Wednesday, August 21, 2024

Canada's Euthanasia lobby launches court case to extend euthanasia to mental illness alone.

Based on the Netherlands where 1.7% of all euthanasia deaths were for mental illness alone, if permitted, there could have been 255 euthanasia deaths for mental illness alone in Canada in 2023.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director,
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Dying with Dignity, Canada's leading euthanasia lobby group, launched a court case on August 19, 2024 to force Canada to extend euthanasia to mental illness alone. This recent court challenge proves how extreme Canada's euthanasia lobby is and how they have redefined the meaning of the words compassion and equality.

The euthanasia lobby falsely believe that the Supreme Court of Canada, Carter decision (2015), created a right to euthanasia, (which it did not) and that the Carter decision also required Canada to permit euthanasia for mental illness alone (which it did not). 

Stephanie Taylor reported for The Canadian Press that:

An application filed by Dying with Dignity in Ontario Superior Court on Monday argues that it is discriminatory to bar people with mental disorders from being eligible for an assisted death when it is available to people who suffer physically.
The euthanasia lobby has launched a Charter challenge to force Canada to extend euthanasia to people with mental illness alone based on equality. The Dying with Dignity press release states:

The continued exclusion reinforces the stigma and historic prejudice against people with mental illness. It violates section 15 of the Charter by discriminating on the basis of the type of disability experienced. It also violates section 7 of the Charter by denying people with a mental illness the freedom to make fundamental decisions about their body and life; this denial is overbroad. The differential treatment of people whose sole condition is a mental illness minimizes the enduring and intolerable suffering that some individuals experience and undermines their full participation in the range of choices that are available to all other people across Canada.

The Dying with Dignity media release justifies euthanasia for mental illness by stating:

In fact, of the 8,042 assisted deaths in The Netherlands in 2023, 138 (1.7%) were because the primary medical condition was a mental illness.
I have predicted that there were more than 15,000 Canadian assisted deaths in 2023. If Canada approves euthanasia for mental illness alone, based on the Netherlands euthanasia data of 1.7% of all euthanasia deaths were for mental illness alone, there may have been 255 euthanasia deaths (1.7%) for mental illness alone in Canada in 2023.

The reality is that Canadians with mental illness are already being killed by euthanasia, even when their primary purpose for seeking death is a mental illness, so long as the person has a co-morbidity that enables the doctor or nurse practitioner to approve the death.

The issue of euthanasia for mental illness alone has always been part of the euthanasia debate. The original law (Bill C-14) that was passed in June 2016 excluded euthanasia for mental illness alone and it required that a person's "natural death be reasonably foreseeable" (which was not defined). Essentially Bill C-14 required that a person had to have a terminal condition in order to be approved to be killed.

In March 2021, the federal government expanded Canada's euthanasia law by passing Bill C-7. C-7 removed the requirement in the law that a person's "natural death be reasonably foreseeable", it removed the 10-day waiting period for people who were terminally ill, it added a 90-day waiting for people who were not terminally ill and it approved euthanasia for mental illness alone, but added a two year moratorium on euthanasia for mental illness alone to establish guidelines around this new category of killing.

Since then the federal government has twice delayed the implementation of euthanasia for mental illness alone with the most recent legislation (Bill C-62) delaying it until March 17, 2027.

When Canada passed Bill C-7 and eliminated the requirement that a person have a terminal condition to be approved to be killed, the result has been stories of Canadians with disabilities seeking or dying by euthanasia based on poverty, homelessness or an inability to access necessary medical treatments.

Similar to Canadians with disabilities, Canadians living with mental illness are also more likely to live in poverty or homeless and they often have difficulties accessing necessary medical treatments. In some communities, a person with mental illness will wait more than 90 days to be seen by a mental health specialist, and yet the law permits euthanasia for non-terminally ill people with a 90-day waiting period.

This is the second Charter challenge launched by Dying with Dignity. On June 17, 2024 Dying with Dignity launched a Charter challenge to force all medical institutions to provide euthanasia.

The Dying with Dignity lawsuit proves how extreme that the euthanasia lobby in Canada has become.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition will seek to intervene in this court case.

Important articles on this topic: 

  • Euthanasia Prevention Coalition says that the expansion of euthanasia to include mental illness should be scrapped (Link).
  • Treat people with mental health problems, don't kill them (Link).
  • Provincial Health Ministers urge the Federal government to indefinitely pause euthanasia for mental illness alone (Link).
  • Euthanasia for those with mental illness should not be on the table (Link).
  • Euthanasia for mental illness should never come to pass (Link). 
  • Canada's euthanasia law. We've already gone too far. (Link). 
  • Canada has revealed the horror of assisted dying (Link). 
  • Canada must put the brakes on euthanasia for mental illness (Link).
  • Don't abandon people to death by euthanasia (MAiD) (Link)

4 comments:

  1. Please Note: Many in government believe Christians are mentally ill. How do I know .... well I'm in my 70's and have been told all my life as I'm a life long practicing Christian living in Fascist Montreal/Quebec. I'm just a witness. Be Blessed.

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  2. There is nothing dignified about being put to death by a doctor. It being legal does not make it righteous.
    By whose definition will mental illness qualify? Where are the checks and balances to make sure it is not a subjective decision by someone who has authority over others?
    “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?
    I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.” (Jeremiah 17:9-10)

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  3. Thank you Alex for standing up against this tide of evil.

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  4. MIGHT THE SAFEGUARDS FOR ALZHEIMER'S
    ALSO APPLY TO 'MENTAL ILLNESSES'?

    Alzheimer's disease
    is NOT usually called a "mental illness"
    because the biological facts
    behind this brain-disease are well known.

    But all forms of psychological disorders
    that have solid physical causes
    will be accepted as reasons for Merciful Death
    before the wider category called "mental illness".

    Life-ending decisions are ALREADY BEING MADE
    for Alzheimer's patients.
    Perhaps the principles for choosing death
    for victims of dementia could later be extended
    to other kinds of mental problems and disorders.

    Perhaps the laws of any state or country
    should first codify the best principles
    for making life-ending decisions for dementia.

    And then we will see which of these safeguards
    would also apply to patients
    with mental or emotional problems
    WITHOUT CLEAR BIOLOGICAL BASES.
    Psychological causes sometimes create problems
    just as serious as Alzheimer's disease.

    Here is a chapter offering 15 safeguard-procedures
    to use for Alzheimer's patients.
    Which of these might be used for "mental illness"?
    ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE:
    WHEN SHOULD THIS LIFE END?
    https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid0yxW8git2nJ84zrb741qtJj8wfoMu4HHhJK7dkYEkjfiY62vQpet4p7c1QDEnjD2ol&id=100068202590044

    And here is a column applying these 15 safeguards
    to a specific (fictional) individual:
    CHOOSING MERCIFUL DEATH
    FOR GRANDMOTHER GOODE.
    https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid0DQiSGZiTC2gFr5bt4378vpiTgjbN9AHkpCdvtza6hiavfLpcgxtsHj1dSgLqYAmfl&id=100068202590044

    >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

    related reading:

    WHEN IS MENTAL SUFFERING ENOUGH?
    MERCIFUL DEATH FOR JONES.
    https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid02god2ENAevKcEi4ZvQVvhMrpt1Bx5FqhYKjJuzdJFwJ77VYUh68yH5Sh5o5yatz5Gl&id=100068202590044

    MERCIFUL DEATH FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL SUFFERING:
    7 REQUIRED SAFEGUARDS
    AND 9 RECOMMENDED SAFEGUARDS.
    https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid0W62JaQaNvbbsL4gQs8V9cHgv8hEf5xz6Phghcka91zwG7iK77farV4whBjPDNmyUl&id=100068202590044

    MERCIFUL DEATH
    FOR PATIENTS WITH 'MENTAL ILLNESS'.
    https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid02zivu83jnVamShd1R7MtJUYzZAghSLyvnXQvqrXQi77vR2QV66JzzMMW4TDJRv4yzl&id=100068202590044

    FOR ALZHEIMER'S PATIENTS,
    PROXIES SHOULD BE EMPOWERED
    TO MAKE LIFE-ENDING DECISIONS.
    https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=117647117184561&id=104763195139620

    ADVANCE APPROVAL DOCUMENTS
    FOR LIFE-ENDING DECISIONS
    IF WE LOSE MENTAL CAPACITY.
    https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=189996462908359&id=114832640424742

    _____________________________________________________
    Ch. I (9) Deciding death for others---rev. 9-1-2024
    also A (12) Advance approval for death.
    also C (5) Safeguards for life-ending decisions.

    ReplyDelete