Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
In March CTV News reported that Roger Foley, who lives with cerebellar ataxia, a degenerative neurological condition, has launched a lawsuit naming the London Health Sciences Centre and the Southwest Regional LHIN, stating that they are offering him assisted death (MAiD) but they are not willing to provide him with an assisted life.
Sign the petition: I support Roger Foley's plea for an assisted life not assisted death (Link).
C
TV News has reported that Roger Foley released two audio recordings of medical staff at London Health Sciences Centre urging him to die by assisted death (euthanasia) rather than enable him to receive assistance to live. CTV news reports:
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| Roger Foley |
In one audio recording from September 2017, Foley is heard speaking to a man about what he has described as attempts at a “forced discharge,” with threats of a hefty hospital bill.
When Foley asks the man how much he’d have to pay to remain in hospital, the man replies, “I don’t know what the exact number is, but it is north of $1,500 a day.”
...The man is heard saying that the hospital does not use “this conversation in every situation.”
“It is only in situations where somebody has a plan in the community that is feasible that they’re not going to accept and that’s OK,” the man says.
Foley then says that he hasn’t been informed of a plan for his care and that his rights as a patient are being violated.
“You have already violated my preferences…So what is the plan that you know of?” Foley asks the man.
“Roger, this is not my show,” the man replies. “I told you my piece of this was to talk to you about if you had interest in assisted dying.”The CTV news report also aired the conversation in a second recording from January 2018:
The man is then heard telling Foley that he can “just apply to get an assisted, if you want to end your life, like you know what I mean?”
When Foley says that he is being forced to end his life, the man protests and says that’s not the case.
“Oh, no, no, no,” the man is heard saying. “I’m saying if you feel that way…You know what I mean? Don’t get me wrong. I’m saying I don’t want you to be in here and wanting to take your life.”
Candice Lewis
Please sign the petition: I support Roger Foley's plea for an assisted life not assisted death (Link).
Candice Lewis, from Newfoundland, was also pressured to ask for an assisted death in August 2016. Candice and Roger deserve our support.
6 comments:
All about "choice" until you make the one that they don't agree with....
To me, at least, the oblique and possibly underhanded way in which the man is speaking to Mr Foley suggests that there is something seriously amiss here, and very likely also illegal. Just my view.
This is horrifying. And it is not the first time I have heard of it. I am grateful that Mr. Foley has taken steps to provide some evidence.
One friend of mine whose husband had a neurological condition had a similar conversation presented by a Doctor on the midnight shift at a hospital in York Region. Another friend with cancer was approached by two doctors, while he was in hospital for an emergency after his treatment. He chased them away with words to the effect that he would not leave this world until his Maker came for him and that they should never bring up this conversation again. This occurred in another York Region hospital. Both instances took place in 2017.
In one part of the audio as released by CTV on Thursday Aug 02, 2018, one other unidentified doctor is heard as saying, "Do you feel like you are going to harm yourself?"
Let's review. Foley is essentially bedridden. He can't get out of bed without assistance. He therefore can't move independently for himself. Not only this, but everything around him is regulated and controlled. That means he can't just reach into a random cabinet and pull out a handful of pills. (We hope). That also means his movements are tracked and controlled.
How could Foley do harm to himself in these conditions of enforced dependency, **unless the organization and its representatives were deliberately negligent?** The question: Do you feel like you're going to harm yourself is therefore a smokescreening by the organization so they can cover themselves. If anything goes wrong, the organization can now claim Foley was "in mental distress" and therefore they couldn't do anything to 'help' him.
If he were very obviously suicidal such a conversation might have a compassionate context but as it is, it just sounds like inhumane corporate greed.
So if he were to commit suicide it would be tragic, but if medical staff were to murder him it would be compassionate?
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