Court case (Day 3) to force all healthcare institutions to provide euthanasia.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

St Paul's hospital Vancouver

The court case concerning the right of religiously affiliated healthcare institutions to refuse to participate in (MAiD) euthanasia began in a BC Court on Monday January 12 and will be heard for the next four weeks.

(Article for Trail Day 1) (Article for Trial Day 2)

Samantha O'Neill (34) died on April 4, 2023 by euthanasia (MAiD) after being transferred from St Paul's hospital in Vancouver to a Hospice that does euthanasia.

Suzanne Lazaruk reporting for the Vancouver Sun on January 14 explains:

The O’Neills, the pro-assisted death group Dying with Dignity, and a former St. Paul’s doctor filed the lawsuit to ask the B.C. Supreme Court to remove the exemption granted to religious groups such as the hospital’s operator, Providence Health Care, to allow them to opt out of assisted dying procedures.

The exemption is based on the section of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees the fundamental freedom of Canadians to follow their conscience and religion and not to act against their beliefs.

Lazaruk reported on the testimony of Meagan Mackay, a friend of Sam O'Neill:

Sam’s friend, Meaghan MacKay, on Wednesday testified that the transfer was upsetting to watch even though Sam was sedated through transport.

She said she had heard how the assisted dying procedure was peaceful and beautiful, but she said the reality of Sam’s was that her final goodbyes were rushed because the transfer team was waiting. And she said the hospice didn’t appear set up to accommodate her arrival and Sam’s mother and a friend had to clear a room of medical aids before the gurney could be rolled in.

A witness for the plaintiffs Robert Chevarie, explained that his grandmother, who had also been transferred from a religiously affiliated hospital for euthanasia, suffered from being transferrered because of her obesity.

Chevarie is arguing that his grandmother should had euthanasia at the religiously affiliated hospital. Chevarie's testimony misses the fact that people are transferred everyday from one hospital to another for procedures. His grandmothers obesity would have been a problem whether the transfer was for euthanasia or for anything else. In today's healthcare system, hospitals cannot provide all procedures, whether it is a faith based institution or not.

Finally, Lazaruk reported that:

Also on Wednesday, Skolrood delivered his judgment on an application by Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, one of the defendants, ruling the evidence of the three plaintiff doctors should be limited to their observations and experience and not include opinions.

Their evidence will be used to establish that the assisted dying ban at the hospital caused the doctors moral distress, violating their Charter rights — the guarantee of their life, liberty and security of person, and their rights to freedom of conscience and religion.

This means that Justice Skolrood will only consider the observations and experience of the doctors involved and not their opinions.

On June 17, 2024; Dying with Dignity and the family of Sam O'Neill, who requested euthanasia at St Paul's Hospital in Vancouver but transferred to another facility to die by euthanasia, launched a Charter Challenge claiming that O'Neill's rights were infringed when she was transferred from St. Paul's Hospital to another facility for euthanasia.

One of the goals of the euthanasia lobby is to force all Canadian medical institutions to provide (MAiD) euthanasia.