UK assisted suicide bill makes coercion and deception easier.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Aine Fox reported for the Independent (UK) on October 23, 2025 that a retired judge is concerned that the UK assisted suicide bill, that has already passed in the House of Commons and is now being debated in the House of Lords, will make coercion easier because the coroner will not investigate these deaths:

Retired Judge Thomas Teague told peers at a House of Lords select committee that the current draft legislation to legalise assisted dying risks making coercion easier and for some cases to ” slip through” if coroners are not involved as the default.

Fox reported that:

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill currently states that an assisted death would not be classified as an “unnatural death” and therefore would not require automatic investigation by a coroner.

The Royal College of Pathologists and Mr Teague have previously voiced their opposition to this element of the Bill and both gave further evidence to peers on Thursday.

Teague is concerned that the language of the law will lead to coercion, pressure and deception.

He warned that categorising assisted deaths, which he said “are in reality, deaths by suicide”, as natural deaths could have the “unfortunate and unintended consequence of tending to obscure and conceal those risks, and of making it easier for persons who want, for example, to exercise coercion or pressure or deception to do so”.

Teague stated that the assisted suicide bill reversed 200 years of scrutiny.

He said clause 38 of the Bill as it stands was effectively reversing part of a system for scrutinising deaths that had been 200 years in the making and described the proposed approach as “frankly absurd”.

Fox reported that Dr Suzy Lishman form the Royal College of Pathologists agreed with Teague:

Dr Suzy Lishman, from the Royal College of Pathologists, when asked about whether it would be safe to remove coronial oversight, told the committee: “No, I don’t believe it would be safe.”

The House of Lords Select Committee is examining the Kim Leadbeater assisted suicide bill. The House of Lords Committee will make recommendations and possible amendments before they to to a final vote on the bill.

More information about the UK assisted suicide bill (Articles Link).

Assisted-Suicide Slippery Slope Keeps Slip-Sliding Away

This article was published by the National Review online on October 22, 2025.

By Wesley J Smith

When assisted suicide is first proposed for legalization, we are assured by death activists that strict guidelines will protect against abuse. But they don’t mean it. Once the laws pass, the supposed protections — which are always flaccid to begin with — are soon redefined by activists and the media as “barriers,” et voila, the laws are soon loosened. It’s all a con, but people seem to fall for it every time.

This pattern can be seen vividly playing out in Victoria, Australia. The state was the first in that country to legalize assisted suicide, and now the government is making more people eligible for legally hastened death. From the premier’s announcement:

The new legislation will remove unnecessary barriers to accessing VAD, improve clarity for practitioners, strengthen safety measures and make the system fairer and more compassionate.

See what I mean? “Strengthen safety,” (!!!) and “fairer and more compassionate,” really just means more people can become dead much sooner.

Here are some of the particulars:

There are 13 proposed amendments to the legislation, with proposed key changes to include:

• Removing the ‘gag clause’ so that registered health practitioners are allowed to raise VAD with their patients during discussion about end of life options

Doctors bringing up assisted suicide. Can you imagine anything more destructive of hope?

• Requiring registered health practitioners who conscientiously object to provide minimum information.

Doctors are often promised they can opt out. But then, the attacks on medical conscience begin.

• Extending the prognosis requirement (life expectancy limit for eligibility) from six months to 12 months.

Doctors often can’t accurately know who will die within six months. Having a one-year window just opens the door to more people to kill themselves who might not have died of their condition at all.

• For people with neurodegenerative diseases (like motor neurone disease), they’ll no longer need a third prognosis if their expected lifespan is between six and 12 months.

The second and third opinions are often provided by doctors recommended by euthanasia organizations.

• Introducing a new administering practitioner role to expand the workforce able to support VAD.

I suspect this means nurse practitioners will be able to participate in hastened death — as is allowed in other jurisdictions, including some here in the U.S. — because there can never be enough assisted suicide.

The premier excuses his loosening of eligibility requirements and other aspects of the law by claiming the changes are necessary to catch up with the slacker assisted-suicide laws in other Australian states. Talk about a race to the bottom!

The ultimate destination for all of this will be the creation of a fundamental right to be made dead, regardless of the reason, i.e., death on demand. Indeed, German and Estonian courts have already created a fundamental right to commit suicide and receive assistance in that act for whatever reason, or, for that matter, no reason at all.

In this, I am reminded of the Paul Simon lyrics:

Slip slidin’ away
Slip slidin’ away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you’re slip slidin’ away.

Links to previous articles about Victoria Australia's euthanasia law (Articles Link).

The assisted suicide lobby is promoting suicide tourism.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

A recent assisted suicide lobby information article asks the question: Can I travel to use Death with Dignity?

As many of our supporters are aware, Oregon and Vermont expanded their assisted suicide laws by removing the assisted suicide law residency requirement and allowing anyone from anywhere to die by assisted suicide in those states.

The recent assisted suicide lobby article is encouraging people from jurisdictions that prohibit assisted suicide to become suicide tourists and die by assisted suicide in Oregon or Vermont.

The article includes links for out-of-state- residents to contact assisted suicide organizations in Oregon and Vermont as well as contact information for a national organization that will provide advice for suicide tourists.

The assisted suicide lobby is promoting suicide tourism to encourage more out-of-state residents to die by assisted suicide in Oregon and Vermont.

In March 2025 I published an article outlining the Oregon assisted suicide statistics. In 2024 in Oregon there were:

• 607 poison prescriptions written, which was up from 433 in 2022.
• 376 reported assisted suicide deaths up by 71 from 305 in 2022.
• 23 of the 376 reported assisted suicide deaths were out-of-state residents.

In the article I explain that there were likely more assisted suicide deaths in Oregon in 2024 based on Oregon doctors often sending in late reports and possible problems with under-reporting.

Since the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) determines the number of assisted suicide deaths based on the reports they receive, therefore, if a doctor does not submit a report to the OHA there is no way to know if there was an out-of state assisted suicide death. As the 2024 OHA report states:

Previously, residence information was collected from the patient’s death certificate. However, for patients who die outside of Oregon and are not Oregon residents, OHA has no way to obtain notice of those deaths.

Since the OHA does not receive a death certificate for a non-resident assisted suicide death, therefore it cannot be determined if there were only 23 out-of-state residents who died by assisted suicide in Oregon in 2024.

It must be noted that the assisted suicide bill that passed in the New York state Assembly and Senate that has not been signed by New York Governor Kathy Hochul, does not have a residency requirement and would allow suicide tourism in New York.

When a person dies without family to take care of a funeral, the state becomes financially responsible for dealing with the body. Suicide tourism would exasperate this problem.

Contact New York Governor Kathy Hochul (Contact Link) or call her at: 518-474-8390 and urge her to veto the assisted suicide bill and prevent assisted suicide tourism in New York.

How Caregivers Can Sustain Themselves While Caring for Others

This article was published by Compassionate Community Care on October 14, 2025.

By Bob Shannon - seniorsmeet.org

Caregiving isn’t just a role. It becomes a rhythm that takes over your time, your thoughts, your body—and, if you’re not careful, your future. Many caregivers lose themselves while supporting others. But that doesn’t have to be the cost. With clear habits and hard-won boundaries, you can protect your energy, preserve your identity, and stay strong for the long haul.

Boundaries Are the First Line of Protection

Most caregivers are wired to say yes. But endless yeses quickly become exhaustion in disguise. One of the hardest and most necessary things you can do is establish your limits early and enforce them often. You don’t need to wait until you’re burning out to course-correct. Simple habits like using specific time blocks, defining “off-limits” hours, and being honest about your capacity help you stay present without overextending. What you’re building is not selfish distance, it’s maintaining boundaries that allow you to keep showing up without falling apart. No guilt required.

Reset in Moments, Not Just Days

Self-care doesn’t have to wait for a free weekend or perfect conditions. In fact, if that’s your bar, it’ll rarely happen. What works better are fast, repeatable resets that fit into your day without disrupting it. A breath routine. A stretch before a phone call. Sipping tea with no screen. These are not luxuries, they’re life rafts. Caregivers benefit most when they don’t wait for burnout to rest. By allowing yourself micro-doses of self-care, you can keep your stress from boiling over and make recovery a built-in part of your rhythm instead of a last resort.

Physical Maintenance Is Not Optional

You’re not a machine, but your body is your only vehicle. If it goes down, everything else follows. Caregivers often deprioritize meals, movement, and sleep; not out of laziness, but because their time feels hijacked. It’s a trap. You’re not more helpful when running on fumes; you’re just closer to collapse. Start simple. Add one walk a day. Prep basic meals in batches. Give yourself permission to sleep uninterrupted when possible. Even small, nourishing rituals can stabilize your energy and reduce the cognitive drag that comes from constant fatigue. These aren’t wellness perks. They’re maintenance basics.

Breaks Are Not Failure—they’re Fuel

Let’s be clear: Taking a break does not mean you’re slacking. It means you’re strategic. Too many caregivers operate like they’re in a permanent sprint. But you can’t sprint a marathon. Scheduling downtime isn’t indulgent, it’s survival. Look into rotating off days, even if they’re just partial. Ask relatives to cover for a few hours. Check local resources that offer coverage. Look into scheduling respite care intervals. Even short windows to unplug give your nervous system a chance to reset. When you rest with intention, you return more available, more calm, and more human.

Reconnect With What You Loved Before the Role

When you’re deep into caregiving, everything else can vanish: hobbies, humor, spontaneity. What you used to love feels far away. But losing access to joy isn’t just sad, it’s dangerous. It leads to numbness. You don’t need hours of free time to remember what makes you feel alive. You just need one reconnection point. Revisit a hobby you paused. Try a version that fits your time now. Sketch instead of paint. Journal one sentence. Listen to the music you used to obsess over. You can start finding joy through creative hobbies that don’t demand perfection or performance, just presence. Joy is a skill, not a luxury.

Connection Isn’t Bonus Support—It’s Core Infrastructure

Caregiving can make you feel invisible. Like no one sees how hard it is, or how heavy it feels to carry. That isolation is corrosive. But it’s not inevitable. Other caregivers are walking the same road, and connecting with them doesn’t just provide emotional relief, it gives you practical shortcuts, reminders, and a sense of normalcy. Don’t wait to be invited. Seek it out. Whether it’s a Facebook group, a local meetup, or a text thread with someone who gets it, peer caregiver communities can change everything. You don’t have to explain the basics. They already understand. That understanding can be oxygen.

Protecting Your Future Is Part of Self-Care

If caregiving has stalled your professional growth, it doesn’t mean your momentum is gone, it just means the path forward looks different now. Many caregivers use this period to refocus, not retreat. That can include new skills, certifications, or full degrees. And thanks to online education, this kind of planning doesn’t require walking away from your caregiving role. For example, earning an accredited MSN program online allows caregivers to study at a pace that fits their lives. It also opens doors into nursing education, administration, informatics, and advanced practice careers—roles with more autonomy, stability, and growth over time.

Caregiving will change you. It will stretch you, drain you, and demand more than seems fair. But it doesn’t have to erase you. When you learn to invest in your own sustainability—through boundaries, small rituals, nutrition, rest, joy, connection, and growth—you build a life that includes caregiving, not one consumed by it. This isn’t about becoming a better helper. It’s about staying whole. You are not the backup plan in someone else’s crisis. You are a full human who matters, and your future deserves the same care you give others every day.

George Clooney, Annette Bening to star in Pro-Assisted-Suicide movie

This article was published by National Review online on October 17, 2025.

Wesley Smith

By Wesley J Smith

Two A-List Hollywood actors will star in a pro-assisted-suicide movie. From the Hollywood Reporter story:

George Clooney and Annette Bening will star in In Love, an adaptation of Amy Bloom’s New York Times best-selling memoir In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss that is to be directed by Paul Weitz. . . .

With In Love, Bloom wrote about how her she slowly lost her husband to Alzheimer’s, how the two made the decision to travel to Switzerland to end his life, and the struggle to move forward as a widow. The book was an affirmation of love and the power of relationships. It was also named TIME Magazine’s No. 1 best nonfiction book and included on their list of 100 must-read books.

Of course! To Big Time Hollywood, adjacent glitterati, and much of the mainstream media, truly loving someone with Alzheimer’s means being willing to help them become dead rather than caring for them as long as they live.

This is almost trite. How many pro-euthanasia movies/TV episodes have there been? It’s hard to keep count. How many anti-assisted-suicide/pro-care projects? Honestly, I can’t think of one even though there are plenty of dramatic stories illustrating the abuses and dangers just waiting to be told.

R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., founder of the American Spectator magazine, coined a term kulturesmog, meaning “ideas that are incompatible with traditional American social, cultural, and economic ideals.” That term sure seems apt here.

Built to Coerce: Canada’s Laboratory of Euthanasia

This article was published by The Pulse on October 14, 2025. The Pulse is the research publication for the Catholic Medical Association.

By Yuriko Ryan, DBe, MA, HEC-C

One summer morning my husband and I stepped into a Catholic hospital through a main entrance we both knew well. It was where he was born, where he practiced almost daily as a family physician for 35 years, where we returned to countless specialist visits, outpatient appointments, palliative care meetings with dear friends, and the joy of welcoming babies in the maternity ward. For us, the hospital was a constant holy presence, an unwavering witness to the dignity of life.

Previous articles about the Shoreline Space (Articles Link).

But this visit brought something unexpected into view. On the left wall, a new mural of muted mountains and shoreline scenes quietly caught our attention. There were no familiar reminders – no mission statement and no donor plaques. The absence felt unsettling and eerie. Beside the mural was a locked door, labeled not with Providence or St. Paul’s Hospital but with the name of the regional health authority and Shoreline Space. Outside it, elderly patients unsuspectingly sat in wheelchairs, on walkers, or on chairs, waiting for their ride in a handicapped-accessible van. This was the wall and the door to the euthanasia clinic, conjoined to our Catholic hospital. The mural and the doorway together became more than décor – they became a map of contested moral space.   

Canada – Laboratory of Euthanasia

Canada has transformed into a real-world testing ground for euthanasia – what the law calls medical assistance in dying (MAiD). Initially permitted only in cases of suffering with terminal illness, [i] MAiD has rapidly expanded through court challenges framed as rights. Law makers and healthcare systems have responded with unexpected enthusiasm by widening eligibility to include patients with chronic conditions, disabilities, mental illness, frailty, and various perceived sufferings.

By the end of 2024, around 90,000 Canadians had died by MAiD since it became legal in 2016.[ii] In 2023, MAiD deaths accounted for 4.7% of all Canadian deaths,^[iii] making it the fifth leading cause of death nationwide. The pace of growth is nearly the same proportion the Netherlands reached after twenty years.[iv] Today, MAiD requests are rarely denied. [v]

Article: There were around 16,500 euthanasia deaths in 2024 (Link).

Spatial Ethics

Spatial ethics, despite their significance to environmental and behavioral psychology,[vi] [vii] [viii] [ix] and moral theology, including principles such as cooperation with evil,[x] have received scant attention. Yet the arrangement of care spaces profoundly shapes our moral imagination and our moral discourse. Hospitals and hospices are not the only ones facing spatial ethics issues. Risks to patients or individuals residing in long-term care homes and other congregate housing settings may be elevated due to the shared use of common areas and, frequently, rooms among clients. They may not be able to express their concerns adequately due to their cognitive decline, serious chronic illness and comorbidities, lack of care advocates, language barriers, and loneliness and isolation. For patients with disabilities, frequently, the limited access to home care, disability support and services in their own communities result in unwanted hospitalization. And MAiD assessments are more readily available in hospitals. These care spaces may implicitly communicate to vulnerable populations that their lives are burdensome.

Built To Coerce

When my poster Built to Coerce: Ethics of Imposed Euthanasia (MAiD) Provision in a Catholic Hospital Space received recognition at the Catholic Medical Association conference, the moment was bittersweet. The award affirmed the urgency of examining how legal and healthcare structures can pressure Catholic and other mission-driven organizations, medical professionals, and patients toward euthanasia through spatial arrangements. Yet the recognition could not erase the grief that such coercion exists, nor the weight of knowing that euthanasia clinics are being embedded in contested care settings across the country, reshaping not only the geography of care but the very meaning of healthcare itself.

Meanings of Healthcare Space

Traditionally, healthcare spaces served as operational, missional, and moral actors. The euthanasia clinic I described is located immediately inside a main entrance of our Catholic hospital. Its placement – on the main floor, adjacent to high-volume outpatient specialty clinics and diagnostic labs and visible along corridor sightlines – functions as an operational and missional signal for the regional health authority and the government. It implicitly states who matters and who is deemed peripheral. Despite a pre-existing agreement signed two decades earlier, denominational healthcare organizations now face human-rights legal challenges and mounting pressure to provide euthanasia onsite in exchange for a license to operate and receive public funding. This forced presence demands collective moral reflection and renewed missional rigor – not only for Catholic healthcare organizations but for any organization striving to remain a witness to the dignity of life.    

On the Ground

British Columbia – our province – has the second-highest per capita rate of MAiD deaths across the country.[xi] By 2023, MAiD deaths had already surpassed deaths from illicit drug overdoses.[xii]In 2024, MAiD accounted for 6.7% of all deaths in BC.[xiii] [xiv] Of the 3,000 MAiD deaths in 2024, nearly 90 % were seniors aged 65 and over. 35% died by MAiD for “Other Conditions” – not cancer or cardiovascular diseases –, with frailty being the leading cause under the “Other” category. MAiD has become a solution to old age. In 2024, approximately 40% of all MAiD deaths in BC occurred in private residences.[xv] Their last breaths in the air of family spaces risk shared memories being tainted. Spatial ethics issues surrounding MAiD now touch every care and housing setting.[xvi]

It is not difficult to imagine how frail seniors reach such decisions, surrounded by cues embedded in care spaces. In hospitals, they overhear conversations about MAiD in multi-occupancy rooms or find pamphlets left at their bedside. In hospices, if MAiD is openly celebrated next door, the space begins to speak to the minds of the dying. Stand alone MAiD suites are also appearing in business complexes, without clear signage, mission statements, or donor plaques – eerily similar to Shoreline Space. One is built in direct view of a community dialysis clinic, remains unmarked with smoky windows, passed daily by unsuspecting patients and office workers.

A Warning to the World

Canada is a warning to the world as an experimental laboratory of euthanasia. When healing and killing share a wall, corridor, and a roof, they become each other’s gatekeepers, and the very meaning of healthcare space is at stake. An unsuspecting patient walking past a MAiD clinic is not only a Canadian story. It is a parable of what hospitals, hospices, and nursing homes elsewhere may soon confront. Built to Coerce was not only the title of a poster; it is the reality inscribed in our healthcare architecture. The question is not whether pressures will come – they already exist. The question is where we will find the courage to preserve spaces where life is reverenced before the geography of care is irresistibly altered.

Build to Care, Not to Coerce  

If Catholic healthcare is to remain a witness to the dignity of life, then MAiD-free zones cannot be left to chance, convenience, or the whim of those who promote euthanasia.  Catholic Medical Association members and all who serve in healthcare are called to remain a constant presence and an unwavering witness to the dignity of life, safeguarding spaces that are theoretically sound, theologically rooted, and morally grounded. Let us call our brothers and sisters, regardless of vocation, to build to care, not to coerce.

Dr. Yuriko Ryan is a bioethicist and gerontologist based in Vancouver, Canada. She serves on the Catholic Medical Association’s Ethics Committee and the International Ad-hoc Committee. Her writing explores the moral contours of artificial intelligence, aging, and end-of-life care, appearing in Momento, her weekly bioethics newsletter, and feature articles for AI and Faith. Through her lectures, publications, and committee work, she advocates for human dignity across all stages of life, guided by a Catholic lens. 

---

[i] The Government of Canada. Medical Assistance in Dying: Overview. Accessed August 1, 2025.Accessed August 30, 2025. https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/health-services-benefits/medical-assistance-dying.html

[ii] Schadenberg, Alex. (September 29, 2025). Accessed September 30, 2025. Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Euthanasia Prevention Coalition: There were around 16,500 Canadian euthanasia deaths in 2024, 5% of all deaths.

[iii] Health Canada. (2024, December 11). Fifth annual report on medical assistance in dying in Canada, 2023 (Cat. No. H22-1/6E-PDF; ISBN 2563-3643). Accessed September 30, 2025.  https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/publications/health-system-services/annual-report-medical-assistance-dying-2023.html

[iv]   Regional Euthanasia Review Committees. (March 25). Accessed September 30, 2025. Annual reports (English, Spanish, French and German) | Regional Euthanasia Review Committees

[v] Th Fifth Annual Report on Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada, 2023 – Canada.ca

[vi] Kahana, Eva. “A congruence model of person-environment interaction.” Aging and the environment: Theoretical approaches (1982): 97-121.

[vii] Bell, Paul A., T. Green, Jeffrey D. Fisher, and Andrew Baum. Environmental psychology. New Jersey, 2001.

[viii] Ajzen, Icek. “The theory of planned behavior.” Organizational behavior and human decision processes 50, no. 2 (1991): 179-211.

[ix] Stamps, Arthur E. Psychology and the aesthetics of the built environment. Springer Science & Business Media, 2013.

[x] Meany, Joseph. Referral as Formal Cooperation with Evil – F.I.A.M.C.

[xi] See Health Canada’s 5^th annual report.

[xii] BC Coroners Service. Unregulated Drug Deaths – BC. Notes: 2588 deaths due to unregulated drug deaths in 2023. In the same year, 2,759 MAiD deaths were reported.

[xiii] BC Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) Statistical Report 2024. Accessed September 28, 2025. bc-medical-assistance-in-dying-statistical-report-2024.pdf

[xiv] Statistics Canada. Accessed September 30, 2025. Estimates of the components of natural increase, quarterly

[xv] BC Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) Statistical Report 2024. Accessed September 28, 2025. bc-medical-assistance-in-dying-statistical-report-2024.pdf

[xvi] Angus Reid Institute (December 12, 2024). Division over aspects of assisted dying, including MAiD-free spaces. Accessed August 10, 2025.  https://angusreid.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2024.12.12_MAID_free_discretion.pdf

MAiD has made Canadians with disabilities often afraid of the healthcare system.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Krista Carr

During a Canadian parliament Finance Committee hearing Krista Carr, the CEO of Inclusion Canada, which is a national federation of people with disabilities, stated that:

People with disabilities are now very much afraid in many circumstances to show up in the healthcare system with regular concerns because often MAiD is suggested as the solution to what is considered to be intolerable suffering that happens to be caused by some of the things that this committee addresses like poverty and the situations that people with disabilities disproportionately find themselves in compared to other Canadians.

This is explosive testimony from Krista Carr that she shares without prompting. Parliament must protect people with disabilities and all Canadians accessing healthcare.

Canada's euthanasia (MAiD) law allows medical professionals to offer euthanasia rather than only discussing the topic when people ask about it.

Contact your Member of Parliament to bring this issue to their attention.

If you have a story about feeling pressured to consider euthanasia (MAiD) please contact info@epcc.ca

Uruguay follows Canada's lead by legalizing Euthanasia.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.

I have bad news. Uruguay has legalized euthanasia.

Uruguay's Senate passed a euthanasia bill today that was previously passed in August in the Lower House. 

Sadly, Uruguay's passed a euthanasia law that is similar to Canada's law.

According to the Associated Press article:

The legislation permits euthanasia, performed by a healthcare professional, but not assisted suicide, which involves a patient self-administering a lethal dose of prescribed medication.

Unlike laws in U.S. states, Australia and New Zealand restricting euthanasia to those with a life expectancy of no more than six months or a year, Uruguay sets no time limits. It also not does require a waiting period, and allows anyone suffering from an incurable illness that causes “unbearable suffering” to seek assisted death, even if their diagnosis is not terminal.

Similar to Canada, the person who is killed is not required to be terminally ill and there is no waiting period, which means that once approved a person can have a same-day death. The Associated Press also reported that:

Uruguay requires that those seeking euthanasia to be mentally competent.

Although the law does not outright ban euthanasia for those with mental conditions like depression, it requires that patients get two doctors to rule that they are psychologically fit enough to make the decision.

Unlike Belgium, Colombia and the Netherlands, Uruguay will not allow euthanasia for minors.

Sadly Uruguay has followed Canada's lead.

Uruguay needs to know that the number of euthanasia deaths in Canada have skyrocketed as Canada's loosely defined law has allowed euthanasia based on poverty, homelessness and an inability to obtain medical treatment.

Last year, a report from the Ontario Chief Coroner's MAiD Death Review Committee found that there around 428 non-compliant euthanasia deaths in Ontario alone from 2018 to 2023. 

The MDRC Committee also reported on a man in his forties who had been "involuntarily hospitalized" on mental health grounds who died by euthanasia after reacting to a Covid-19 vaccination. The post-mortem found "no pathological findings".

A recent report from the MDRC committee stated that:

A frail woman in her late 80s with dementia received MAID after a family member “brought forward” a request for an assisted death, a new report reveals.

The woman’s life was ended after a MAID provider deemed the woman had given her final expressed consent to proceed, based on her ability to repeat a question and squeeze the provider’s hand.

Euthanasia is legalized to prevent suffering, but it results in the abandonment of people at their greatest time of need. What is needed is to properly care for people, not kill them.

Hopefully Uruguay will reverse this decision in the near future.

New York Governor Hochul must veto the assisted suicide bill.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

New York Governor Hochul

The New York Post published an editorial urging New York's Governor Kathy Hochul to veto the assisted suicide bill.

In June, 2025 the New York State Senate approved assisted suicide Bill A136/S138 that was also approved by the Assembly in April.

The assisted suicide bill has not yet reached Governor Hochul desk, but, when it does she must veto the assisted suicide bill or it will become law.

Contact New York Governor Kathy Hochul (Contact Link) or call her at: 518-474-8390 and urge her to protect people when they are vulnerable by vetoing the assisted suicide bill.

The New York Post editorial stated:

Gov. Kathy Hochul must resist the coming push to sign the so-called Medical Aid in Dying Act: New York doesn’t need to turn doctors into killers.

Fans of “assisted suicide” pretend it’s purely about respecting the wishes of terminally ill patients seeking a dignified exit, but medicalized killing never stops there.

The editorial continues:

The bill awaiting Hochul’s signature, has no waiting period, making same-day suicides entirely possible; it requires no evaluation of a would-be suicides patient’s mental competency.

Damningly, it requires doctors to lie on death certificates by listing the underlying illness as the cause of death, not the ingestion of lethal drugs: Why do that, except to conceal how many people wind up dead because of this law?

The New York Post editorial doesn't state this, but the New York bill also lacks a residency requirement, meaning New York would become a suicide destination.

Contact New York Governor Kathy Hochul (Contact Link) or call her at: 518-474-8390 and urge her to protect people when they are vulnerable by vetoing the assisted suicide bill.

90,000 Canadians dead by Euthanasia (MAiD) and counting.

This article was written and published by Kelsi Sheren on her substack.

By Kelsi Sheren

Canada has now crossed a line most of us never thought possible. By the end of 2024, there were roughly 16,500 euthanasia deaths, that representing 5% of all deaths in the country.

Since legalization, there have been nearly 90,000 deaths by MAID - murder.

90,000 PEOPLE HAVE BEEN KILLED INTENTIONALLY BY A DR.

No support, no compassion, no “how can we help you be comfortable so you can pass in a real peaceful way. Just a Dr with dead eyes being paid to take your life with two iv’s, drug kits, paralyzed and drown to death in their own fluids.

This is not compassion. This is not choice. This is state-facilitated killing on an industrial scale. Call it what it is, please! Eugenics.

Our broken country is officially out of control, the federal government’s own data confirms the trend. In 2023, Canada recorded 15,343 reported euthanasia deaths already a staggering 4.7% of all deaths. That was up from 13,241 in 2022. In 2024, the figure climbed to 16,500, or 5%.

This is not a marginal program. MAID is not a rare exception. It is now one of the leading “causes” of death in Canada.

And it keeps growing. In just the first half of 2025, Ontario alone recorded 2,551 euthanasia deaths a 4% increase over the same period in 2024.

My home province of BC should be TERRIFYING YOU. We are what people call “the canary in the coal mine.”

The 2024 data from British Columbia is especially alarming:

• 3,000 euthanasia deaths in 2024, up 8% from the year before.
• On Vancouver Island alone, 904 people were euthanized, more than 30% of the province’s total.

Why does Island Health have such inflated numbers? Access is easier, oversight is weaker, and a dedicated euthanasia clinic normalizes the practice. It isn’t medical care — it’s assembly-line death. When I’m talking about dedicated to death, look no further then “MAID HOUSE” the facility you walk into and never walk out. All they do is kill, 365.

But the most chilling number? 35% of BC euthanasia approvals were for “other conditions.” Of those, nearly two-thirds were classified as “frailty.” Yep you read that right. “FRAILTY”

Frailty is not a terminal illness.

Frailty is not a terminal illness.

Frailty is not a terminal illness.

Frailty is not a terminal illness.

Frailty is not a terminal illness.

Here one more time if you didn’t get it yet

Frailty is not a terminal illness.

It’s a vague label for aging bodies and comorbidities. In practice, it means Canadians are being euthanized for nothing more than being old and tired.

In the Netherlands, this is called “Completed Life.” It has been debated and remains contested. In Canada, it was never debated. It’s just happening, because well…. no one is stopping it, speaking loudly enough or calling these “Dr’s” what they are. Killers.

Name them, every single one of them. They love killing so much, so why not give them the spot light. I will be doing just that soon.

Eugenics isn’t always about forced sterilizations or gas chambers. At its core, it’s about deciding which lives are worth living and which are not — and enshrining that judgment in state policy.

That is exactly what Canada is doing:

• Elderly people labeled “frail.”
• Disabled people pressured to die rather than live in poverty.
• The mentally ill specifically start in March 2027
• Children may start in 2027

Families nudged toward the “cheap” option of euthanasia over palliative care.

When 5% of all deaths in a country come from a government-sanctioned lethal injection, you are no longer running a healthcare system. You are running a death program.

Palliative medicine is almost non existent anymore, what was morphine, hospice, compassionate care has been starved of resources as MAID has expanded, all lobbied by one organization that wants everyone to die. Why fund the difficult work of supporting the dying when killing is faster and cheaper?

The “choice” narrative is a smokescreen, a lie shoved down Canadians throat until they don’t even realize they are the lambs to slaughter. In reality, many Canadians are being offered death not because it is what they want, but because it is the only option the system will fully fund.

As of September 2025, nearly 90,000 Canadians have been killed under MAID since its legalization. The numbers climb every year. The categories expand every year. And the already pathetic attempt at safeguards vanish into dust.

This is not “medical assistance in dying.” It is medical assistance in killing.

A cultural shift where the sick, elderly, disabled, and vulnerable are told, directly or indirectly you are a burden, and the responsible thing is to die.

That is eugenics, plain and simple.

Canada does not need more MAID. It needs more humanity.

We need a national reckoning before another 90,000 are sacrificed on the altar of false compassion.

And we need it now.

KELSI SHEREN

Source: https://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2025/09/british-columbia-euthanasia-deaths.html

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/health/accessing-health-care/home-community-care/bc-medical-assistance-in-dying-statistical-report-2024.pdf

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_D4H1ybW-oxx_sWzaMAaxAB2T3vzfuec/view

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EVYHaeSxkJkYrdQWC_jTzYhbkD-cckLG/view?pli=1

https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:va6c2:678e5488-5c60-4ca6-bdb1-035ffa3e15ad

https://csfv.gouv.qc.ca/fileadmin/docs/rapports_sfv/amm_administrees_par_annee-mois_030225.pdf

https://www.albertahealthservices.ca/info/Page14930.aspx

https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/publications/health-system-services/annual-report-medical-assistance-dying-2023.html

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/health/accessing-health-care/home-community-care/bc-medical-assistance-in-dying-statistical-report-2024.pdf

Canada is not better than the United States

Meghan Schrader

By Meghan Schrader

With the exception of those who have blithely stated their intention to kill members of a marginalized group because they are members of that group, such as people like Peter Singer, Thaddeus Mason Pope, Christopher Riddle and some other “MAiD” supporters, and members of hate groups like the KKK, I don’t choose my friends and associates based on ideology. I have friends and family from all over the political spectrum that have been good to me. I also think it is imperative that people from all over the political spectrum unite to correct the serious problems that disabled people face, sort of like people might unite if someone’s house were on fire.

So, I don’t generally comment on political candidates or parties. But there have been a lot of policies being proposed or implemented lately that my experience indicates would be very bad for disabled people. I feel like my role as a disability justice advocate requires me to comment on these policies. So, I have had to talk about politics a little bit. In that vein, this post is intended as a disability justice response to Americans who are currently thinking that Canada might be a nice place to live.

In my opinion there are some really, really bad policies being implemented in the United States right now; I discuss what I think are destructive disability rights policies at length in my “Opposition to Recent/Proposed Disability Policy Changes Is Not “Hysteria” post. 

In my experience, ableism is not unique to this administration or to the Republican Party, but from my perspective it’s as though this administration got a list of almost every ableist thing it could possibly do and shouted, “Leeroy Jenkins!” And, Conservative-identitying members of this administration are the ones leading efforts to implement the aforementioned policies, so it’s justifiable for people to talk about ableist and/or generally prejudiced conservative policies and ideas.

Nevertheless, it bothers me to see many Americans, especially Americans who identify as politically progressive, holding up comparatively leftist Canada as a place to move to and extolling the wisdom of its leaders. Although I believe that many of the policies that this administration has championed are unethical and prejudiced, Canada is also implementing unethical and prejudiced policies; it is NOT any better than the United States, at least not for people with disabilities.

If one compares the disability policies that this administration has implemented to Canada’s, there are disturbing parallels. For instance, President Trump signed an executive order making it easier to institutionalize people with severe mental illnesses like I have experienced. This is horrible, but did Canada not do the same thing when it passed the More Beds Better Care Act, which allows health authorities to forcibly transfer disabled and elderly people to institutions far away from their families? The prevailing worldview among members of the mainstream disability studies/advocacy communities that I interact with is that this administration’s policies have made America’s issues with systemic racism worse, but did Canada’s government not ignore the majority of its indigenous community that asserted that Canada’s healthcare system was rife with systemic racism and “Track 2 MAiD” would make that worse? I’ve observed some disabled friends who identify as LGBT talking about moving to Canada, and although I can’t speak to their experiences, I worry that Canada would not be a better environment for them, given that Canada is aggressively suggesting “MAiD” to disabled people who identify with any gender or sexual orientation. People from across my Facebook feed are expressing concern that this administration has implemented policies that seem designed to impose its worldview on everyone, but has Canada’s government not shut down hospices that decline to participate in “MAiD”? I know from personal experience that America’s policies often further systemic ableism, but at least we passed the Americans With Disabilities Act in 1990. Canada passed “ADA lite” legislation in 2019, and has set a goal of the law being fully implemented in 2040. Current Prime Minister Carney didn’t even bother to appoint a disability justice minister and is continuing Trudeau’s pattern of starving and killing people with disabilities. Is that the world that Canada’s admirers want for Americans with disabilities?

As I’ve noted, it seems that people who admire Canada the most tend to identify as political progressives. Unfortunately, Canada’s current Center-Left government has taken ableism to a lethal extreme, and in my experience USA citizens from that political contingent have not collectively earned the disabled community’s trust either.

For instance, one of the most aggressively ableist progressive-identifying people I have ever met, the guidance counselor who attempted to force me to drop out of high school because I was a Special Education student, posted on the public part of his Facebook page:

“I just listened to Prime Minister Trudeau’s speech on Canada’s response to Trump’s tariffs. He would, if Trump follows through, concomitantly place tariffs on U.S. goods. He spoke like a true, sensible and sane leader. I was proud for the Canadian people and shame for our country’s leadership…It seems that if more people who typically vote democratic did not sit it out in 2024 things might have been different. But we must move on.”

No. Prime Minister Trudeau was not a “true, sensible” leader. He helped create a world where disabled people are starving and killing themselves. It scares and offends me to observe people like that guidance counselor praising Trudeau as a “true, sensible leader;” I think that’s a sign that Canada is correctly controlled by people like that guidance counselor: people who virtue signal about how progressive they are while treating disabled people of all backgrounds like garbage.

With regard to how attitudes toward Canada intersect with the right to die debate, the attitudes of mainstream US “MAiD” leaders toward Canada are concerning. As noted, Compassion and Choices leaders Kevin Diaz and Bernadette Nunley’s article on the differences between US and Canadian “MAiD” laws declined to criticize Canada’s approach. Also, I don’t mean to be creepy, but I noticed that Compassion and Choices National Campaign Director Tim Appleton posted this comment about Justin Trudeau on his BlueSky account:

“After watching this, I cannot imagine #JustinTrudeau leaving the world stage. Canada, America, and the world need him, now more than ever.”

The fact that Tim thinks that Canada, America and the world needs Justin Trudeau, even after Trudeau allowed policies that lead to disabled people starving, being homeless and dying early deaths strikes me as indicating that the American “MAiD” movement’s outreach to people with disabilities is largely performative.

Tim also posted a quote from Canadian Prime Minister Carney asserting that this administration’s tariffs were an indication that the 80 year period in which the United States “formed alliances rooted in mutual trust and respect” was over. I agree that this administration’s tariffs are ridiculous, but Carney has no right to lecture anyone about “trust and respect.” His party gives disabled people no reason to afford his government any level of trust and Carney treats his disabled citizens with extreme disrespect. Tim might respond that his posts aren’t meant to communicate agreement with everything Canada does, but Canada’s leaders have created an environment where disabled people are starving and killing themselves. Compassion and Choices likes to frame itself as part of the political left, but praising such a country doesn’t seem very progressive or responsible to me. Would C&C’s leaders praise Vladimir Putin? Or apartheid South Africa? By equivocating about and praising Canada, C&C’s leaders are reinforcing the message that its disability policies aren’t contemptible and that it would be acceptable for America to copy them.

My perspective that Canada is not better than the United States is not unique. When Canada was passing Bill C-7 to expand “MAiD” to people with disabilities, a disabled Canadian X user named Tweedy Mutant posted:

“Let me talk to Americans for a second about #KillBillC7. Look, I grew up in the US, so I know that Canada holds a special place in the hearts of US leftists, but the Canada that people threaten to move to every election and the ACTUAL country of Canada are different places. In cases of discrimination, the ACTUAL country of Canada offers completely inadequate "protection" through a slow and retraumatizing Human Rights Tribunal process riddled with barriers that disproportionately impact disabled ppl, making it an ineffectual option for redress.

Oh and the threat to move to Canada the next time the GOP takes the White House? Good luck if you're disabled. In the ACTUAL country of Canada, would-be immigrants can be denied on the grounds of disability. Furthermore, the ACTUAL country of Canada does not provide disabled ppl with adequate supports to live -- and instead of ensuring better quality-of-life, Parliament passed Bill C7, which removes important safeguards on medical assistance in dying.

The ACTUAL country of Canada has a long history of institutionalization and sterilization. The ACTUAL country of Canada passed a toothless version of the ADA (the ACA) 19 years AFTER the US. (Do the math: we got our "ADA lite" in 2019!)”

Disabled Canadian X user Sarah Colero stated:

“The treatment of developmentally disabled folks by the United States does not take away from the active disabled eugenics in Canada in which the UN CRPD called out earlier this year. You can maplewash all you want, Canada is actively killing disabled folks including Autistics.”

American disability justice leader Imani Barbarin responded to a post from a Canadian expressing derision for the USA’s current policies by asserting: 

“Your healthcare system has been essentially euthanizing disabled people en masse.”

Indeed. As a disabled person, Canada doesn’t sound like a place that I would want to live.

Disabled people in the United States do not need leaders like Canada’s in charge of our lives. We need people from across the political spectrum to listen to us and create policies that help us thrive, not make us so oppressed that we die.

Québec Constitutional Bill 2025 would create a "right to be killed"

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Québec National Assembly, on October 9, 2025; has proposed a bill to change the Québec constitution with - The Québec Constitional Bill 2025. The purpose of the bill is to "protect" Québec's identity as a secular society.

The Québec Constitutional Bill 2025 would also create "right to be killed"

An article by François Carabin and Marco Bélair-Cirino that was published by Le Devoir on October 9 stated:

The Bill amends the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms to "protect the right of Quebecers to die with dignity and to receive medical assistance in dying when their condition requires it."

The Le Devoir article further stated:

Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette presented his draft "Quebec Constitutional Act, 2025" to the National Assembly. This "law of all laws"—which, in his view, would have "primacy over any incompatible rule of law"—would reinforce the "fundamental values" of the "beautiful nation" of Quebec, starting with gender equality.

The Québec government is proposing to change its constitution to ensure that the cultural changes in Québec cannot be changed. The article states:

To achieve this, he also proposes amending the "Provincial Constitution" section of the Constitutional Act of Canada, 1867, to add "three new provisions on the fundamental characteristics of Quebec, namely the secularism of the State, the model of integration into the Quebec nation and the civil law tradition" to the one added in 2022, "French is the only official language of Quebec [and] the common language of the Quebec nation."

The Québec Constitution Bill 2025 is likely unconstitutional and is incredibly dangerous as it would create a constitutional right to kill.

People Magazine article sells couple assisted suicide death porn.

Their daughter was constantly on the phone, speaking to hospice coordinators and doctors trying to get her dad qualified for hospice and MAID.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

An exclusive article written by Vanessa Etienne and published by People Magazine on October 8, 2025 reads like an assisted suicide lobby article that was paid for to sell couple suicide by making a couple killing part of a "love" story. This story feels like death porn.

Further to that the death story features a daughter who becomes intimately involved with arranging the assisted suicide deaths of her parents. From the article:

Corinne Gregory Sharpe always had a strong relationship with her parents, Eva and Druse Neumann. “We all were close and tight-knit,” the private professional chef from Port Ludlow, Washington, says. But in 2021, she helped both of them end their own lives with medical aid in dying — a journey she calls a “painful paradox.”

Now, four years after their deaths, the 61-year-old is opening up exclusively to PEOPLE about their last moments together and why she advocated for them to die on their own terms.

Eva and Druse Newmann died by assisted suicide in Washington state, where assisted suicide was legalized in 2009 after the law passed in a state voter initiative.

The story suggests that Eva qualified for assisted suicide but Druse didn't want to be left-alone after her death. From the article:

Meanwhile, Eva’s decision to die left Druse distraught. “I had a very interesting, serious heart-to-heart conversation with him one evening after my mom had gone to bed,” Corinne shares. “And he was just panicked like, ‘What happens to me if she goes first?’ That's always been a concern of his. He couldn't see a scenario where he would want to continue if mom was gone.”

“He's always been afraid of dying. But I think he was more afraid of being left alone,” she explains. “He was like, ‘Well, if she's gonna go and I have the option to go at the same time, then I'm getting on that horse.’ So I was like, look, we'll figure something out.”

In other words, Eva seems to qualify, under the law, to die by assisted suicide but Druse did not. So Corinne made it her goal to get Druse to qualify to be killed. The story states:

From that point, Corinne was constantly on the phone, speaking to hospice coordinators and doctors trying to get her dad qualified for hospice and MAID. She admits it was “surreal” to be essentially advocating for her own father’s death. By mid-June, Druse was successfully qualified based on his history of mini-strokes.

Corinne says it was “a race” to get her dad qualified, and the justification from doctors came down to the strong possibility of her father suffering a stroke that wouldn’t kill him, but would leave him incapacitated.

After receiving the lethal poison for her parents, Corinne suggests that the death occur on Friday, August 13, 2021 as part of a "wicked" death.

People Magazine may have received money from the assisted suicide lobby for Vanessa Etienne to write this quircky and dangerous article promoting couple assisted suicide.

This article shows you just how bad the assisted suicide lobby has become. The reality is that this article provides enough information to open an investigation into the deaths of Eva and Druse Neumann.

Even considering the lack of oversight of the Washington State assisted suicide law, it is questionable, at best, that Druse actually qualified for assisted suicide. This story suggests that Corinne went out of her way to arrange her father's death.

I really hope that authorities in Washington State will investigate these deaths.

• Previous articles about this topic (Articles Link).