Sunday, March 17, 2013

Media Release: EPC wants BC Court of Appeal to reverse errors in assisted court decision.


Media Release - March 17, 2013

EPC wants BC Court of Appeal to reverse errors in assisted court decision.

Norman Kunc
The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC), an intervener in the assisted suicide case at the BC Court of Appeal, is asking the BC Court of Appeal to reverse the errors in the Carter decision concerning assisted suicide and euthanasia.

Norman Kunc, a long-time disability rights activist will be speaking out against assisted suicide at the Monday morning courthouse demonstration. 

Kunc who has cerebral palsy will share his story and his perspective on behalf of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, and explain why 2012's Carter case will harm citizens with disabilities.

EPC Vice President, Dr Margaret Cottle, who specializes in palliative care stated: 
“Legalizing euthanasia or assisted suicide would give doctors the power over life and death. I am concerned about patient safety.” "Elder abuse is already difficult to detect and would be no easier to combat when a suicide offer is part of the culture of care for a vulnerable older person. Giving legal immunity to those who would provide suicide does not make our loved ones safer."
EPC legal counsel, Hugh Scher stated: 
“EPC is concerned about the safety, security and equality of people with disabilities and seniors which is central to the protections set out under our Charter of Rights and Freedoms and our Criminal Code.”
 EPC Executive Director, Alex Schadenberg, stated: 
“the Carter decision erred in several significant areas … the judge came to her decision by falsely assuming that there is a ‘right to suicide’ in Canada.” 
Schadenberg further explained: “the Carter decision misinterpreted the data from other jurisdictions that legalized assisted death when it suggested that there is no significant risk to vulnerable patient groups. A recent study found that 32% of all assisted deaths in Belgium were done without request. The study revealed that incompetent people who are over the age of 80 are vulnerable to dying by an assisted death without request.”
For more information, contact:
Norman Kunc, disability leader: (604) 366-6263, ndkunc@gmail.com
Dr Margaret Cottle, EPC Vice President (604) 813-8665, mmcottle@mac.com
Hugh Scher, EPC Legal Counsel: (416) 816-6115, hugh@sdlaw.ca
Alex Schadenberg, EPC Executive Director: (519) 851-1434, info@epcc.ca
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1 comment:

  1. UnknownMarch 18, 2013 at 9:22 AM

    My father's doctor went to Court to ask permission that he would be starved and dehydrated to death. This was done after the Hospital turned my father into a paraplegic and then into a quadriplegic and after they knew my father did not wish to die and that his family did not wish for him to die and after I had power of attorney to speak on his behalf if or when he was not capable to do it for himself which I did. Nothing and no one was able to save my father from the death his doctor had planned for him. The doctor deliberately lied in court when he said my father was persistently vegetative. The tests from the Hospital demonstrate he was not but the Court gave the permission wrongly to have my father put to death. He was not only denied his right to life and security but when I appealed this wrong decision of the Court, the Hospital asked for the appeal to be mooted because my father was dead and their Motion was allowed by the Court of Appeal. In other words the man dies as a result of the wrong decision of the Court permitting the doctor to dispose of his patient based on a lie and the patient's right to justice gets denied because he died as a result of a wrong sentence. The decision to allow doctors to euthanize their patients without any form of legal process, be it as rigged and faulty as it may, euthanasia as a routine Hospital procedure will soon turn into euthanasia as a system to rid Hospitals of undesirable patients, difficult cases, patients who were damaged by the doctors or patients whose handicap or illness interferes with the spending policies of that Hospital. Euthanasia is a slippery slope towards legalized murder. I have first hand knowledge of that. I have personally witnessed it.

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