Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
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| Tyler Dunlop |
Greg McGrath-Goudie wrote an article published by Orillia Matters on January 23, 2023 about Tyler Dunlop (37), a homeless man seeking to die by euthanasia in Canada. McGrath-Goudie reports:
One man from Orillia... has begun the MAID process for an entirely separate set of reasons. Due to what he sees as the state of the world, along with his circumstances and growing frustration with his lived experience, Tyler Dunlop says he simply sees no benefit in carrying on.
The 37-year-old has experienced homelessness on and off for the past 12 years, and he recently began the MAID process with a trip to Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital.
His resolve to seek out MAID is so strong he refused the hospital’s offer to admit him for a psychiatric assessment.
“I refused services to get my point across. I refused shelter, shower, food,” Dunlop said. “They were going to give it to me, but if I did that, they would know that I'm just a homeless guy.”
Dunlop’s current battle with homelessness began in June 2022, when he found his roommate – and work supervisor – dead inside their apartment.
The landlord gave him five days to move out, Dunlop said, and he’s been on the streets, struggling to get back on his feet ever since.
Dunlop explains that social isolation is the worst feeling.
“The worst feeling is social isolation. People don't talk to you. They avoid you. They think you want something,” Dunlop told OrilliaMatters.
“The situation is getting so unbearable,” he said. “When I read about medically assisted dying I thought, well, logistically, I really don't have a future.”
Dunlop tells McGrath-Goudie that he thinks he will be approved to die based on "equality":
“There's just no direction, no aid. There's no incentive to keep living and contribute to society at all,” he said. “I looked at my future and I said, ‘What am I going to be in the next 10 years?’ Same thing: wandering around homeless.”Dunlop says that he doesn't want to die, but he feels that there is no hope.
MAID was originally set to be available for mental illness purposes beginning March 17, 2023. However, in December, the federal government announced plans to temporarily delay this date.
Dunlop hopes to successfully pursue this path as an issue of “equality."
Despite his wishes, Dunlop said he sometimes daydreams about having a wife and a child.The article ends by stating that 235,000 people live with homelessness in Canada.
If he had safe, stable housing, if he saw any hope of escaping his situation and helping others, he said he would give life another chance, but he does not have that hope for himself.
“If I can help people, well, that's good enough reason to stay, but I feel useless. That's why I want to do this: I'm hurting people. I'm hurting myself. I'm hurting society,” he said.
“This isn't self-pity and self-loathing – I'm seriously using up too much emergency services. Failure is consistent and I'm trying to get out of this hamster wheel, and I can't do it.”
In order to proceed with MAID, Dunlop said he has to get two signatures from two different psychiatrists. He said he has his first appointment on Jan. 31.
Sadly this is not the first case of euthanasia based on homelessness. Several months ago a man in the Niagara region also sought euthanasia for homelessness. Hopefully Tyler Dunlop will find help to live.
Links to more stories of the euthanasia experience in Canada:
- No other options: An exposé on euthanasia in Canada (Link).
- Toronto Star: We need to put the brakes on euthanasia (Link).
- Globe and Mail: No to euthanasia for mental disorders (Link).
- Veterans affairs worker advocates euthanasia for PTSD (Link).
- Canadian man claims that he was pressured to request euthanasia (Link).
- Why did they kill my brother (Link).
- Manitoba woman died by euthanasia based on inadequate home care (Link).
- Quebec man seeks euthanasia based on changes to home care (Link).
- Alberta man requests euthanasia based on poverty (Link).
- Ontario man approved for euthanasia because he can't get medical treatment (Link).
- Shopping for doctor death in Canada (Link).
- Gwen is seeking euthanasia because she can't access medical treatment (Link).
- Euthanasia for disability and poverty (Link).
- Euthanasia for Long Covid and poverty (Link).
- Canada's MAiD law is the most permissive in the world. (Link).
12 comments:
One of things I'm always curious about when I read these unbelievably sad stories -- do these people not have family that can help them? I mean, who would let one of their own suffer like this? Of course, I don't know all the circumstances concerning Mr. Dunlop but if there's even a chance that he has family??? If that doesn't work, what about a Christian organization? The Sisters of Charity? The Sisters for Life? I know Mission Services in Hamilton does excellent work with people. They give hope to the hopeless. I know he's in Orillia but maybe he can himself to Hamilton on a bus? To take your life because you are poor. So tragic. Bell Let's talk. Maybe some of that money can help him.
This is a great point Charlene. Sadly homelessness is becoming more prevalent. Some of the people who experience homelessness and despair have loving families who would welcome them while many of these people have other serious factors, such as addiction, mental illness and other serious social problems.
I would hope that someone like Tyler Dunlop will find help from family or friends, or that he becomes open to help from others. Life can be very difficult when one lives alone.
Thanks Alex. Although it may seem harsh to say maybe the government should mandate that people in these dire situations, with loving families, have to go and live with their family and journey to wellness together. Closer families, less burden on the "system" and though initially very hard, the outcome could be miraculous. I hear what you say about the complexities of homelessness -- especially addiction. God bless.
I have worked with House the Homeless in Austin, TX since 1992. House the Homeless never makes people feel like just homeless person. Austin has a terrific art program for persons experience houseless ness. I have been homeless and this is one organization that I could guarante would help this guy get some hope. Would it be possible for me to talk to this guy. At one time I was suicidal too. But that all changed when I started working with House the Homeless because that organization views everyone they help as a friend. I also saw that he became homeless when he found his friend dead. That can be an awful experience. I just wish I could talk to this guy. Would he be willing to do that talk to me? Anyway, this is one of the roughest situations I have seen in a long time. And it is scary. Scary because I am concerned this possibility will enter Austin and where I now live, my home town Norfolk, NE.
I agree with Charlene. Families should struggle for them and not let them die because are too much of a burden.
There are definitely glimmers of hope in what Tyler wrote and I pray that we can all pull together and help him to manifest a positive outcome in his ongoing challenge. Hopefully, through his crucible of suffering, the attention will instigate increased services and outreach for all homeless people, much needed. The government spends billions of dollars on weapons instead of caring for the poor which is ludicrous... Being Catholic, of course, I pray that Tyler will seek Help from Jesus, our Lord and Creator, Who Is Truly Physically Present in the Blessed Sacrament, the Living Bread, in every Tabernacle of every Catholic Church! Jesus, Whose Holy Name literally means "GodSaves" because He Does, can give him the grace that he needs to overcome these problems if he is willing to turn to Him. For instance, in a book about St. Brother Andre of Montreal, also known as God's Door Man, it told the story of a man who was in much worse shape than Tyler; this man was bedridden for years and years, barely able to speak or write. He didn't believe in God and wouldn't go to Church despite his wife's pleading. Finally, when he arrived on death's doorstep and a Priest spoke frankly to him about how worried his wife was for his eternal soul and that he wouldn't be able to be buried on consecrated ground... Well, he finally did Confession and immediately recovered fully and he lived happily decades longer with his wife who was so grateful to God! Praise God! The Sacraments are Powerfully Uplifting Gifts.
I used to belong to an organization called RESULTS - Responsibly Ending Starvation Using Legislation, Trim-tabbing and Supports - that has some great ideas if only we can get the grassroots and political will and know-how to eliminate starvation in the world, especially the starvation for love and belonging, which is much more painful than starvation for food... St. Mother Teresa rightly said that starvation for love is the worst kind of poverty that tragically blights the developed nations much more than third world countries... I pray that Tyler's sufferings, if willingly offered up to God, can catalyze humanity to a much greater love, Finally! Please Tyler, hang in there and help us to help you, through the Grace of Jesus, Who Loves you and all of us, Infinitely, and created each one of us to love and be loved, Eternally, we are each of us, invaluable, un-repeatable, precious originals, made for Heaven, if only we can persevere to get there! My son and I have an extra room in our house but I feel certain that you'll get better offers closer to home because you might not be ready for Daily Mass 4x per day on Eternal Word Television Network and many other prayers several times a day! :)
Very sad. Less mandates, but more social programs are needed. People lost in the gap for a host of issues and usually a viscous circle. The govt's spend very unwisely and with just even "some" of the millions of dollars spent on certain ludicrous items/issues - our tax dollars could help dire situations - rehab centers, post rehab getting-back-into-society centres and homes, maybe even the idea of fostering. Shelter is a basic need. Our provinces and country don't spend on the needs of our own people, bec "we don't have any money". Well we could rearrange it - just look at the last couple of years of spending! Instead we will spend on programs like MAID! How do we do this with a bankrupt society otherwise? We all could be only a few steps away from such a situation when u look at our economy. A sad state of affairs! Regular people need to understand the situations and mindsets of the homeless and have more compassion. Perhaps the only good thing about MAID - it will (I hope) bring the issue to attention in the minds and hearts of our populous. We need to say stop to our govt's! Because... these requests are ludicrous! Compassion not equity is the solution. I always try and stop to talk to a homeless person a bit, give something I have. They are lonely. They have a story... can we give them an ear at least? And then - some solutions to get back on track. God bless and I pray for his help.
“I see Jesus in every human being,” said Mother Teresa, “I say to myself, this is hungry Jesus, I must feed him. This is sick Jesus. This one has leprosy or gangrene; I must wash him and tend to him. I serve because I love Jesus.” For Mother Teresa, it was Jesus who inspired her to serve. "Each one of them is Jesus in disguise." In reality, unless we learn to love and respect God and neighbor like St. Mother Teresa, we risk dying as "lukewarm" people, not very loving, and at death "the die is cast" and unless we accept the Love and Mercy of Jesus, it can literally leave us eternally separated from God, Who Is Pure Divine Love and Mercy. It's not wise at all to dive into death unprepared! In some ways, we're all on death row and need to prepare to meet our Maker! I'm praying that Tyler, and anyone else considering euthanasia or suicide, will watch this true story of two men on death row and re-evaluate and turn to God to resolve life's challenges but not to death that can lead to eternal suffering, and that way they can instead find Eternal Life and Everlasting Happiness and Glory! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-Rmg2Z1uTg
Could Mr. Dunlop or someone on his behalf start a GiveSendGo fundraiser and publicize it on some TV channels or online? Maybe through LifeNews.com or LifeSiteNews.
He had some job before he was thrown out of his apartment. If he drives, GiveSendGo could raise enough so, at a minimum, he could get, maintain, and fuel a car so he could get to a job? Otherwise pay a carpooler to take him to the job.
Does Canada have charities that have overnight shelters for a shower, meal, and a bed for the homeless?
Could someone who knows which officials oversee the mercy killing program start a petition through Citizen Go to that official and to legislators to tell him or her and them to rule against killing this man but instead give Mr. Dunlop a hand to solve his problems.
He who saves a life, it as though he has saved the whole world.
Don't know how to do these things but I'll donate and sign.
How can we reach Tyler? There is still hope for him. We can all do something for him no matter small.
Perhaps you have never personally been a care giver to a high needs person. I have. I had the help of my husband and we were both retired. The sheer stress and work load is beyond comprehension.
I agree with you, Anonymous, and know that effectively helping a homeless person or couple requires support! I want to help but in reality couldn't without additional support at this time. But there is a good place to get support from out here called RainCity. I think that they do pretty well at helping people who are facing homelessness and they have a beautiful vision! "a home for every person It's that simple. And that complex. "A home for every person" is a lofty goal. We believe it is 100% achievable and benefits all of us. And we are confident that if we all work together, we can achieve this goal sooner than we ever thought possible. For four decades RainCity Housing has put government funds and generous donor dollars to good use to create, implement, and manage housing and support programs that sustain relationships, strengthen communities and make change for people experiencing homelessness and mental health, trauma and substance use issues, throughout BC's lower mainland. We invite you to be a part of the change." "RainCity Housing is an organization that makes a difference in people’s lives." Please share this with Tyler if you can, hopefully it'll inspire him to hang in there.
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