Canadian euthanasia doctor giggles about killing.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Liz Carr is an actress, comedian and disability rights activist produced a documentary titled; Better off Dead? that was aired on May 14 by BBC1.

Better off Dead? documentary (Link) 

Carr who is best known for her role as Clarissa Mullery on the BBC series Silent Witness, interviewed Ellen Wiebe, a Vancouver doctor who has committed some of Canada's most controversial euthanasia deaths.

Ellen Wiebe

Elmira Tanatarova reported for the Daily Mail on May 15 that many of the viewers of the Better off Dead? documentary were uneasy with Wiebe as she giggled when discussing the number of her euthanasia deaths. Tanatarova reports:

A Canadian doctor who has personally euthanised more than 400 people has left viewers feeling 'uneasy' as she 'giggled' while discussing the solemn topic with a disability rights campaigner in a new BBC documentary.

Speaking to Liz Carr's programme, Better Off Dead?, Dr Ellen Wiebe, who works with Dying With Dignity, had audiences feeling uncomfortable as she laughed and smiled while discussing assisted death.

'I love my job,' she said in the show, which aired on Tuesday night. 'I've always loved being a doctor and I delivered over a 1000 babies and I took care of families but this is the very best work I've ever done in the last seven years.

Wiebe tells Carr that nobody is more grateful than the patients that she has killed. Tanatarova reports some of the comments from the BBC documentary viewers:

Enjoying her job a little too much I felt,' one wrote.

'She was extremely scary and oddly cheerful,' another added. 'But it might have been defensiveness which made her so very strange indeed.'

'Her eagerness and her excitement over grateful patients was unsettling,' one poster penned.

'Really eerie,' one comment read. 'Her job should bring feelings of solemnity, profoundness, sadness... anything but the weird euphoric state she seems to be in.'

The Better off Dead? document gives Wiebe an opportunity to explain her experience with euthanasia. Tanatarova reports:

'We have a law and I obey this law and there are people who are not eligible under the law,' she explained.

'There are situations where I might find somebody not eligible or eligible when another person won't because of the way our law is written.'

Ellen explained that the 'number one reason' people look into assisted death is autonomy.

'Everybody's different in what they think of as autonomy and control,' she added.

'They desperately want control. Like, they want to say "it's now".

'At the end we say "OK well I can get back here at seven o'clock is that ok?" and they'll say yes and they'll be so grateful that they can skip the last two days of their life.

'And I look at it and think all you really needed was some more drugs - but you want my drugs? I'll give them to you.'

Wiebe admits that she has killed people who only need "some more drugs" because they want euthanasia, she kills them.

When commenting on euthanasia for people with disabilities, Wiebe reportedly says:

'I've certainly met people who are no more disabled than I am saying that life is not acceptable in this state,' she explained.

'And I would say "hm, you and I are different". But not different in the sense of wanting to have some control.'

Carr then asks Wiebe if she would approve her for euthanasia. Tanatarova reports:

'So Liz right now you love life and you want to live but there's lots of nasty illnesses you might get,' the doctor continued.

'And if you got terminal cancer and you were having to deal with chemotherapy and radiation wouldn't you be thrilled if you had the choice to say "I'll go this far and no further?"'

'For me,' Liz replied. 'I'm concerned that giving the option and the right to a group of people puts another group of people at risk. But I don't feel you see that as a worry.'

Tanatarova responds with Wiebe stating:

'And I am so glad, so glad that I'm a Canadian and that we have this law so that people can choose that or not choose that

'But to say that somebody has to suffer like that is simply cruel.'

Tanatarova then explains that Wiebe has been involved with some controversial deaths.

Last year, it was reported that Ellen said she helped euthanise a man who was previously deemed unsuitable for assisted suicide.

Speaking in a seminar for physicians working in assisted suicide, she told attendees about the time she treated a patient who did not qualify for the end of life service.

A MAiD assessor had rejected the unnamed man because he did not have a serious illness or 'the capacity to make informed decisions about his own personal health.'

But the man eventually made his way to Ellen, who cleared him, flew him out to Vancouver, and euthanised him, The New Atlantic said.

Tanatarova reports on why Liz Carr produced the Better off Dead? documentary:

She told the programme: 'On an everyday basis, disabled people are dealing with a lower expectation and people actually saying to their faces: "Gosh, surely it's better to be dead than be you?"

'That happens. It's shocking. So I wanted that to be the starting point and then let's unravel why that is and how that leads to my fear of legalising assisted suicide.'

The British actress added that 'of course we don't want [a person at the end of their life] to suffer'.

She continued: 'The problem is, actually, a lot of disabled people do suffer. But what they suffer from are the barriers and the obstacles, the fact they have to fight for support, the fact there isn't social care, the fact of attitudes, the fact of lack of access to so many things.

'You know, we do suffer. So don't then make it legal to end that suffering through assisted suicide, that's the fear.'

Carr explains that she is treated differently by people who recognize her as an actress compared to those who don't recognize her. Tanatarova reports:

She explained: 'From my gaze, from somebody who lives in a world where, you know, if I'm recognised in the street, then people are giddy and excited and it's wonderful.

'If I'm not recognised in the street, then I'm ignored or sometimes I'm glanced at as I'm just trouble and I'm a problem and: "Oh god, have we got to get the ramp out? Ugh." I'm just a pain.

'So that difference shows me that oftentimes I think disabled people are just tolerated and I think that's the same with ill people and older people, and I think all those groups would be affected by these laws.

'As long as there's that inequality, it is not safe to legalise... no amount of safeguards will prevent us from mistakes and abuse and coercion, that's my belief.'

Previous articles about Liz Carr:

• Liz Carr: I'm fighting for the right to live (Link).
• Better off Dead? documentary to be aired on BBC1 on May 14 (Link).
  
• Laws against assisted suicide provide equal protection (Link).
• Liz Carr address to Victoria Australia parliament on assisted suicide (Link).
• Disability activists say no to euthanasia bill (Link).