The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition supports Congressional Resolution (HCR 109) on the Dangers of Assisted Suicide

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition supports Congressional Resolution (HCR 109) on the Dangers of Assisted Suicide as introduced by Rep Brad Wenstrup, D.P.M., (R-OH) and Rep Lou Correa, (D-CA). 

EPC urges Congress to expedite the debate and pass this Resolution.

Link to the full resolution (Link).

Congressional Resolution 109 does the following:

1. It defines the language as to what assisted suicide is as compared to suicide and it reiterates the importance of suicide prevention programs.

2. It recognizes that assisted suicide most directly threatens the lives of people who are elderly, experience depression, have a disability, or are subject to emotional or financial pressure to end their lives;

3. It states that: 

• the Oregon Health Authority's annual reports indicate that pain or the fear of pain is listed second to last (25 percent) among the reasons cited by people seeking assisted suicide drugs since 1998 and the top 5 reasons cited are psychological and social concerns: ‘‘losing autonomy’’ (92 percent), ‘‘less able to engage in activities that make life enjoyable’’ (90 percent), ‘‘loss of dignity’’ (79 percent), ‘‘losing control of bodily functions’’ (48 percent), and ‘‘burden on family friends/caregivers’’ (41 percent);
• the Supreme Court has ruled twice (in Washington v. Glucksberg and Vacco v. Quill) that there is no constitutional right to assisted suicide, that the Government has a legitimate interest in prohibiting assisted suicide, and that such prohibitions rationally relate to ‘‘protecting the vulnerable from coercion’’ and ‘‘protecting disabled and terminally ill people from prejudice, negative and inaccurate stereotypes, and ‘societal indifference’;
• assisted suicide is not a legitimate health care service and that Congress passed, with a nearly unanimous vote, and President Bill Clinton signed the Assisted Suicide Funding Restriction Act to prevent the use of Federal funds for any item or service, including advocacy, provided for the purpose of causing, or assisting in causing, the death of any individual such as by assisted suicide, euthanasia, or mercy killing;

4. It points out that States that authorize assisted suicide:

• do not require that such patients receive psychological screening or treatment, though studies show that the overwhelming majority of patients contemplating suicide experience depression;
• do not require a medical attendant or qualified monitor be present at the time the lethal dose is taken, used, ingested, or administered to intervene in the event of medical complications;
• do not require that a qualified monitor be present to assure that the patient is knowingly and voluntarily taking, using, ingesting, or administering the lethal dose;
• do not prevent family members, heirs, or health care providers from pressuring patients to request assisted suicide;
• use a broad definition of ‘‘terminal disease’’ whereby ‘‘going to die in six months or less’’ includes diseases (such as diabetes or HIV) that, if appropriately treated, would not otherwise result in death within six months and it is extremely difficult even for the most experienced doctors to accurately prognosticate a six-month life expectancy as required, making such a prognosis a prediction, not a certainty;

5. It states that: 

• reporting requirements vary by State, but when required, they rely on prescribing physicians or dispensing pharmacists to self-report; and such reporting is neither conducted by an objective third party nor of sufficient depth and accuracy to effectively monitor the occurrence of assisted suicide. 
• there is an astounding lack of transparency in the practice of assisted suicide to the extent that State health departments and other authorities admittedly have no method of knowing if it is being practised within the bounds of State laws and they have no funding or authority to make such a determination; and some State laws actively conceal assisted suicide by directing the physician to list the cause of death as the underlying condition without reference to death by suicide; 
• based on the confidential nature of end-of-life decisions, it is virtually impossible to effectively monitor a physician’s behavior to prevent abuses, making any number of safeguards insufficient;
• the cost of lethal drugs is far less costly than many life-saving treatments, which threatens to restrict treatment options, especially for disadvantaged and vulnerable persons, as has happened in several known cases and presumably many more unknown in which insurers have denied or delayed coverage for life-saving care while offering to cover assisted suicide;
• access to personal assistance services such as in-home hospice and palliative care, home health care aides, and nursing care or assistance is regretfully limited and subject to long waiting lists in many areas, placing systemic pressure on patients in need of such personal assistance services to resort to assisted suicide; and
• For all these reasons, assisted suicide undermines the integrity of the health care system: 

It concludes:

Now, therefore, be it Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), that it is the sense of Congress that the Federal Government should ensure that every person facing the end of their life have access to the best quality and comprehensive medical care, including palliative, in-home, or hospice care, tailored to their needs and that the Federal Government should not adopt or endorse policies or practices that support, encourage, or facilitate suicide or assisted suicide, whether by physicians or others.

The National Council on Disability: The Danger of Assisted Suicide Laws (Link).

Congressional Resolution (HCR 109) on the Dangers of Assisted Suicide

Reps. Wenstrup and Correa Resolution (HCR 109) on the Dangers of Physician Assisted Suicide in Washington on May 23, 2024 

You can read the full resolution here.

Reps. Brad Wenstrup, D.P.M., (R-OH) and Lou Correa, (D-CA) introduced a resolution “expressing the sense of the Congress that assisted suicide puts everyone, including those most vulnerable, at risk of deadly harm.” 

Rep Brad Wenstrup

In 2019, the National Council on Disability, an independent federal agency that makes policy recommendations to enhance the lives of all Americans with disabilities, released a report titled “The Danger of Assisted Suicide Laws” recommending Congress enact the resolution that Reps. Wenstrup and Correa have introduced in the 116th and 117th Congresses.

“As a physician, I believe physician-assisted suicide fundamentally goes against our duty to ‘first, do no harm’ and puts our nation’s most vulnerable – seniors and individuals with disabilities – at grave risk,” said Rep. Brad Wenstrup, D.P.M. “We must not lose sight of the undeniable fact that every life has intrinsic value and is worth protecting.”

Rep Lou Correa

“Americans with disabilities deserve access to quality health care and should be given every opportunity available to live quality, dignified lives,” said Rep. Lou Correa. “Our most vulnerable deserve the same access to suicide prevention care and all health care as anyone else. There is so much more work to do to ensure that we’re properly addressing the mental health crisis in our communities–and we cannot stop delivering resources directly to those who need it most in our neighborhoods.” 

Rep Greg Murphy

“Rather than support and facilitate access to physician-assisted suicide, we should prioritize expanding accessibility to palliative and hospice care to maximize the quality of life for patients experiencing excessive pain,” said Rep. Greg Murphy. “As a practicing physician for more than 30 years, I have dedicated my career to saving lives and comforting my patients. Assisted suicide is unethical and vulnerable individuals must be protected, especially when there are alternative options available.” 

Rep Chris Smith

“Our focus should be on killing pain instead of making it easier to kill people,” said Rep. Chris Smith. “When a society singles out the weakest and most vulnerable patients as candidates for physician-assisted suicide, it denies the value of their lives, undermines their dignity, and rejects their needs, including their need for the best possible palliative care.” 

Matt Valliére

“In today’s political environment, when something has bi-partisan support, that means something. So, we commend Congressmen Lou Correa (D-CA), Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), and all the cosponsors for their effort to gain support for and introduce this bi-partisan Sense of Congress resolution which highlights the inherently discriminatory nature of assisted suicide laws. None other than the National Council on Disability, which is charged by the federal government to make policy recommendations for the disability community, issued a recent report that found that people living with disabilities are targeted for disfavored, deadly treatment and face greater barriers to accessing health care when assisted suicide is legal. Our country has a responsibility to ensure that vulnerable people enjoy the same access to suicide prevention care and all health care as everyone else. We encourage lawmakers to come together and support this resolution that exposes the dangers of assisted suicide,” said Matt Vallière, Executive Director, Patients Rights Action Fund. 

Vincenzo Piscopo

“Quadriplegics struggling to live in the community, faced with housing, financial, and transportation problems, and the constant struggle to obtain adequate homecare and coverage of mobility equipment from government and insurers, are often overwhelmed and depressed. Just after spinal cord injury or other significant disability, grief regarding loss of physical abilities and future dreams can cause folks to want to die. Doctors who may agree that life with XYZ disability is not worth living can prescribe drugs under the assisted suicide public policy to people with disabilities who refuse treatment. Doctors should not help overwhelmed people with disabilities kill themselves, rather our society should solve the underlying problems causing them to give up. This is why we at United Spinal filed a groundbreaking lawsuit to overturn the California assisted suicide law and join Reps. Correa and Wenstrup in decrying assisted suicide and euthanasia laws and support this common sense resolution,” said Vincenzo Piscopo, President and CEO of United Spinal Association.

Diane Coleman

“The public image of severe disability as a fate worse than death has become grounds for carving out a deadly exception to longstanding laws and public policies pertaining to suicide prevention services. Legalizing assisted suicide means that some people who say they want to die will be offered suicide intervention, while others will be provided suicide assistance. The difference between these two groups of people will be their health or disability status, leading to a two-tiered system that results in death to the socially devalued group. As a national, secular, social justice organization, Not Dead Yet strongly supports this bipartisan effort to counter the many myths about legalized assisted suicide,” said Diane Coleman, President and CEO of Not Dead Yet

Join the EPC zoom event with Roger Foley on June 7 at 2 pm.

Join the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Zoom Event with Roger Foley on Friday, June 7 at 2 pm (ET).

Register in advance for this event: (Registration Link)

Roger lives with Cerebral Ataxia and has been pressured on several occasions to ask for euthanasia. 

Roger has been fighting for the right to self-directed care which would enable him to hire his own care-givers and live on his own. Self-directed care is not only important to Roger but it is also important for the many people with disabilities.

(Link to a recent youtube video about Roger Foley). 

Roger's story is important not only because he was pressured to ask for euthanasia but because he was willing to go to the media with his story.

This zoom event is an opportunity to meet Roger Foley, hear his story, and to discuss the importance of self-directed care.

Register in advance for this event: (Registration Link)

Previous articles about Roger Foley: 

• UN disability envoy demands protection for people with disabilities from euthanasia in Canada (Link).
• People with disabilities oppose expansion of MAiD in Canada (Link).
• Canada is getting comfortable with killing people with disabilities (Link).

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition gains intervenor standing in Calgary court case.

The 27-year-old autistic woman, who is otherwise healthy, was scheduled to die by euthanasia on February 1, 2024.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director,
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC) was been granted intervenor standing in the court case concerning the Calgary father who is trying to prevent the euthanasia death of his 27-year-old autistic daughter, who is otherwise healthy. EPC submitted our application to intervene, with legal arguments, on May 17 and we were approved as an intervenor on May 30. The publication ban requires that the father be referred to as WV and the daughter as MV.

This case is very important to me since I have an autistic son.

EPC needs donations toward the cost of the legal intervention (Donation Link).

The daughter was originally scheduled to die by euthanasia (MAiD) on February 1, but her father obtained a temporary injunction, on January 30, 2024, preventing her death.

CBC News reported on March 12, 2024 on the Calgary court case concerning a father who petitioned the court to prevent the euthanasia death of his 27-year-old autistic daughter. that the father argued that his daughter did not have a medical condition that qualifies under the law for death by lethal poison (MAiD) and yet the daughter had already been approved for death.

CBC News reporter, Meghan Grant reported on March 25, 2024 that Justice Feasby ruled that the 27-year-old daughter can die by euthanasia despite her father's concerns. Feasby withdrew the temporary injunction that prevented the woman from dying by euthanasia but Feasby maintained a 30 day stay of the injunction, which gave the father time to appeal the decision.

Justice Feasby ordered an assessment of the role of Alberta Health Services with relation to the approval of euthanasia for the autistic daughter.

On April 2, 2024, Kevin Martin reported for the Calgary Herald that the father of the 27-year-old autistic woman appealed the decision to the Alberta Court of Appeal.

On April 8, Justice Anne Kirker ordered a stay on the injunction to prevent the death of the 27-year-old autistic woman until after the appeal is decided. The date of the appeal is not known but will likely be heard in October.

The court granted EPC a 20 page written argument and a 20 minute oral argument. The EPC intervention focuses on several issues but it primarily deals with the process that led to the approval of the 27-year-old autistic woman, who is otherwise healthy.

EPC needs donations toward the cost of the legal intervention (Donation Link).

Articles on this topic:

• Great news: Judge prevents euthanasia death of Calgary autistic woman (Link).
• Father of a 27-year-old autistic woman appeals court ruling in euthanasia decision (Link).

Calgary man can't get experimental treatment for cluster headaches but he can get euthanasia.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

This is not an easy issue, but a Calgary man has gone to court to obtain access to psilocybin, a compound in 'magic mushrooms' that he believes will reduce his cluster headaches. I do not know if psilocybin will help him, but the argument that is being made is that Jody Lance can be killed by euthanasia but he cannot access psilocybin which may reduce his cluster headaches.

Lance is currently self-medicating with psilocybin that he obtains illegally.

A National Post article by Sharon Kirkey that was published on May 29 states that:

Lance is in his early 50s, and has been suffering from cluster headaches for seven years. A former land surveyor, he’s unable to work and is on long-term disability. He’s lost his house, has been “unable to socialize outside his home,” Fothergill (Justice) wrote, and says he has contemplated suicide and medical assistance in dying, or MAID, “for which he is potentially eligible.”

Lance's lawyer, Nicholas Pope, told Kirkey that:

“He doesn’t want to die,”

“He’s found a treatment that works for him and makes life bearable. But it’s absurd: If he couldn’t get access to this treatment, then MAID really would be a legitimate possibility.”

Kirkey reports that Cluster headaches are sometimes referred to as “suicide headaches,” because of the unbearable pain they can cause. 

Lance's lawyer told Kirkey that:

“The government is making it a whole lot easier to access medical assistance in dying than psilocybin, which is non-addictive and impossible to overdose on.”

Kirkey reported that Health Canada has authorized 153 requests for psilocybin, a restricted drug, under the SAP since 2022, though none for cluster headaches.

I am concerned about the suffering that Jody Lance is living with but I do not know if psilocybin is effective for cluster headaches. I do know that this article confirms that it is much easier, in Canada, to be killed by euthanasia than to receive controversial treatments, and in many cases, everyday treatments.

Bad care brings euthanasia and euthanasia brings bad care.

Gordon Friesen

Gordon Friesen
President, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

In January, 2024, Normand Meunier visited the emergency department of a major regional hospital in the Province of Quebec, the jurisdiction with the highest euthanasia rate in the world.

Meunier was complaining of a potentially life-threatening respiratory infection which was successfully treated during his stay. And yet, before he was even formally admitted to hospital, this patient spent 95 hours on a stretcher in the emergency corridor, resulting in a severe pressure sore which ultimately decided him to end his own life through consent to Medical Assistance in Dying.

Article: Québec quadriplegic man "chooses" euthanasia after suffering horrific negligent care. (Link)

Normand Meunier

Quite naturally, these circumstances raised great excitement among the public, who universally condemned this demonstration of dysfunctional care. Our own friends and allies quickly pointed out, also, that these shortfalls in public healthcare actively push vulnerable people like Mr. Meunier towards euthanasia --an allegation which was explicitly levelled by Meunier, himself, in the course of pre-MAID interviews.

One point

With the reader's permission, I would like to add a MAID related reflection to this analysis: concerning the active feedback loop now created between poor care and euthanasia. For this relation does not proceed in one direction only.

Yes. It is true that poor care will inevitably drive increased demand for MAID. However, it is equally true that the availability of MAID (to clean up embarrassing inadequacies in public policy) will also tend to reduce good-faith efforts to resolve these problems --and ultimately to encourage a sort of passive fatalism in the face of sustained degradation in our medical system.

For in the end (according to this new death-medicine paradigm) whatever other treatments might be lacking, at least we have one sure-fire remedy to settle any serious medical challenge, which is Medical homicide, aka Euthanasia, aka MAID.

Unhelpful and clumsy attempts to avoid meaningful criticism

Faced with the evidence that something had gone terribly wrong for Normand Meunier, public figures and bureaucrats --from the Provincial Premier on down-- were quick to denounce this episode with sincere and righteous outrage, vowing that it must never be repeated.

(Which, if we read between the lines, is simply to say that Normand Meunier's case was officially minimized, as a tragic one-off, from which specific lessons might be gleaned, but no more.)

To promote this reassuring perception, much was made of the special circumstances encountered. 

1) Meunier was a quadriplegic (a generally mysterious and little understood condition) 

2) The specific issue was pressure sores (which ordinary people know little or nothing about) 

3) The reason these sores became a problem was attributed to a simple tech problem, in the lack of a pressure-alternating mechanical air mattress.

Together these factors have been used to tacitly imply that under "normal" circumstances emergency rooms work just fine (or at the very least, that for "normal" folk, the pressure sores of quadriplegics are no more a threat than unicorns on another planet).

Unfortunately, however, these assumptions are quite false. For in truth: all of the Very Special Factors cited above are no more than proverbial "red herrings".

Nothing but business as usual

To begin with, there is nothing "special" about bedsores (aka decubitus ulcers) and these sores are not an exclusivity of quadriplegics. For although the typical citizen is largely ignorant of their fatal significance, pressure sores are everywhere seen among sedentary patients. In fact, no less than 30% of patients in Canadian long term hospital facilities have pressure sores which are qualified as "difficult" and require constant attention.

It should thus be perfectly obvious that patients are constantly turning up in ER, both at risk of ulcers and with active sores; and that nothing, therefore, could be more typical (however gruesome that reality might be) than the specific problem presented by Mr. Meunier.

But just as importantly, regarding the famous missing therapeutic mattress itself: there is no need, whatsoever, for such a mattress in the normal treatment of patients at risk of ulcers; nor do any large percentage of such patients have the benefit of this technology; nor would Normand Meunier have had any need of one, had he been treated according to basic accepted rules of the Medical Art.

For this is truly nursing 101. Pressure ulcers are caused by unrelieved pressure (invariably present whenever someone is laid in a bed or seated in a chair). And pressure is most effectively relieved by regular repositioning (ie. "turning") of the patient. It would be extremely curious, moreover, if these facts were unknown to those who had responsibility for Mr. Meunier's care --considering that (unlike typical civilians) ALL nursing staff EVERYWHERE know what pressure sores are --and how to prevent them-- and that patients are (in theory) being "turned" every two hours in ALL hospitals throughout the civilized world.

According to standard nursing procedure, therefore, Normand Meunier should simply have been "turned" (47 different times) during his stint in Emergency. And yet, he was NOT turned. On the contrary, he was apparently left to stew in his own juice.

It is this fact which demands an explanation: not an isolated incident caused by one or two incompetent individuals in an extraordinary situation; but a seemingly incomprehensible continuum of neglect suffered by a perfectly ordinary patient --in perfectly ordinary circumstances-- which was played out over a period of four full days, during which Mr. Meunier was surrounded by first-world doctors and nurses, methodically rotating through twelve consecutive shifts, where notes and recommendations, concerning every single patient, were dutifully exchanged at the beginning and end of every one.

Clearly, that explanation will not be easy.

No sense in demonizing the staff of one particular hospital

It would be absurd to represent Emergency Room conditions in St-Jerome, QC, as uniquely inadequate, or the medical professionals of that city as uniquely incompetent.

The sad fact is that Emergency culture has become the reflection of a public health policy which has ultimately created centers of catastrophic triage --all over the Province and possibly Canada, functioning with a work-flow appropriate for battlefields or civil disasters, but NOT for normal circumstances in peacetime society. Doctors and nurses are thus constantly occupied, running back and forth from one pressing task to the next, resetting priorities as they go, and only with the greatest difficulty completing sufficient tasks to allow a descent to the mundane level of basic nursing.

It is, perhaps, a model well adapted to the reception of accident victims, or gunshot wounds. However, warning alarms are unavoidable when we consider that the ER also provides the routine interface between more or less stable patients in very fragile condition --such as those arriving from nursing homes or rehabilitation-- and simple admission to acute care hospitals.

Like Mr. Meunier, such patients typically need a continuity of care, with admittedly complex issues, and will routinely suffer serious harm in the extended limbo of Emergency triage. For quite clearly: it is not just any patient who can survive the consequences of being placed at the back of the priority queue, for multiple days, in an ER corridor.

I myself once spent a mere 23 hours, as a figuratively "ambulatory" patient in Emergency, during which time I managed my own pressure issues by periodically transferring out of my wheelchair to rest, on the floor of my van in the hospital parking lot. Much like Normand Meunier, I was fortunate enough to receive full satisfaction for the complaint I presented. However, my normal hypothermia, compounded by rests in the cold van, plus the exceptional neglect of proper bladder voiding, and (above all) pushing myself well beyond my own limits of endurance, resulted in the conversion of certain chronic renal problems into something much more menacing, with which I then had to deal, just as Meunier did with his new sores.

My point is this: Urban Emergency rooms in Canada are gruelling environments for both professionals and patients. Not in extraordinary circumstances with Very Special patients, but as a perfectly ordinary routine.

Making it all go away: no patient, no problem!

Huge efforts have been provided in attempting to solve the problems described. But we must remember that those efforts are provided only in response to the frequent, obvious, and largely gratuitous (but statistically inevitable) suffering and mortality presently observed. For without that constant pressure, there is no urgency to sustain change.

It is easy therefore to understand the decision of Normand Meunier, to consent to a death which, as he says himself, he never wanted, and should never have been forced to confront. It was also a most regrettable decision from a scientific perspective, in that he was still objectively floundering at the peak of an inevitable --but statistically temporary-- period of rehabilitative distress (only 2 years post-trauma) and thus should not ethically have been authorized (let alone encouraged) to die from MAID.

Certainly, also, it is a most praiseworthy reflex of the general public to decry such tragic events. But it still remains for us to learn the extent to which deaths of people like Normand Meunier (and even the effect of lesser fears, such as my own of returning to the ER...) will themselves provide a mortal safety-valve, removing just enough pressure from our medical policy-makers, to ensure that no proper changes will be made.

In a word: Bad care produces more euthanasia. And more euthanasia enables more bad care. 

Link to more articles by Gordon Friesen (Link).

Easing Senior Stressors: Practical Tips for a More Comfortable Life

By Kent Elliot

As you age, new challenges and stressors can emerge, affecting your well-being and quality of life. Understanding these common stressors and adopting effective strategies to mitigate them can significantly enhance your daily comfort and happiness. This article explores various stressors that seniors often face and offers practical advice to alleviate these pressures.

Embrace the Great Outdoors

One simple yet effective way to reduce stress is to make a habit of sitting outside for at least five minutes each day. The benefits of fresh air and natural light are manifold, improving your mood, enhancing vitamin D levels, and providing a change of scenery that can break the monotony of daily life. Whether it's enjoying a morning cup of tea on the porch or watching the sunset, these brief outdoor moments can be profoundly revitalizing. Additionally, engaging with nature has been shown to lower blood pressure, reduce stress hormone levels, and improve overall feelings of well-being.

Craft a Nourishing Morning Routine

Starting your day with intention sets a positive tone for the hours to follow. Consider crafting a morning routine that includes reading something inspirational to uplift your spirits. Limit your morning engagement with social media to avoid starting your day with digital stress. Instead, nourish your body with a healthy breakfast and engage in meditation to clear your mind and center your thoughts. These practices can help you maintain a calm and balanced mindset throughout the day. Integrating physical activity, like a gentle morning walk or some light stretching, can also enhance your energy levels and overall health.

Consider Professional Assistance at Home

Hiring a home health aide offers a significant alleviation of the physical and emotional strain associated with daily tasks. Beyond aiding with personal care and household chores, their companionship serves as a valuable support system, particularly for managing health issues independently. Their professional assistance not only enhances safety and comfort at home but also promotes a greater sense of independence and fulfillment in daily life. Moreover, home health aides play a crucial role in ensuring comprehensive care by assisting with medication management, scheduling appointments, and addressing other essential health-related activities.

Address Financial Concerns

Financial problems are a prevalent source of stress for many seniors. If managing your finances becomes overwhelming, it might be wise to hire a financial advisor. A professional can offer you personalized advice on budgeting, investing, and planning for future expenses, ensuring you have a stable financial path ahead. This can include setting up retirement funds, adjusting investment strategies to reduce risks, and planning for potential healthcare costs, which can help secure your financial future against uncertainty.

Find a Suitable Living Environment

As mobility and health change, your current home might no longer suit your needs. Finding a new, accessible home can alleviate many physical challenges and reduce the risk of accidents. Look for housing options that are designed to support aging comfortably, with features such as no-step entries, single-floor living, and other accessible amenities. These homes not only offer greater safety but also promote independence, making daily life less stressful and more enjoyable.

Combat Social Isolation

Social isolation can have detrimental effects on emotional well-being, leading to profound feelings of loneliness and disconnect. However, actively seeking out social interactions through community activities or joining support groups can effectively alleviate these negative emotions. Engaging with others who share similar experiences not only provides emotional support but also fosters a sense of belonging and camaraderie. Additionally, maintaining regular contact with family, friends, or neighbors serves as a crucial pillar of support, contributing to overall social health and emotional resilience.

The challenges you face as a senior need not diminish your quality of life. By adopting strategies to address these stressors — such as improving your living conditions, managing financial health, and maintaining social connections — you can enjoy a more relaxed and joyful life. Remember, every small change you make can have a profound impact on your daily well-being.

Join the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and support our mission to build a network opposing euthanasia and assisted suicide worldwide.

Roger Foley: A Passion to Live

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Amanda Achtman, who is leading a project called Dying to Meet You, visited Roger Foley in London Ontario. Roger lives with Cerebral Ataxia and says that he has been pressured on several occasions to ask for euthanasia. (Link to the youtube video)

In the video, Foley gives Achtman context from his life concerning his disability. Foley states that as a child he was always uncoordinated and very tired. He was not diagnosed with his condition, so he thought that he could work through it.

Roger said that he is bedridden and has severe pain levels every day. He needs to take medications or he can't even function.

Amanda Achtman

Achtman asked him why he is living in a hospital and not a home. Roger responds:

Unfortunately we live in a country where persons with disabilities aren't allowed to choose who's around them.

You're worked at; not worked with.

Foley then gave the example of a care worker who helped him get into the bath tub. He washed himself but when he needed help getting out of the tub, he called but got no answer. So he crawled out of the tub over the slippery floor, without full control of his limbs. As he was crawling down the hallway he hears snoring. He finds the caregiver stretched out on one of his chairs in a deep sleep. When he reported it to the agency, the care-giver confessed to the act but they didn't care.

Achtman asked him if he has been offered euthanasia? Roger replied:

Yeah, multiple times.

A nurse asked him if he had thoughts of self-harm? Foley responded honestly that he has thought about ending his life because of what he is going through. Out of nowhere, the nurse told him that he could apply for an assisted... you know what I mean.

Achtman asked him what is the impact on him, as a patient, of having euthanasia suggested? Foley responded:

It's completely traumatized me. Now it's this overlying option, where, in my situation, when I say I'm suicidal, I'm met with, Well, you know, the hospital has a program to help you with that, if you want to end your life.

That didn't exist before MAiD was legalized, but now it's there.

Roger says that he is having flash backs from this experience and that this has devalued him and all that he is.

Achtman asks about the accusation that it is only religious people who are trying to prevent euthanasia. Foley responds:

That's the ultimate gas lighting statement. Like, I'm not religious. I respect people who are religious. Saying that its just religious persons who oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide are completely wrong. And these people who usually say it have an ableist mindset and they look at persons with disabilities and see us as just better off dead and a waste of resources.

Foley has hope is that one day he will be able to break through the wall of the system and get access to the services he needs.

Foley wants to live at home with workers who want to work with him as a team.

Foley concludes the interview by saying:

I have a passion to live.
I don't want to give up on my life.

Previous articles about Roger Foley: 

• UN disability envoy demands protection for people with disabilities from euthanasia in Canada (Link).
• People with disabilities oppose expansion of MAiD in Canada (Link).
• Canada is getting comfortable with killing people with disabilities (Link).

Let’s Not Get Rid of the Dead Donor Rule

By Sara Buscher, Attorney, Past Chair, EPC USA 

The Dead Donor Rule requires that a person to have died before organs can be harvested for transplant. 

EPC supports the dead donor rule and we recognize that the Dead Donor Rule will prevent the approval of euthanasia by organ donation. In a recent Tulane University Medical School lecture, Law Professor Thaddeus Pope said violations of the dead donor rule are rampant.

Brain death was created in 1968 as a workaround to the Dead Donor Rule to generate more transplant organs and free up ICU beds. It eventually became legal in the 1980’s through adoption of the Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA) by countries and the each US state.

The latest effort to legitimize harvesting organs from living people suffered a set back when the Uniform Law Commission chose to stop its effort to revise the UDDA. The revision to the UDDA was designed to give legal cover to all the ways in which organs are being taken from living persons. Professor Pope attributes the shortage of organs to fewer car accident deaths. He also expressed concern that people who support the Dead Donor Rule could demand more accountability and enforcement of existing laws. I would say disability groups could also demand more accountability and enforcement.

Before continuing this report on the lecture, I want our readers to know that some of the people whose organs are being harvested could recover, if given enough time, and doctors cannot predict which ones will recover. People are declared brain dead, on average, in 4 days, but it takes about 2 weeks for a coma to resolve and 3 to12 months after injury to recover consciousness. According to a recent study:

“Predicting who will recover following severe traumatic brain injury, and to what degree, can be challenging. Yet, families are often asked to make decisions about continuing or withdrawing life support, such as mechanical breathing, within just 72 hours of the injury” 

The same study found 40% of those whose life support was not withdrawn recovered at least some independence. According to a federal fact sheet, people who are in a state of permanent unconsciousness (coma) survive 60% to 80% of the time; coming out of the coma within 4 weeks, usually moving to a vegetative state or partial consciousness and slowly continuing to improve. For those whose condition was caused by a physical impact, 60% to 90% will regain consciousness by 1 year after injury.

The Uniform Determination of Death Act says:

An individual who has sustained either (1) irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions, or (2) irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem, is dead. A determination of death must be made in accordance with accepted medical standards.

Professor Pope says there are four ways the Dead Donor Rule and UDDA are being violated. About two-thirds involve brain death and one-third cardiac death.

1. Brain Death. People are being labelled brain dead even though parts of the brain are still functioning and their condition may be reversible. There is “massive variability” in how brain “death” is determined, from state to state, hospital to hospital and doctor to doctor.
2. Donation by Cardiac Death (DCD). Here organs are being taken before there is certainty heart stoppage is irreversible. When life support is stopped, the transplant team waits for the heart to stop before harvesting organs. Research shows the heart could restart on its own within 5 minutes, but some teams are waiting only 2 minutes for the first incision. Organs obtained this way may be slow to start after transplant due to oxygen deprivation before being harvested.
3. Normothermic Regional Profusion (NRP). After the person’s heart stops and does not restart during the waiting period for cardiac death, the person is attached to a heart-lung machine. Before turning it on to circulate oxygenated blood, arteries to the brain are clamped off. Then, organs are harvested. This method minimizes the time transplantable organs are deprived of oxygen.
4. Premortem Interventions. The family of a patient on life support is told the patient has died and what they view as life support is really organ support. The living person is then turned over to the transplant team.

To solve the problem of rampant dead donor rule violations, Professor Pope says the UDDA should be changed. As already stated, a four year effort to do this within the Uniform Law Commission failed in 2023. A few months ago Professor Pope called for a new federal revised UDDA that would override state UDDA statutes. He is now calling for changing public opinion to allow families to agree to organ harvesting for people who are nearly dead. This could also be done by an advance directive. He pointed to a national public opinion survey about death and organ donations.

The national public opinion survey supports organ donation from nearly dead people, but is flawed. Respondents were asked questions about the following vignette.

Jason has been in a very bad car accident. He suffered a severe head injury and is now in the hospital. As a result of the injury, Jason is completely unconscious. He cannot hear or feel anything, cannot remember or think about anything, he is not aware of anything, and his condition is irreversible. Jason will never wake up. He also cannot breathe without mechanical support, but is on a breathing machine that keeps his lungs working. Without the machine, Jason's heart and all other organs would stop within minutes. Although he will never wake up and cannot breathe without the support of the machine, Jason is still biologically alive. Before the injury, Jason wanted to be an organ donor. The organs will function best if they are removed while Jason's heart is still beating and while he is still on the breathing machine. If the organs are removed while Jason is still on the machine, he would die from the removal of organs (in other words, the surgery would cause Jason's biological death).

The vignette says the doctors know Jason will never improve or recover, yet this cannot be predicted as indicated earlier. Other problems with the survey include the respondents were self-selected and tended to be in categories that would be more supportive such as more liberal and less conservative than the general population.

We have a better idea. Let's not get rid of the Dead Donor Rule.

More articles on this topic:

• No to killing for organs (Link).
• Organ donation procedure violates the Dead Donor Rule (Link).
• Proposed changes to the UDDA will cause more litigation (Link). 
• Are people who are declared brain dead always dead? (Link).