke the only religious safe guard we had left. (This is true I have an audio recording I made while at one)

Louis Brier nursing home.

This is not the first either. “Dr” Ellen Wiebe has broken these rules before. She attempted to defend herself against allegations of "sneaking in and killing someone" at an orthodox Jewish nursing home. “

“The Louis Brier Nursing Home in Vancouver has issued a formal complaint with the B.C. College of Physicians and Surgeons against Dr. Ellen Wiebe after she granted 83-year-old Barry Hyman's request to die at the facility he calls home."

Long story short, she went in and MAIDED a man in a Jewish nursing home.

“Dr’s” like her don’t see why this is completely unacceptable.

As Canadians, we need to stop hiding behind what’s happening here and with this disturbing trajectory, we need to stand up. Why aren’t we urgently questioning our politicians and asking why all our tax dollars are going to perfecting and facilitating killing centres but not hospitals.

Why are we adding more locations to increase death and not health care?

Why are we not asking our community how they feel about people being brought into a hiding building, never to come out again?

Why are we standing by as Canada becomes the eugenics capital of the world.

Why are we allowing these pro death cult bullies to come after our only remaining religious strongholds??

Ill tell you why we aren’t, because the dark is scary.

It’s terrifying if I’m being honest, because these people and this government have made it clear that they don’t actually want to help people, they want to remove the “burdens” from our society. They want to cut out the vulnerable and those who can no longer protect themselves, those whose families have given up on them due to overbearing medical costs or care giver burnout.

Canada showed its hand when it began prioritizing death over life by building facilities specifically for killing and cutting funding for those needed for healing.

And now we will begin eradicating anyone who even looks a little ill, because if you are not lonely enough, desperate enough, poor enough, sick enough or mentally unwell yet.

Give it time, the way this country is going.

It’s only a matter of time.

LINKS:

https://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2025/06/euthanasia-maid-unit-forced-onto-st.html

https://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2025/05/vancouver-death-clinic-imposed-on.html

https://bccatholic.ca/news/catholic-van/government-taking-property-from-st-paul-s-hospital-to-deliver-maid

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-monday-edition-1.4477708/doctor-accused-of-sneaking-in-and-killing-someone-at-jewish-nursing-home-says-she-did-nothing-wrong-1.4477714

Québec Medical Group requires physicians and nurse practitioners to refer for euthanasia.

Alex Schadenberg

Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

A memorandum from a Québec medical group reminds healthcare professionals of the obligation to leave their conscience "at the door" and refer patients for death by euthanasia (MAiD). The subject line reads "General reminder regarding requests for medical assistance in dying (MAiD)."

 

Canada legalized MAiD in June 2016 by creating an exception in the Criminal Code for homicide (murder).

An association of healthcare professionals in Montreal Québec sent a memorandum as a "general reminder" regarding requests for medical assistance in dying (MAID) to ensure that all healthcare professionals know that they are obligated to refer all patients who request death by euthanasia (MAiD). If the healthcare professional conscientiously objects the request must be sent to the Interdisciplinary Support Group (ISG). The memorandum states:

No healthcare professional can ignore a request for MAID. It is the responsibility of every professional to ensure that such a request is taken care of. As stipulated in sections 26 & 31 of the s-32.0001 - Act respecting end-of life care, any health or social services professional may complete the (contemporary) MAID request form when a person so requests.

Any physician or specialized nurse practitioner who receives a request for an MAID must notify the Interdisciplinary Support Group (ISG) and, if applicable, forward the request form to the ISG when he or she:

• refuses a request (based on the eligibility criteria recognized by the Act);
• refuses to assist a person in formulating an anticipated application (moral or religious conscientious objection) or in withdrawing such an application;
• refuses to carry out the required examination.

The ISG is to provide clinical, administrative and ethical support for end-of-life care. In particular, for the evaluation of a request or the administration of MAID, continuous palliative sedation and in the drafting of an anticipated MAID application (answering questions, coaching and mentoring by experts).

You can contact the MAID and ISG coordinator by e-mail: amm.comtl@ssss.gouv.qc.ca or at: 514-809-6174.

For more information, the CIUSSS intranet is regularly updated https://intranet.comtl.rtss.qc.ca/en/clinicalpractice/palliative-care-and-end-of-life-care/medical-assistance-in-dying-maid.

We remind you that no intimidation of anyone requesting information or an MAID, nor of the professionals involved, will be tolerated. Anyone witnessing such a situation should report it: employees should inform their superior, users and families should contact the Ombudsman.

Thank you for your cooperation,

For people outside of Canada, healthcare is a provincial jurisdiction, therefore each province will have different rules pertaining to referrals for euthanasia. 

 

When reading this memorandum, it is sadly not surprising that Québec has the highest euthanasia rate in the world.

 

More articles on this topic:

• Canada's euthanasia deaths continue to rise with approximately 16,500 euthanasia deaths in 2024 (Link).
• Québec shows the way with euthanasia in Canada (Link).
• Québec approves euthanasia by advance request (Link).

The Health Impacts of Seniors' Loneliness.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

In the past, The Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP) was a strong promoter of Canada's euthanasia law and expansions of that law, but a new CARP initiative tackling Seniors Loneliness is worthwhile. In a recent update on Seniors' Loneliness CARP states:

Social isolation is a serious issue when it comes to seniors and a signal of a dysfunctional society. It’s estimated that almost 30% of Canadian seniors live alone – and without strong community connections, many of these seniors suffer silently from loneliness and depression.

Loneliness can impact physical and mental well-being. Isolation can lead to depression, which in turn can further exacerbate health issues. For example, depression in older adults is tied to a higher risk of cardiac diseases. At the same time, depression reduces an older person’s ability to recover from illness.

Depression is not a typical part of aging. Yet it is estimated that 20% of older adults experience symptoms – like persistent sadness, loss of interest in activities, fatigue, feelings of worthlessness and even suicidal thoughts – and rates increase up to 40% for those in hospitals and long-term care homes.

These numbers are a warning sign of a public health crisis hiding in plain sight. The World Health Organization recently named loneliness a global health priority, urging countries to take action. And the science is clear: chronic isolation is more harmful than smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

While CARP is promoting their initiative to counter Senior's Loneliness, I want to reiterate my support for the Compassionate Community Care charity that also focuses on reducing Seniors' Loneliness.

While CARP has strongly promoted euthanasia (MAiD) in the past, the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition recognizes how loneliness can lead to requests euthanasia. Many people who are living with difficult health conditions also feel lonely, feel hopeless and begin to believe that they have no further reason to live. 

Instead of offering these people death, they should be offered support from a caring community who reasures them that they are important and that they still have a reason to live.

Contact the Compassionate Community Care charity (CCC) to join the Visitor Training program or become trained to provide advocacy for your family members or people who you know. CCC also provides a calling service for contacting lonely seniors who simply need someone to talk to or someone to listen.

Physicians group urges New York Governor to veto assisted suicide bill.

Dear Governor Hochul,

My name is Dr Sharon Quick and I am President of Physicians for Compassionate Care Education Foundation (PCCEF), an organization without religious or political affiliation that advocates for the vulnerable at end of life. I have expertise in pediatric anesthesia, critical care, and medical ethics. We oppose A 136. Please veto this poorly constructed bill.

Summary: A 136, like other medically-assisted suicide laws, inevitably violates (rather than upholds) patient autonomy; creates (based on subjective, often inaccurate, criteria) a class of marginalized patients with the disability of terminal illness from whom the standard of medical care can be withheld; allows lethal drugs to unnecessarily substitute for good palliative care and pain control; disproportionately preys on those with mental health problems and disabilities; and destroys the foundation of medical ethics, creating distrust among patients and the health care profession. In addition, A 136 is the most radical policy in the country because it has no waiting period for obtaining lethal drugs. It also has no residency requirement which could turn New York into an international assisted suicide tourism destination for one-stop lethal drug prescriptions. Will New York citizens have to pay for funerals and/or transport of bodies back to their home states and countries? The bill makes no provision for the fact that out-of-state citizens or non-citizens may be pressured to take lethal drugs immediately and they are not required to make funeral and burial arrangements.

1. Pain should never be a reason to seek lethal drugs. Complaints of excessive symptoms indicate doctors lack palliative care knowledge, such as when to refer to pain management specialists. Lethal drugs should never be a solution for lack of education. In addition, those in significant pain lack capacity to consent for lethal drugs. Instead, improve palliative care access and expertise, which has been assessed as likely insufficient to meet the needs of New York.1 There is evidence that minorities, the uninsured, those on Medicaid, and those living in disadvantaged communities may encounter barriers to receiving palliative care.2 It would be a tragedy for these under served populations if this legislation made lethal prescriptions more accessible than palliative care.

2. This bill has no waiting period to obtain lethal drugs; no other law is so rash. Immediate death does not give adequate time for appropriate discussion and interventions for vulnerable patients who make rash decisions out of fear, depression, embarrassment, subtle pressure by a tired caregiver who makes them feel like a burden, or other reversible or transient concerns. Such patients often change their minds and no longer want to hasten death.

3. Physicians may be wrong about a patient’s prognosis, and they often miss depression and compromised decision-making capacity. Patients in WA and OR have died up to 5 years beyond their original “terminal” diagnosis and receipt of lethal drugs. Neither mental health status nor capacity are required to be assessed immediately before a patient ingests lethal drugs, which could be years after initial assessment; there is no guarantee that patients are not compromised at that time.

4. Lethal drugs are not a proportionate means of achieving palliative care goals but devalue vulnerable patients in a way that violates the very goals palliative care aims to achieve. Assisted suicide is abandonment, not health care, and is not part of palliative medicine. Lethal cocktails are bitter-tasting, sometimes mouth-burning liquids, and patients must ice their mouths with popsicles and take anti-emetics just to get them down. Risks include nausea, vomiting, aspiration, seizures, and not dying. Palliative care can do far better.

5. Lethal drug prescriptions undermine autonomy and discriminate against the disability community. Requests for lethal drugs are not primarily for pain but because of depression and/or psychological responses to disabilities developed during terminal illness--which is itself a disability by both social security and ADA criteria. This bill grants new choices and power to doctors, not patients, allowing them to treat patients unequally, subjectively placing them into either (1) a protected group (getting standard mental health care) or (2) a marginalized group with the disability of terminal illness (who can be abandoned to lethal drugs). This discriminates against the disability community and undermines autonomy by violating equality of persons. New York does not need a two-tiered health system that devalues those with the disability of terminal illness.

6. The slippery slope is real. Patients with depression and those with non-terminal diagnoses of anorexia, hernia, arthritis, and “medical complications” have received lethal drugs. Hundreds of doctors’ and patients’ consent forms are missing in Washington and Colorado.

a. In 2023, Oregonian Cody Sontag decided to avoid advanced dementia by killing herself via voluntarily stopping eating and drinking (called VSED). An Oregon doctor declared her “terminally ill” due to dehydration from VSED. He waived the waiting period, prescribed lethal drugs immediately, and Cody died from them.(3) Dehydration is not “incurable” or “irreversible,” as legally required. How many others with non-terminal diagnoses have used VSED to access lethal drugs? No one—least of all physicians whom the vulnerable must be able to trust—should be granted god-like powers to decide which disabilities make life worthless, prey on those who lack capacity, and assist with termination of those so judged.

7. There is no mechanism to enforce the law or detect abuse, which is perhaps why no sanctions have been reported. The design of this bill, like other assisted suicide laws, is a set-up for undetected elder abuse, coercion, or murder, given neither capacity re-evaluation nor the presence a neutral party are required when patients ingest lethal drugs (sometimes weeks, months, or years after initial evaluation).

8. Doctors often devalue those with disabilities. Protect the medical profession from acting on that bias by not granting them power to assist the suicides of patients disabled by terminal illness—especially a bill that has no more oversight than Oregon, where physicians are not disciplined for ending the lives of those with non-terminal illness (like Cody).

9. Protect the medical profession from distrust, both between patients and their doctors and among doctors. Patients in the northwest who are opposed to assisted suicide now have legitimate fears that doctors might overlook depression or compromised capacity, devalue them, and prescribe lethal drugs if they request hastened death while depressed or in a moment of vulnerable weakness. A death request is often a plea for help, and people often change their minds about hastening death with time, treatment, and support. Dr. Bentz lost trust in colleagues after referring a patient to an oncologist who, over Dr. Bentz’ objections, gave lethal drugs to his patient instead of treating his depression.

10. This bill contains potential conscience violations for physicians and health care employers:

a. Requires falsifying the death certificate, naming the underlying disease as the cause, rather than the actual cause of death—lethal drugs (p. 12, lines 12-14)

b. It is unclear whether an objecting health care employer can prohibit physician employees from providing information about lethal drug provision or referring patients for them, or whether objecting physicians could be forced to inform or refer for this process, both of which would violate their conscience for participation in an unethical practice that is not medical care.

11. Finally, participants do not need to be New York residents, which may allow persons out-of-state (or country) to obtain lethal drugs. These patients may not receive adequate evaluation, especially of capacity and lack of coercion, by New York physicians who may not know them well. Non-residents would be pressured to take the lethal drugs immediately in New York to avoid legal complications from ingestion in their home state/country, when many patients hold on to the drugs for weeks, months, and even years, and some never take them. New York may become an international assisted suicide tourism destination.

Please veto A 136. I am happy to answer any questions you may have.

Sincerely,
Sharon Quick, MD, MA (Bioethics)
President, Physicians for Compassionate Care Education Foundation (PCCEF)

P.O. Box 7122 Bonney Lake WA 98491 Tel: 253-501-7011 or info@pccef.org, www.pccef.org

1. CAPC. Palliative Care in New York. 2025. (Link)
2. Chambers B. How to Increase Awareness and Reduce Gaps in Palliative Care for MinoritiesJuly 9, 2020. (Link) (accessed 9-22-2024).
3. Pope TM, Brodoff L. Medical aid in dying to avoid late-stage dementia. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2024: 1-7. (Link).