Vancouver doctor euthanized a man who was deemed unable to consent.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Ellen Wiebe

An article by Alexander Raikin published by The New Atlantic last December tells a story of Ellen Wiebe, who runs a euthanasia clinic in Vancouver. This part of the article refers to the fact that Canada's euthanasia law allows death doctor shopping and virtual approvals for death. Raikin wrote:

What if a doctor dutifully screens for eligibility, and rejects someone? Then the person can just go elsewhere.

In another CAMAP seminar recording, we learn of a man who was rejected for MAID because, as assessors found, he did not have a serious illness or the “capacity to make informed decisions about his own personal health.” One assessor concluded “it is very clear that he does not qualify.” But Dying with Dignity Canada connected him with Ellen Wiebe (pronounced “weeb”), a prominent euthanasia provider and advocate in Vancouver. She assessed him virtually, found him eligible, and found a second assessor to agree. “And he flew all by himself to Vancouver,” she said. “I picked him up at the airport, um, brought him to my clinic and provided for him,” meaning she euthanized him.

Raikin then reminds us that Wiebe has stated during public speaking this is “the most rewarding work we’ve ever done.” 

Killing a person who is deemed incompetent is the most rewarding work she has ever done?

Wiebe's long distance killing came back to mind when I published a commentary on the recent article by Erin Anderssen published by the Globe and Mail on January 18 concerns the experience of several families as they grieve the death of family members who died by euthanasia.

Anderssen shares the story of an Ontario woman who was approved for euthanasia in British Columbia without her family knowing. Anderssen wrote:

In Ontario, for instance, a father learned this fall that his adult daughter was being assessed for MAID when she forwarded an e-mail from a B.C. doctor proposing that she travel west to complete the process. By then a plane ticket had already been booked for November. Her parents, who had been caring for her since she was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a young woman, were distraught.

The father, whom The Globe and Mail is not identifying to protect his daughter’s privacy and his relationship with her, says he’d watched, over many months, as MAID consumed his daughter’s day; she pored over how-to information online.

His daughter’s life is not easy, he conceded in an interview. Her mental illness causes fearsome bouts of anger, she spends most of her time alone, and she is plagued by delusions that she is rotting inside from a terminal physical illness.

But certainly, he didn’t think she’d be eligible for an assisted death. While she has some physical health issues, he could not imagine they were serious enough to qualify for MAID....

So it was unfathomable, he says, that a physician was counselling his daughter, who suffers from psychosis, to travel alone halfway across the country. Or that two MAID assessors might approve her without insisting on input from her treating psychiatrist or family doctor. Yet the e-mail suggested an expeditious outcome: If she could get to B.C. – where ostensibly a physical illness might make her eligible – she could qualify within weeks.

The father doesn’t know what illness his daughter used to apply, and was not privy to all the discussions with the MAID clinician. But in the end, the parents managed to persuade their daughter to cancel the plane ticket.

There is no indication in the article that Ellen Wiebe in Vancouver was involved with this case but Wiebe admits to approving euthanasia online and picking up that person at the airport for being killed.

 

Remember, the case that Anderssen is writing about concerned a woman with schizophrenia. Wiebe approved her death even though parliament has a moratorium on euthanasia for mental illness.

Wiebe was the same doctor who lethally injected a man who was living in a Jewish care home with a "no euthanasia" policy.

 

Wiebe admitted last year that she had killed at least 400 people by euthanasia.