Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
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| Tracy Polewczuk with her husband. |
Tracy Polewczuk, who lives in Pointe-Claire Québec, on Montreal island stated in an interview with Gilmour that:
On two separate occasions and without prompting, she says she was informed that she would be eligible for medical assistance in dying (MAID), once by a nurse at the rehabilitation centre at Ste-Anne's Hospital and another time by a social worker at the Verdun Hospital.
"It feels like we are being pushed towards the MAID program instead of being given the help to live,"
Polewczuk who had broken her leg in an accident two years ago lives in pain because her leg didn't properly heal after the accident. Polewczuk told Gilmour that:
"Pain sucks. We all agree. It's terrible. I'm in pain 24/7. It never stops. I can survive that. I cannot survive being treated like a sack of meat,"
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| Dr Paul Saba |
...that it's seen as a recommendation whenever a doctor makes a suggestion or a health care worker.
"We need to improve our health care system for everybody regardless of their condition, regardless of the disability,"
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| Heather Hancock |
...she often feels like a burden, but her choice is clear.Polewczuk is not alone in her experience. Recently Heather Hancock sent an article to the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition with a similar story. Hancock, who lives with Spastic Cerebral Palsy, has also been pressured by medical staff on several occasions to ask for euthanasia.
"I want to survive. I want to thrive. I want my life back. I want the opposite of what they're trying to have us do,"
A couple of years back when the government went on this anti opioid kick and MAiD was relatively new it was suggested to my wife.
ReplyDeleteThey drastically cut back her pain medication without her consent. The doctor instead of increasing the medication to her long term status quo offered her euthanasia.
Here's the clincher! She was in tears and said she needed her pain control medication because the pain was becoming unbearable. The doctor responded, "Opioids could kill you!" I was gobsmacked!! I immediately said to him: "You are worried about pain medication killing her, but you don't think euthanasia will?"
This MAiD push IMCO is nothing more than a cost reduction scheme for the outrageously out of control money pit of a medicare system we have caused by an excessive medical bureaucracy. Stop wasting money paying bureaucrats and direct it to care and front line medical staff.
Raising the availability of euthanasia gratuitously should be grounds for dismissal. Such callous people should not be in contact with the public.
DeleteThank you Heather(Hancock) for the courage to share your story with us.
ReplyDeleteYes, it seems we are in a trench, but we are coming OUT. Do take care of yourself.
Blessings and peace.
Stand firm ladies with your illnesses! MAID proponents do not tell you everything before a death. They don't tell you that your first injection is to slow you down to paralysis, the second one fills your lungs with fluid.You essentially drown!!! And being paralyzed you will have no fight in you. Our Almighty God will bless you for your choice of life, if not in this world, certainly the next. I will pray for you, both! Shame on our health system and govt officials.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I've just heard about another person in my town giving in to the supposed "need"for death. I came to this blog looking for hope to not give in to, well, whatever it is that makes people think of euthanasia as harmless or even good. Living with disability makes survival hard enough, without the sense that is easier to just give in to it. Thank you.
DeleteYour right Will. It is also threatening to someone experiencing medical distress.
ReplyDelete