Wednesday, March 19, 2025

Almost 4000 Belgian euthanasia deaths in 2024.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Brussels Times reported on March 19, 2025 that there were almost 4000 Belgian euthanasia deaths in 2024. According to the Brussels Times report:

The number of patients opting for euthanasia in Belgium rose by nearly 17% in 2024, amounting to 3,991 cases, according to figures by the Federal Control and Evaluation Commission on Euthanasia (FCEE) on Wednesday.

The Brussels Times stated that euthanasia represented 3.6% of all deaths in 2024 which was up from 3423 in 2023 or 3.1% of all deaths.

It is important to state that Belgium is known for having a significant number of unreported euthanasia deaths. Several years ago Dr Marc Cosyns stated that he does not report euthanasia deaths because he believes that euthanasia is no different than any other medical or palliative care procedure.

The Belgium euthanasia data indicates that there is a much higher rate of euthanasia among Dutch speaking as compared to French speaking citizens.

The figures show a sharp 25% increase in the number of Dutch-speaking patients: at 3,042, they represented more than 76% of cases in 2024. On the French-speaking side, however, there was a decline from 1,001 in 2023 to 949 last year. "The commission has no possible explanation for this," they said.

 The Brussels Times continued:

The bulk of patients were over 70 years old (72.6%) and over 43% were older than 80. "Euthanasia in patients younger than 40 years remains rare," said the FCEE. Last year, there were only 50 cases in this age group. One case involved euthanasia in a minor. "Since the extension of the law in 2014, this brings the total number of registered cases in minors to six."

Belgium expanded their euthanasia law in 2014 to permit child euthanasia. The Brussels Times reported that:

In 76.6% of cases, death was expected in the short term. However, euthanasia in patients who are not terminal did increase, especially among those with multiple chronic conditions. The vast majority of patients experienced both physical and psychological suffering (82%). Just under 16% experienced only physical pain and 1.9% only psychological suffering.

It is concerning that 26.8% of the euthanasia deaths were based on "polypathology", a term that includes people with various chronic and incurable diseases. These deaths are usually people with disabilities who are often not otherwise dying.

Luc Van Gorp, the President of Belgium's largest health insurance fund, Christian Mutualities (CM) stated in April 2024 that Belgium cannot fund its healthcare needs and requires more deaths by euthanasia. 

Tuesday, March 18, 2025

Bioethicists Get Legacy of Terri Schiavo Death Wrong

This article was published by National Review online on March 18, 2025.

Terri's Mom, Dad and sister (right)
By Wesley J Smith

Twenty years ago today, Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube was withdrawn with court approval, commencing a cruel deprivation of sustenance that resulted in her death by dehydration 13 days later.

For those who may not remember, the case became the most hotly contested bioethics issue since Roe v. Wade as Terri’s husband Michael fought in courts and in the media with her parents and siblings over his desire to remove all Terri’s food and fluids. In the end, he won — and Terri died.

Now, two bioethicists on the influential Hastings Center blog decry the case as wrongly brought. They get some facts wrong and omit crucial information — like that Michael was living with another woman with whom he fathered two children during the litigation — but let’s not relitigate the case here. (Read this post for a more complete discussion)

The authors, Arthur Caplan and Dominic Sisti, and I do agree that the Schiavo case was a cultural “canary in the coal mine,” but for diametrically opposing reasons. They complain that it has empowered the wrong cultural forces into political prominence:

In retrospect, Schiavo launched a new, emboldened prolife movement, one that would eventually lead to conservative rule in state houses across the U.S. and the election, twice, of Donald Trump. The seeding of a new ultraconservative judiciary would support a strategic assault on medical privacy that would eventually lead to the end of legal abortion protection in Dobbs.
The Schiavo case did not “embolden” the pro-life movement. It was thriving when the case hit the headlines. Moreover, some of the most vociferous opponents of dehydrating Terri to death were disability rights activists — who, generally speaking, are politically liberal and not pro-life on abortion.

Caplan and Sisti complain that the case led to intrusive health-care policies.
We hear the echoes of Schiavo’s death in today’s debates over reproductive rights, end-of-life care, transgender care, vaccinations, and medical privacy more generally. The end of Roe v. Wade, the continued attacks on gender-affirming care, and the looming threats to contraceptive access all stem from the foundational fight over Terri’s bodily autonomy. Today’s autocratic playbook remains unchanged from those days: intrude upon and weaponize deeply personal medical decisions, rally the support of a mob, enact draconian regulations, ignore what medicine and science have to say.

Few knew it then, but the case of Terri Schiavo was a canary in the coal mine, warning us of bad things to come. The fight to honor Terri’s values in death was won, but the broader battle over government intrusion versus health care privacy rages on.
Good grief, no: 

  • The Schiavo case did not cause the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Rather, the key precedent was an assisted-suicide case called Glucksberg v. Washington.
  • “Gender-affirming care” for children is not supported by “what medicine and science have to say.”
  • Vaccine mandates impede the making of “personal medical decisions.” Indeed, Covid vaccine mandates (supported by Caplan) were “autocratic” and — as the thousands of fired members of the military, medical personnel, and others will attest — forced people to take jabs or lose their jobs. How’s that for “weaponized deeply personal medical decisions”?
  • And if closing schools for so long weren’t “draconian regulations,” I don’t know what were.

The Schiavo case was a tragedy, but not for the reasons Caplan and Sisti claim. Before Schiavo’s death, most people were shocked that feeding tubes could be removed from disabled people who can metabolize food and water. After the case, polling majorities supported doing so. With that, people with severe brain injuries became a disposable caste.

As an Anorexic, I'd have longed for assisted dying.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Britain is debating an assisted suicide bill sponsored by Kim Leadbeater (MP).

The Committee that is examining the assisted suicide bill is stacked with pro-assisted suicide members. The committee has debated multiple proposed amendments to the legislation and yet all of the amendments that would tighten the bill have been rejected.

An article by Hadley Freeman that was published in The Times on March 2, 2025 looks at the issue of assisted suicide for people with Anorexia. According to Freeman, Leadbeater rejected the proposal in this manner.
One suggested amendment that would have protected anorexics was that a person can’t qualify for assisted death because they have stopped eating and drinking; Leadbeater rejected that, referring to a woman with mouth cancer who had her tongue removed and starved to death. “We have to be careful not to dismiss those cases because they are real stories of real human beings,” she said.
In response Freeman tells her story and the story of a friend who struggled with anorexia.
Here’s another real story of a real human being. When I was 15, I made a new friend. Her name was Nikki Hughes and she was a talented artist, kind and funny. She was also anorexic, and we met because we were admitted to an eating disorders ward on the same day, and that, she said, bonded us for life. I don’t know what doctors made of Nikki, but I do know what they made of me, 15 and on my fifth hospital admission for anorexia. One told my mother to prepare for the very real chance that I would die. That sounded — to my nutrients-starved, illness-addled brain — great, because it confirmed I was good at anorexia.

Nikki was different. She talked about the art she would make when she recovered and would tell me off when she caught me hiding food. Two years later, when I was recovering and back at school, I opened the newspaper and there was a photo of Nikki: she had died. The hospital she was in at the time was told it could not “override her wishes” to starve herself to death and it would be assault if it tried to save her life with a feeding tube.
Freeman continues by explaining anorexia:
Anorexia is complicated: it’s a mental illness that leads to physical complications, which exacerbate the mental ones, and so on. Even more complicated, the more ill a person becomes, the more they resist treatment (eating, in other words) and the more they want to die. Offering an anorexic assisted death is like offering her liposuction: her desire for it is a symptom of her illness.

Right-to-die campaigners love to talk about autonomy, but such terms are meaningless when it comes to women whose minds are crazed by starvation. (Danny) Kruger pointed out last week that increasing numbers of anorexics are being classified as “terminal” in the NHS and given “palliative care”, which the Royal College of Psychiatrists has described as “troubling”.
Freeman further explains her concerns:
As Nikki and I learnt, it is impossible, even for doctors, to predict outcomes. The patient most determined to starve herself into the ether can recover. As my psychiatrist 30 years ago told me, there’s always hope.
Freeman explains that the assisted suicide bill excludes assisted suicide for people with mental illness but anorexia also leads to physical conditions. She writes:
Some believe that the bill excludes those with mental illness. In fact, it excludes those who are terminally ill “only” because of mental illness — anorexia can lead to physical problems, and these can qualify a person for assisted death. Others say only a tiny number of anorexia patients could qualify. But what number is acceptable? Anorexics are already gaining access to assisted death in Colorado, California and Oregon. One consultant said she could foresee a time when “20 to 30 patients with anorexia access assisted dying in this country every year, because of the contagion effect”.

Freeman states that amending the assisted suicide bill was necessary but there was a "religious fervour" in the committee room among "right-to-die" campaigners to push the bill through.
Freeman concludes her article by stating:
It is impossible for most people to comprehend the mind of an anorexic, which hisses that death is preferable to eating. Which is why it is unforgivable that MPs decided not to get hung up on those who do.

More articles on this topic:

  • Proposed assisted dying bill fails public safety test (Link).
  • Netherlands woman dies by euthanasia based on anorexia (Link).
  • Landmark study: Assisted death for eating disorders (Link).
  • At least 60 people with eating disorders euthanized or assisted in suicide since 2012 (Link).
  • ANAD clarifies that Anorexia Nervosa is not a terminal condition (Link)
  • When I was Anorexic I would have chosen assisted suicide (Link).
  • Psychiatrist: Anorexia does not justify Aid in Dying (Link).
  • Anorexia is not a terminal condition (Link).

 

UK Royal College of GP's wrongly went neutral on assisted suicide.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.

Recently the UK Royal College of General Practitioners (GP'S) changed their position on assisted suicide from being opposed to being neutral on assisted dying. This is important because the UK parliament is debating a bill, sponsored by Kim Leadbeater (MP), to legalize assisted suicide.

On March 14, The Royal College of GP's released the results of a survey of GP's and based on the results The Royal College of GP's claimed that the membership wanted to change their position from opposed to assisted dying to neutral.

In a letter to The Times that was published on March 18, more than 260 GP's argue that the survey results did not support a change in position, but in fact represented a stronger position opposing assisted death than the previous survey in 2019

The Our Duty of Care letter stated:
We are GPs disappointed by the Royal College of General Practitioners’ (RCGP) move from opposition to “neither supporting nor opposing assisted dying being legal,” following a member survey.

This is despite a rise in the proportion saying the RCGP should remain opposed (47.6%, up from 46%) and a decline in support for law change (33.7%, down from 41.1%).

Even those who favour assisted dying in principle may not in practice, in the context of today’s pressured NHS, and may be unwilling to be personally involved in assisting deaths. The latest survey did not explore GPs’ views unlike the more detailed 2019 RCGP survey which found only 7% of GPs thought they should prescribe lethal drugs, and only 16% felt GPs should take responsibility for confirming eligibility for assisted dying. It is likely that similar practical opposition persists.

We believe assisted dying undermines public understanding of and access to palliative care, puts vulnerable populations at risk of self-coercion or abuse, and drives societal biases that devalue certain lives. We find assisted suicide incompatible with our values as doctors: to promote and preserve life, and to be worthy of our patients’ trust. We will not be involved in its provision and remain committed to easing suffering at the end of life through proactive, compassionate and holistic palliative care. We regret the RCGP’s stance and find it grossly misrepresentative of GPs’ attitudes to assisted dying.

The letter clearly explains that the 2019 GP's survey indicated that: 

46% opposed assisted suicide, 41.1% supported assisted suicide and the others were neutral.

The 2025 GP's survey indicated that: 

47.6% opposed assisted suicide, 33.7% supported assisted suicide and the others were neutral.

In other words, opposition to assisted suicide increased and support for assisted suicide decreased. They cannot justify going neutral.

Monday, March 17, 2025

Spain court refuses to prevent young woman's euthansia death.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Agence France-Presse reported on March 17 that a Spanish court rejected an appeal by a father who tried to stop his 24-year-old paraplegic daughter's euthanasia death.

Decisions, like this one, emphasize how the euthanasia laws undermine the lives of people with disabilities.

According to the article, the 24-year-old woman, who was injuried in a suicide attempt, was scheduled to die by euthanasia in August 2024 when her father achieved a court injunction to prevent the death. The article stated that:
The father argued that his daughter suffered from mental disorders that "could affect her ability to make a free and conscious decision" as required by law.

He also said there were indications his daughter had changed her mind and that her ailment did not entail "unbearable physical or psychological suffering".
The article reported that the court decision that was decided on Friday but released on Monday (March 17) stated:
the woman met the conditions for euthanasia, which was legalised in the European country in 2021.

"All the professionals who have intervened in the process agree that... she suffers a serious, chronic and disabling illness, without any contradictory tests having been performed," the judge wrote.
The Spanish euthanasia law is similar to the Canadian euthanasia law since it only requires that a person has "a serious chronic and disabling illness."

Spains euthanasia law should be challenged based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Disabled will feel forced to end their lives by assisted dying if benefits are cut.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Tanni Grey-Thompson
Greg Heffer, the political correspondent for the Daily Mail online reported on March 14 that Tanni Grey-Thompson, an eleven time paralympic gold medal winning athlete and member of the British House of Lords stated that:

Disabled people will feel forced to end their lives under assisted dying laws if benefit cuts make their lives 'intolerable'

Heffer reported that while:

A committee of MPs are currently continuing their line-by-line scrutiny of the (assisted dying) Bill before it returns to the House of Commons for further debate and a vote.

At the same time, the Government is next week expected to unveil plans for £5billion of welfare cuts - despite a mounting revolt among Labour MPs and some ministers.
Baroness Grey-Thompson, a crossbench peer, expressed her fears about the combined impact of slashing benefits and assisted dying legislation. Heffer reported:
'If you are disabled and terminally ill and your benefits are cut, making life intolerable, it's obvious more people will feel forced down this route to end their lives early,' she told Times Radio.

'And when you understand that we live in a relatively able society, there will be people who sit on the panel who will decide that a disabled person has nothing to offer society and will allow them to end their lives.'
While Chancellor Rachel Reeves argues that the British welfare system is broken, Rachael Maskell, the Labour MP leading a rebellion against cuts to welfare, also expressed fears about people with disabilities feeling pressure to end their lives.

Heffer reported that Sarah Olney, a Liberal Democrat MP who sits on the committee that is scrutinising the assisted dying legislation, warned cuts to welfare and a new law on assisted dying risked a 'perfect storm' for the disabled. Olney stated:
'Of course it's a concern that if some of those people are now facing cuts to their everyday living costs … that might well contribute to their feelings that they might be a financial burden on their relatives and that will influence them in terms of how they feel about assisted dying.

'It's absolutely a concern of the committee that people might be seeking an assisted death for that reason and this news about potential cuts to welfare can only … intensify that feeling for some people.'
Similar to what is happening in Canada, people with disabilities who have found themselves unable to afford the basic cost of living are dying by euthanasia. Legalizing assisted death opens the door to people who are living with social and financial pressures to simply exist, are often requesting euthanasia.

The same could happen in Britain. 

More articles on this topic:

  • Canadian Human Rights Commission concerned about euthanasia (Link).
  • Canada's euthanasia deaths continue to rise (Link).
  • Canadian woman does not qualify for care but qualifies for euthanasia (Link).
  • Vancouver man dies by euthanasia while on a psychiatric day pass (Link).
  • Discrimination driven deaths (Link).
  • Heart wrenching lessons from Canada's euthanasia regime (Link).
  • Euthanasia is being used to kill people in poverty, isolation and social suffering (Link).

Sunday, March 16, 2025

Poem: Glad to be me.

The following is a contribution to our EPC "Story Contest". Visit our "contributor info" (link) "recent stories" (link) and "story index" (link).

Please send your story (fact or creative fiction) to: story@epcc.ca

Helen Ryles is a deaf blind person from the UK who sent us the following personal message opposed to legalization of assisted suicide.

Helen Ryles wrote: 

The assisted dying bill is so frightening. Particularly for people like me who can be pushed into it. I have a right to live and I mean to stay alive. 

It’s been total hell for the last few weeks. I couldn’t concentrate on anything and even trying to write anything caused me to have something like a seizure as if someone had put a curse on me for want of a better way of explaining myself and I woke with severe pain several times a night. I know this must sound really crazy but there’s some very evil people out to get me but I flatly refuse to back down but it is more important than ever that we DO Not back down now. So for everyone who wants them dead we MUST fight this bill with tooth and nail with EVERYTHING we have so nobody else has all the meaningful things in their lives such as reading and knitting and making my dolls systematically take away from me. 

Poem by Helen Ryles
Glad to be me

glad to live as i, with all i can do,

glad when i am not in pain or in the blue

glad that i can read in braille

internet friends and exciting tales

inspiring and comforting dots help me through the bleakest spots

glad for my sense of touch

beauty at my fingertips that mean so much.

with a red and white cane i do roam,

feeling land marks to help me get home.

glad for many helping hands

friends who communicate with me to help me make fresh plans.

glad for vegan meals, fast rides, and challanging climbes, and other such activities to help me through hard times.

glad for many comforting dreams.

vegan lovers turn to ever lasting teams,

people who accept me as me,

i dont wish to be molded, i wish to be free.

dreams of being a published writer,

human and animal rights fighter,

journeys to india ireland and usa,

maybe to visit maybe to stay.

when the ghosts have gone, life will be so much fun

I'm glad to live as me, deafblind vegan and always will be.

Photo Creations by Helen Ryles (from a fantasy novel project now in progress)
 

Friday, March 14, 2025

Update on Assisted Suicide bills in Britain, Scotland and Ireland.

Join the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and the Care Not Killing Alliance for a Zoom event on Thursday March 20 at 3pm ET (Toronto Time) (note changed to 3 pm).

Register for the Zoom event in advance (Registration Link).

Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and Dr Gordon Macdonald, CEO for the Care Not Killing Alliance will provide an update on the assisted suicide bills and debate in Britain, Scotland and Ireland.

Dr Gordon Macdonald
Dr Gordon Macdonald will provide an overview of the current debate concerning the Leadbeater bill that proposes to legalize assisted suicide in England and Wales, the McArthur bill that proposes to legalize assisted suicide in Scotland and the debate in Ireland.

Macdonald and Schadenberg will also discuss the assisted suicide bills in the Isle of Man and Jersey.

Dr Macdonald has led the Care Not Killing Alliance for many years. He works with groups and individuals from multiple points of view.

We will make time for questions and answers at the end.

Register for the Zoom event in advance (Registration Link).

Do we know enough about euthanasia drugs?

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Manuela Callari reported in an article published by Medscape on March 13, 2025 that we don't know enough about assisted dying drugs. Callari interviewed several physicians who are doing euthanasia and a doctor who does palliative care research.

Callari begins the article by stating:

The medical community is accustomed to rigorous standards for drug development and approval. But in the context of assisted dying, there is a surprising and persisting lack of robust scientific data.

Steven Pleiter
Callari interviews Steven Pleiter the former managing director of the Dutch Center of Expertise for Euthanasia (Euthanasia clinic) who states:

“It’s very hard to do scientific research with regard to the usage of drugs for euthanasia. If you apply euthanasia, you want to be successful, and you can’t use any other drugs than the drugs we know work,”

“But the evidence is based on years and years of experience.”

Claud Regnard, MD, a retired palliative medicine consultant in the United Kingdom told Callari that:

“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.”

Dr Claud Regnard
Callari reported that unlike other areas of medicine, assisted dying has largely escaped rigorous scientific evaluation. He reported Regnard as stating:

“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.

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.”

Collari explained that:

Euthanasia is when a doctor directly ends the life of a patient, while assisted dying is when a doctor provides the means for them to end their own life.
(Collari should use the term assisted suicide rather than assisted dying. Assisted dying is often used for both euthanasia and assisted suicide.)

Collari reported Regnard as stating:

He said most jurisdictions, like Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, and Australia, do not systematically collect or publish data on assisted dying drug efficacy, mechanisms, and complications. “Oregon is the only jurisdiction providing some transparency, but even their data is severely incomplete,”

Collari continues:

The Netherlands, one of the first European countries to legalize euthanasia and assisted dying, has developed guidelines on their implementation, now in their third edition.

Pleiter explains how euthanasia is done in the Netherlands:

For euthanasia, the standard Dutch protocol involves an initial injection of thiopental or propofol at doses several times higher than those used in general anesthesia to induce a deep coma. This is followed by administering a neuromuscular blocking agent such as rocuronium, atracurium, or cisatracurium in doses sufficient to cause complete paralysis and eventual death. “Most people die after the coma-inducing drug because it’s such a high dose,”  

“The patient will die within seconds. It’s very rapid.”

We know that the patient does not die within seconds in Oregon, where the Oregon 2023 assisted suicide report indicates that the longest time of death in 2023 was 137 hours. Collari then explains how assisted suicide is done in Switzerland

In Switzerland, a commonly used drug is the fast-acting barbiturate sodium pentobarbital, according to documentation provided by Dignitas to Medscape Medical News. This is usually taken orally or, in some cases, via a gastric tube or intravenously. The documentation did not include specific data on this drug’s efficacy or complication rates. Dignitas declined a request for an interview.

None of these drugs are approved for euthanasia and there is no standardized protocol. Regnard explains:

There is no standardized global approach to drug selection and dosing for either euthanasia or assisted dying, and the process is mainly empirical. “There isn’t a single drug regulatory authority anywhere in the world that has assessed and approved assisted dying drugs [in the doses required for this purpose],”

Instead, these medications are approved for indications such as anesthesia or epilepsy, and their use in euthanasia or assisted dying falls under off-label prescribing. Physicians rely on guidelines established by medical associations, expert committees, and historical clinical practice for their use.

Since Oregon is the only jurisdiction that collects data on the use of assisted dying drug coctails, Regnard provides an analysis of the Oregon data:

In a 2023 report from the US state of Oregon, 74% of complication data were missing. Of the available data, 9%-11% of patients experienced complications, including vomiting, aspiration, agitation, and seizures. “In some cases, patients regained consciousness after ingesting a lethal dose,” he said.

The time to death also varies widely — from minutes to several hours. Factors such as the specific drugs used, the route of administration, and individual patient factors can all play a role. In some cases, death may occur rapidly, while in others it may take longer. This variability can be distressing for both the patient and their loved ones, particularly if they expect a swift and peaceful death, he argued.

Article: Death by assisted suicide is not what you think it is. (Link).

Pleiter agrees that the evidence concerning the safe use of these drugs and  evidence concerning complications is anecdotal. Pleiter's comments actually reinforce the research by Regnard. Regnard continues by pointing out that:

The lack of reliable data also raises concerns about informed consent. Patients are often reassured that their death will be peaceful, but without comprehensive studies, how can such promises be guaranteed?

Regnard asks:

“How can you get informed consent from a patient when the data isn’t there?”

“Until they produce the data, the data is purely anecdotal. We wouldn’t tolerate that level of uncertainty in palliative care, so why are we tolerating it here?”

Collari reports that Pleiter argued that, based on experience, the Dutch protocols work:

Pleiter noted that euthanasia has been practiced in the Netherlands for two decades, with consistent guidelines that have undergone only minor revisions. More than 100,000 patients have undergone the procedure using these established protocols. The core drug dosages have remained mostly unchanged. “When the correct drugs are administered at the right doses, there are no issues, and the outcome is always certain,” he said. Having overseen almost 5000 cases, Pleiter said he has never encountered complications.

But Mario Riccio, MD, a retired anesthetist, current advisor of the Luca Coscioni Association, an assisted dying group in Italy told Collari

“Even with precautions, the process is not always smooth. There can be moments of discomfort and unexpected reactions — things we simply cannot control. But for someone whose suffering is so excruciating that he is determined to die, minor complications are completely surmountable.”

Clearly there is no evidence concerning the use of euthanasia and assisted suicide poison coctails. 

Links to more articles on this topic:

  • Death by assisted suicide is not what you think it is (Link). 
  • Assisted suicide: Proceed with caution (Link). 
  • Assisted suicide is the wrong prescription (Link). 
  • Assisted suicide. It's not that simple (Link). 
  • Assisted suicide deaths are not what you think they are (Link). 
  • Assisted suicide is neither painless nor dignified (Link).

Thursday, March 13, 2025

Japan: Conviction upheld in assisted death.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Mainichi Japan news reported on March 13 that the 30 month sentence in the assisted death of a person with ALS has been upheld by the Osaka High Court. The report states:

Naoki Yamamoto, 47, was found guilty by the Kyoto District Court of conspiring with a fellow doctor to administer a lethal dose of a sedative to Yuri Hayashi, 51, in her Kyoto apartment on Nov. 30, 2019, at her request. ALS is a progressive neurological condition for which there is currently no cure or treatment.

The other doctor, Yoshikazu Okubo, 46, is currently appealing his 18-year prison sentence on the same charge.

Euthanasia is not legally recognized in Japan.

The presiding judge Yuko Tsuboi found that Yamamoto played a lesser role in the death but that he understood the nature of the crime. The report states:

Tsuboi also criticized Yamamoto for "showing an extreme disregard for human life," given that he accepted 1.3 million yen ($9,000) from Hayashi as a fee and carried out the crime shortly after their first meeting.

During the appeal, Yamamoto's defense continued to argue for an acquittal, claiming it was factually incorrect that he conspired with Okubo.


Yamamoto was previously convicted of murdering his 77-year-old father in 2011 by unspecified means, for which he has been sentenced to 13 years in prison.
Previous article on this story:
  • Two Japanese doctors charged in the assisted death of a woman with ALS (Link).

Persons with disabilities have sought access to medical assistance in dying due to unmet needs: the Canadian “false choice”

This article was published by Vivre Dans La Dignité on March 12, 2025.

Montreal, March 12, 2025 – On March 10 and 11 in Geneva (Switzerland), the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities examined the report submitted by Canada under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

As this review is flying under the media radar due to current events, the Living with Dignity citizen network would like to highlight some of the interventions of the United Nations experts addressing medical assistance in dying as well as recommendations from Canadian groups participating in the study.


"A False Choice"

The official meeting summary of the United Nations Information Service includes a quote from Ms. Rosemary Kayess, Vice-Chairperson, UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Australia) and Leader of the Taskforce for Canada: «it was concerning that persons with disabilities sought access to medical assistance in dying due to unmet needs, which was a systemic failure of the State party.  The disproportionate impact of these failures, which included poverty, and a lack of access to employment and services, underpinned the so-called choice for seeking medical assistance in dying as an alternative. How was this not State-sanctioned euthanasia?  If choice was the trigger, why was there not also a focus on addressing the support that person needed, which would take them away from social isolation where they perceived dying as the only option they had? ». She also added « For me, it is still a false choice.»

Ms. Kayess went so far as to add during the discussions “Do you not see this as a step back into state-sanctioned eugenics programmes”?

As is too often the case during these reviews, the answers of the Canadian delegation were often prepared in advance and did not appear to satisfy the experts. « The dialogue would have been more fruitful if there was less reliance on prepared statements which frequently did not answer the Committee’s questions. » according to Mr. Markus Schefer, committee expert and taskforce member, who, at the start of the second day, had to remind the delegation to avoid “canned answers”.

Recommendations from Canadian groups

Living in Dignity supports these recommendations made by more than 50 organizations (several of which were in Geneva) in the Civil Society Parallel Report for Canada:

   Repeal Track Two MAiD;

  Repeal the legal provisions which will make Track Two MAiD available to people with a mental illness as their sole underlying medical condition in March 2027.

As Inclusion Canada pointed out in a press release issued on Monday, several organizations defending the rights of persons with disabilities, as well as individuals, have challenged Canada’s expanded MAiD laws by launching a legal Charter challenge in the Ontario Superior Court.

Living with Dignity would also like to highlight this recommendation from the Canadian Human Rights Commission:

Recommendation #3: That before taking further action on its expansion, Canada conduct a critical and thorough examination of what has happened since the coming into force of MAiD legislation, including by collecting the evidence and testimony necessary so that there is a clear understanding of who is accessing MAiD and why, and by ensuring that the experiences and concerns of those who are most marginalized are listened to, valued and addressed.”

The recommendations of several other groups deserve your attention, including those of the Assembly of First Nations, the Environmental Health Associations of Canada and Québec and the Feminist Alliance for International Action.

All these recommendations are available in the reports posted on this page, as are those of the Canadian delegation, which we invite you to read and analyze. The Parallel Report of Civil Society for Canada can be found under the name of one of the signatories, ARCH Disability Law Centre.

Next step? The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will publish its concluding observations on March 21 (end of its current session).

To review all of the Committee’s exchanges with the Canadian delegation this week (two three-hour sessions):

Media contact:

Jasmin Lemieux-Lefebvre
Coordinator
Living with Dignity citizen network
www.vivredignite.org/en
info@vivredignite.org
438-931-1233

Maryland assisted suicide bill appears to be dead again.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

I was cleaning up emails when I came upon an important article by Jack Hogan that was published in the Maryland Daily Record on March 3, 2025.

The Maryland legislature has debated bills to legalize assisted suicide on a nearly annual basis since 2015. According to Hogan, this year's assisted suicide Bill (HB 1328/SB 926) appears to, once again, lack support in the Senate. Hogan wrote:
Hours before the Maryland House of Delegates on Monday revived a perennial debate over whether to legalize medical aid in dying, state senators canceled a hearing on the bill, appearing to forgo the debate in their chamber and all but guaranteeing that the measure won’t have a serious chance of becoming law until after the next election cycle.

Aid-in-dying advocates and at least one top House member were initially under the impression that Judicial Proceedings Committee Chair Will Smith would reschedule the canceled hearing, which was planned for Wednesday.

But top senators didn’t have plans to reschedule, and House Majority Leader David Moon wrote in a text message that he heard the bill was dead in the Senate.
In 2019, the Maryland assisted suicide bill passed in the House by a vote of 74 to 66 but failed in the Senate by a tie vote of 23 to 23.

According to Hogan, since the Senate does not appear to support the assisted suicide bill that it will not be considered in Maryland again until 2026.

Wednesday, March 12, 2025

Franchising Death (MAiDHouse)

This article was written by Kelsi Sheren and published on her substack on March 12, 2025

MAiDHouse is a euthanasia clinic that started in Toronto and are now establishing MAiDHouse "franchises".

MAiD Houses, looking for a recession proof way to profit? Why not death?


Kelsi Sheren
By Kelsi Sheren

MAiDHouse is not healthcare—it's death care. Under the polished, sanitized branding of "compassion" and "choice," what we really have is a killing house with two convenient Canadian locations, Toronto and Victoria. This place exists solely to profit from the despair, isolation, and vulnerabilities of those at their weakest moments.

Let's strip away the comforting language and face the reality: MAiDHouse is actively marketing death to a population already drowning in pain, loneliness, and neglect. By using slick websites, carefully curated newsletters, and targeted outreach to platforms frequented by caregivers, medical professionals, social workers, and even influencers on LinkedIn and other online communities, they're dangling a deadly carrot—wrapped conveniently as "information"—in front of people who desperately need genuine support, community, medical intervention, and psychological care, not assisted suicide.

Their own annual report reveals the extent of their grim enterprise. "What an incredible year it has been for MAiDHouse in 2023! After opening the doors at our new space in 2022, the number of individuals using our space for a MAiD procedure doubled in 2023. That is astounding progress for such a young organization, and reflects the commitment and resolve of our executive director, Tekla Hendrickson, in ensuring MAiDHouse will always be available to serve anyone who needs us, when they need us. One of the things that makes me most proud to be involved in MAiDHouse is the across- the-board positive reaction from those who use our space – whether it be the individuals choosing MAiD, their friends and family, or providers. During a time that is incredibly personal, vulnerable and full of emotion, they still take the time to thank us for the compassionate and competent support they receive; they tell us how much they love our space – its artwork, its comforts, its overall ambiance; they express gratitude for the service MAiDHouse provides." 2023 Annual Report MAiD House. Every individual they "serve" isn't simply guided compassionately to the end of life; they're methodically funneled toward death, carefully recorded as another statistic, another "success story" for their marketing materials. The morally bankrupt justification of providing dignity masks the reality: this is a facility designed not to heal, not to comfort, but to eliminate burdens. By normalizing the idea that one's suffering can simply vanish at the push of a needle, it dangerously opens the door for families overwhelmed by caregiving responsibilities, subtly incentivizing them toward the expedient and cost-saving solution of choosing death over care.

This sinister enterprise exploits the gaping holes in our social safety nets, preying mercilessly on those already abandoned by inadequate healthcare systems, systemic poverty, chronic illness, mental health challenges, and societal neglect. It's not compassion to offer death when society has catastrophically failed in offering meaningful life-affirming alternatives. It is coercion masked as freedom; it is despair presented as liberation. Make no mistake this is seen as abuse—plain and simple. MAiDHouse does not only facilitate this abuse; it actively profits and thrives on it.

Furthermore, by promoting their services to medical professionals and social workers, they insert themselves insidiously into trusted networks. Their marketing subtly reshapes how caregivers view the sanctity and value of human life, pushing a narrative that frames assisted dying as not merely acceptable but preferable, even admirable. The ethical erosion this generates is immeasurable, reshaping societal attitudes to regard life as disposable, contingent on convenience rather than dignity and intrinsic worth.

We must face the uncomfortable truth head-on: MAiDHouse is not about mercy or dignity; it is about convenience, economics, and a profoundly disturbing disregard for human life wrapped in a carefully constructed ethical cloak. This isn't a humane service; it's a cold, calculated, profitable business model that thrives on despair. No civilized society should ever justify or normalize such a practice. MAiDHouse doesn't belong anywhere near the realm of healthcare—it belongs in the category of predatory enterprises we expose, dismantle, and categorically reject outright.

Previous articles by Kelsi Sheren:

  • Let's call MAiD what it is: Homicide (Link). 
  • The death cult of the euthanasia lobby. A rebuttal (Link). 
  • UK veteran in crisis illegally offered assisted suicide (Link).

Louisiana Judge temporarily prevents death by Nitrogen gas.

Alex Schadenberg
Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Erik Ortiz reported for NBC news on March 11, 2025 that Chief U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick of the Middle Louisiana District temporarily blocked Louisiana's first execution in 15 years after lawyers for the condemned man argued a new method known as nitrogen hypoxia would violate his constitutional rights.

Jessie Hoffman Jr. who was convicted of rape and murder, was scheduled to die by execution on March 18 with the use of nitrogen gas. Hoffman stated that the use of a mask to deliver only nitrogen gas, depriving him of oxygen, "substantially burdens" his ability to engage in his Buddhist breathing practices and creates "superadded pain and suffering."

Dr. Philip Bickler, the chief of neuro-anesthesia at the University of California, San Francisco, testified that the sensation nitrogen hypoxia provides is "very similar to drowning."

"I think for someone like Mr. Hoffman, nitrogen asphyxiation would be a particularly horrible method, a really inhumane choice for an individual who has a history of PTSD," Bickler said.

Judge Dick decided that:

"The public has paramount interest in a legal process that enables thoughtful and well-informed deliberations, particularly when the ultimate fundamental right, the right to life, is placed in the government's hands," she wrote.

She said Hoffman cannot be executed until his claims are "decided after a trial on the merits and a final judgment is issued."

Why is this important to the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition?

Last September, long-time euthanasia activist, Philip Nitschke, carried out the first assisted suicide death using his Sarco Pod in Switzerland.

The Sarco Suicide Pod is sold to the public as an easy and pain free death. The Sarco is designed in a sleek manner to make it seem like a fashionable way to die. The Sarco pod causes death by releasing Nitrogen gas resulting in death within several minutes.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) , who support assisted suicide, described the death of Kenneth Smith, who died by Nitrogen gas, as a:

method that constitutes torture, violating international human rights treaties ratified by the U.S.
The ACLU then stated:

Veterinary scientists, who have carried out laboratory studies on animals, have even largely ruled nitrogen gas out as a euthanasia method due to ethical concerns. Authorities in the U.S. and Europe have issued guidelines discouraging its use for most mammals, citing potential distress, panic, and seizure-like behavior.
Death by Nitrogen gas is not acceptable for animals and is defined as a method that constitutes torture and yet Nitschke described the death as looking exactly as expected.