Ontario mother offered euthanasia after being paralysed from Covid shot.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Kayla Pollock

I was going through some old emails and came upon an important article from last year.

Kayla Pollock, a mother who worked as a casual educational assistant, assisting kindergarten children in the same school her son attended, was fit, healthy and active until she reacted to a Moderna shot that she received on January 11, 2022.

Without getting into all of the issues around her care, I will just state that Pollock was diagnosed with Transverse myelitis, a condition that interrupts the transmission of messages along the spinal cord nerves throughout the body.

These are difficult stories to write about, based on the politics related to Covid, nonetheless Pollock was pressured to request euthanasia (MAiD) three times while she was trying to recover in the hospital. Pollock wanted to live and care for her son.

It is beyond me why a person, who wants to live can be harassed and pressured to ask to be killed by euthanasia.

Roger Foley has had similar experiences (Link).

For more information go to Operation Kayla (Link).

On two occasions MAiD was suggested to Jim. Jim remains alive.

The following is a contribution to our EPC "Story Contest" collection. Visit our "contributor info" link, "recent stories" link and "story index" link. 

Please send your story (fact or creative fiction) to: story@epcc.ca

Liz and Jim

My husband (for the sake of privacy I’ll call him Jim) has Secondary Progressive MS that has progressed to the stage where he uses a power chair. In 2021 he used a manual chair part of the time and the power chair part of the time, especially outside the house. Jim caught Covid from me in the spring of 2021. The virus was so bad that it triggered his MS to be so severe that he couldn’t even help me to transfer him from his chair to bed or toilet. He was having trouble breathing and I called 911. When the paramedics came they thought he also had a stroke. I told them that’s how his MS affects his body but they still proceeded as though he had a possible stroke. He was admitted to the hospital and they confirmed Covid with pneumonia. No stroke.

After about one week in the hospital he choked on his breakfast resulting in aspiration pneumonia. I was not allowed to go to the hospital to see him, and I didn’t know that at some point they stopped giving his oral medications along with food. He only got food though an NG tube. They were worried that he’d choke and aspirate again, even though there were other options, such as giving the medication with apple sauce. Then one week after that I got a call from the Doctor saying he thinks Jim might not last the night, and I should come in to see him. So our kids and I went to visit him that day. We had to put on all the PPE first. The Doctor decided to give him medication to make our visit more comfortable for him and it actually helped him get better. Well enough until the pneumonia was gone.

The Doctors still thought he wasn’t going to make it and they put him in Palliative Care. On two occasions while there, MAiD was suggested to him as an option. He was anxious thinking about it; stressed and he was divided. He thought he was going to be a burden on me and others and he didn’t want MAiD; we had already written letters in opposition to euthanasia and Bill C7 to MP’s and others (me writing with his input).

Jim, who was apparently going to die the spring of 2021, is still here. He even had Covid a second time. The first time he was in the hospital more than 3 months and was in bed so much that his muscles atrophied making his disability more severe. Since then he uses his power chair full time, needs a hospital bed and can’t help us transfer him like he used to. He did not return to baseline as they say in the world of rehabilitation, but he does eat and swallow again, after exercises and tips from a Speech Therapist. About a year later he caught Covid again and went to a different hospital in Calgary. Jim told the doctor to call me when she started asking questions about what he wants. MS affects his ability to understand information, process it and to make decisions. Apparently they didn’t see that at the first hospital as it affected his cognitive abilities.

After the second time with Covid he was ready to come home after about one week. I was still sick with Covid myself, or he would have come home after about a week and receiving an antiviral medication. I think it was Remdesivir. There was a huge difference between 3 months to get better, the first time and one week. Jim almost returned to baseline.

The first hospital saw a man in a wheelchair, with significant effects from MS who caught Covid and they thought he wasn’t going to make it. I’m not sure but maybe they thought he wouldn’t want to live that way, or that his life had little value. They also confused a statement he made that he wanted to see heaven. That didn’t mean he wanted to see heaven right then, by dying by MAiD. We believe he will die when it’s his time to go. There is a recording of him saying he doesn’t want MAiD. I had to assure him that he’s not a burden. It is hard sometimes, I won’t minimize that but it is possible. Having help from friends, family, home care, caregivers, other professionals, and AADL really helps.

Honestly, I struggle with resentment for that first hospital and we don’t want him to go back there ever. It was a horrible experience. They even gave him a level of care (C 1 or C 2) that wasn’t right. Now it’s M 1. They had so many opportunities to see that maybe he would make it, and maybe his life was still worth living. It was harder for Jim because I couldn’t go there at first. 

People who are vulnerable should never be offered MAiD or suggested in any way as an option. It only increased Jim’s anxiety and stress, which makes MS worse. That first hospital could have tried to continue getting Jim his medications or give him something else to provide the same effects to help his MS and his depression (he has always taken antidepressants since early adulthood), they could have avoided suggesting MAiD, and they could have considered that maybe he could eat once his Covid pneumonia was better.

Jim’s life is worth living even with a severe disability, more severe than the first time he had Covid. Please reject MAiD for people with disabilities and mental illness. Jim had struggles with depression and had a mental breakdown when he was more able, and he got intervention at three hospitals over the years. MAiD for mental illness and depression is the opposite of suicide prevention and mental health help. Mental health therapy and medication is necessary and helpful. I have met many people over the years with mental health issues, and my life would be less if I had never met them. Medications and counselling can and do help; Jim doesn’t get depressed anymore as long as he’s taking medication and getting support, even with his health getting a little worse, as MS is still a degenerative condition.

I’ve seen people improve with rehabilitation after a head injury and being in a coma for a year as well. Those people and Jim still have enjoyment in life, still laugh and enjoy time with their families until they die naturally. Don’t allow the government or doctors or any other official to pressure anyone saying when their life should end. Everyone’s life has purpose, and they need to know that. They need help to live, not help to die. AADL for example, stands for Alberta Aids to Daily LIVING. Let’s let people live and live their best, whatever and however that is.

I see stories over and over from the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition of people who were depressed and had a medical condition that won’t cause death, requesting MAiD, and getting it, often despite the protest from family. Or maybe they’re feeling pressured into it because they can’t get the right services, or many other reasons. It’s tragic and heartbreaking. In Alberta we have great supports even though some of the supports could be improved, like AISH, but there’s also the RAMP program and AADL, that really help people. With AHS we also have daily help so I’m not doing all Jim’s care alone. And I can regularly go visit with friends, run errands and go to appointments for myself without being concerned about him.

Thank you for your time and attention to my story about Jim.

Liz Salomons

More stories:

• The Gatekeeper (Link).
• Assisted death. Whose is the decision (Link).
• Doreen Blake's story (Link).

Quebec man with long covid seeks death by euthanasia.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Katrine Desautels reported for the The Canadian Press on August 14, 2024 that Sébastien Verret (44) is seeking a death by (MAiD) euthanasia based on long covid. 

Desautels reported that Verret is:

living with long COVID for more than three years, has requested medical assistance in dying (MAID) because he says he is exhausted, tired of being in pain and considers himself a burden to his family who are caring for him.

Desautels reported that:

When he first contracted the virus, Verret struggled with chronic fatigue and strobe lights caused him to have seizures and tremble. One night, he fell to the floor in a seizure and his smart watch called for help. “That was my first of many ambulance rides,” he said.

Over time, he had more seizures, fatigue, and nausea.

“The symptoms built up and instead of getting better, they got worse,”

Lately Verret's condition has become worse:

Since January 2024, Verret has been suffering from urinary incontinence, which meant he had trouble controlling his bladder and had to wash his bed frequently. Housework became a burden again.

“Changing the bed, for me, feels like running 10 km,” he said.

His youngest son started making him meals while he was there.

“Looking back, it’s abnormal that my child, who was 14, would make me meals. It was abnormal that he was my caregiver,” he said. “I was so weak that for the second time in a year, I gave up the accommodation. I asked the children’s mother to take them back. It was very hard for me,” he explained.

Last battle

In June 2024, he found himself in the emergency room again, this time accompanied by his parents who had mentioned to staff that they wanted their son to be placed with special resources.

“As much as it’s abnormal that my son is the one taking care of me, it’s also abnormal that at 44, it’s my mother who comes to change my bed full of (feces),” said Verret.

Verret says that he could continue to live with homecare but he was turned down for homecare, Desautels reported:

“I would like the government to wake up and give us help with domestic tasks (…) to relax the rules for the program. That’s the solution. The six months I spent with my parents, I got back on my feet, and I had hope. I was almost ready to go back to work with a job that corresponded to my new reality,” he explained.

Desautels also reported that:

Emmanuelle Marceau, associate professor at the Université de Montréal’s (UdeM) School of Public Health pointed out that quality of life is subjective to each person.

“What is a life worth living? Is a life with a lot of physical suffering and little hope of change no longer worth it,” said Marceau, who’s also an associate researcher at the Centre for Research in Ethics (CRÉ). “With the opening of medical assistance in dying, there is a fear that people will feel that they no longer have a meaning. They no longer have a contribution for their loved ones, for their family, on the contrary, they see that they are preventing them. I think we must question someone who would like MAID for these reasons. At that point, we can ask ourselves as a society: aren’t we abandoning the most vulnerable?”

The story of Sebastien Verret confirms how people are being abandoned to death by the medical system and then further abandoned with death by euthanasia.

Euthanasia was sold to the culture as concerning autonomous free choices. When a person is not provided their basic needs, the decision is neither autonomous nor a free choice.

Euthanasia and assisted suicide laws undermine the Nuremberg code.

By John JF Killackey

Out of the atrocity of the Holocaust and the medical experimentation conducted on people against their will, emerged the Nuremberg Code. This milestone set of ethical principles is geared to preventing forced human medical experimentation from ever happening again. All societies adopting this Code to ensure that, prior to any medical intervention including experimental medical procedures, patients will be informed of the benefits and the risks in a way that they can fully understand the impact on their health and wellbeing. Furthermore, all patients must formally agree to the procedures and only after fully understanding the risks. In the past, the Supreme Court of Canada has actively defended these principles of informed consent. Sadly, the forced rollout of the Covid-19 mRNA injections marked the setting aside of the Nuremberg Code and many other drug regulatory standard operating procedures established to promote patient safety. This was to the detriment of the people around the world. The full impact of the resulting damage caused by these procedural shortcuts, including deaths and disabilities, has been significant and there is more to come.

Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID), encompassing both euthanasia and assisted suicide, is an experimental medical procedure – there are no carefully controlled clinical studies defining conditions and outlining the risks. Although the planned outcome is patient death, there are procedural and other risks to the patients and so, in the spirit of the Nuremberg Code, all MAID patients should be fully informed of the risks prior to agreeing to the treatment. And the risks are broad and serious and therefore it is also beneficial for all patients to have an experienced, impartial, advocate accompany them throughout to ensure their fully informed consent and to promote the halting of the procedure in the event of a patient’s change of heart. MAID is not about restoring health and therefore the procedure will never be accompanied with the level of care given to a patient hoping to get better. Risks of MAID at the physical level include:

• Extreme fear and anxiety by the patient,
• Pain, patient discomfort, seizures, anaphylaxis,
• Distress for families,
• Problems obtaining intravenous access or loss of intravenous access after the MAID procedure was started,
• Prolonged time to death, necessitating a second MAID procedure,
• In the case of lidocaine, a longer time to death possibly due to the antiarrhythmic effects of the drug, which may prolong the time until cardiac arrest,
• Failure of the MAID drugs to cause death, possibly leaving the patient disabled
• Failure of the drugs to provide unconsciousness leading to an awareness of the mechanism of pharmaceutical death such as paralysis of the muscles of respiration, the inability to move or talk and the resulting suffocation

MAID procedures are not as effortless and smooth as advocates would like you to believe. 

The information provided to the patients could also include a reminder to the MAID practitioner that the taking of the life of another is murder. Despite no requirement to do so, this could be a consideration of eternal significance to MAID practitioners.

Stukalin I, Olaiya OR, Naik V, Wiebe E et al . Medications and dosages used in medical assistance in dying: a cross-sectional study. CMAJ Open 2022 January 18. DOI:10.9778/cmajo.20200268

Loneliness is an epidemic with profound risks to health and life.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

I have written, in the past, about the epidemic of loneliness and isolation and explained how loneliness and isolation leads to more deaths by assisted suicide.

The US Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, released an 82 page report yesterday on loneliness and stated that half of Americans have experienced loneliness. He said that Americans are so lonely that those consequences constitute a near national health emergency.

In an interview with Amanda Seitz from the Associated Press, Murthy stated:

“We now know that loneliness is a common feeling that many people experience. It’s like hunger or thirst. It’s a feeling the body sends us when something we need for survival is missing,” Murthy told The Associated Press in an interview. “Millions of people in America are struggling in the shadows, and that’s not right. That’s why I issued this advisory to pull back the curtain on a struggle that too many people are experiencing.” 

Seitz reported that:

The loneliness epidemic is hitting young people, ages 15 to 24, especially hard. The age group reported a 70% drop in time spent with friends during the same period.

Loneliness increases the risk of premature death by nearly 30%, with the report revealing that those with poor social relationships also had a greater risk of stroke and heart disease. Isolation also elevates a person’s likelihood for experiencing depression, anxiety and dementia, according to the research. Murthy did not provide any data that illustrates how many people die directly from loneliness or isolation. 

Murthy told the Associated Press that the loneliness crisis worsened during the Covid-19 crisis with people spending on average only 20 minutes per day communicating with friends and relatives. Seitz reported that:

Technology has rapidly exacerbated the loneliness problem, with one study cited in the report finding that people who used social media for two hours or more daily were more than twice as likely to report feeling socially isolated than those who were on such apps for less than 30 minutes a day.

Murthy said social media is driving the increase in loneliness in particular. His report suggests that technology companies roll out protections for children especially around their social media behavior.

“There’s really no substitute for in-person interaction,” Murthy said. “As we shifted to use technology more and more for our communication, we lost out on a lot of that in-person interaction. How do we design technology that strengthens our relationships as opposed to weaken them?”

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition is also concerned with the link between loneliness, depression and assisted suicide.

An Irish longitudinal study examined the wish to die (WTD) among 8174 patients who were over the age of 50. The study that was published in February 2021 followed participants for 6 years and found that people who had a (WTD), almost three-quarters reported being lonely and 60% had clinically significant depressive symptoms.

Sadly many people who die by assisted suicide are experiencing a wish to die which is closely associated with loneliness and depression. Most of those who experience depressive symptoms are not being treated for their condition.

Euthanasia, disability and poverty in Canada.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

An article by Simon Spichak that was published by the Daily Beast and republished by Yahoo News on August 30 examines the issus of long covid, poverty and disability in relation to euthanasia (MAiD) in Canada.

Tracey Thompson is interviewed about her experience with long covid, her difficulty with applying for disability benefits and her Go Fund Me page to help her live not die by euthanasia.

“I won’t be able to maintain housing and I’m not well enough to live on the street,” Thompson told The Daily Beast. With money running low, and no cure for long COVID in the crosshairs, she has applied for medical assistance in dying, or MAiD. “I don’t understand how a society that supposedly has universal health care gets an international reputation for taking care of its citizenry, when that is obviously not true for poor, disabled people.”

The article then explains how Bill C-7, passed in March 2021, made MAiD available to people with chronic conditions, such as Thompson. Spichak wrote:

The pool of eligible applicants has grown significantly since then. MAiD legislation was amended in March 2021, allowing people with intolerable and irreversible illness, disease or disability (called “Track Two”) to qualify—though without introducing substantial improvements to social assistance programs. “Publicly, the data around Track Two requests have not been reported in a meaningful way,” Dosani said. “In public discourse on social media, the media, and some of my own experiences, I have seen people with disabilities who are talking about pursuing MAiD.”

Spichak concludes his article by stating how MAiD has become an option for people with disabilities who live in poverty. Spichak writes:

We’re learning more and more each day that long COVID and other post-viral conditions pose a risk to seemingly anyone—which will force more and more people to rely on inadequate disability payments, dwindling savings, and crowdfunding to treat manageable conditions. When that runs out, their lack of viable options may force them to seek MAiD—not out of choice, but out of grim necessity.

Links to more stories of the euthanasia experience in Canada:

• Veterans affairs worker advocates euthanasia for PTSD (Link).
• Shopping for doctor death in Canada (Link).
• Gwen is seeking euthanasia because she can't access medical treatment (Link).
• Euthanasia for disability and poverty (Link).
• Euthanasia for Long Covid and poverty (Link).
• Canada's MAiD law is the most permissive in the world. (Link).

MAiD (Euthanasia) for Long Covid and poverty.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

One of the outcomes of the Covid pandemic is that some people are experiencing what is known as Long Covid. I know several people who are living with long Covid and experiencing different symptoms over a long period of time. One of the difficulties with Long Covid is that the symptoms vary and the person who lives with Long Covid does not have a prognosis for when they will get better.

Hannah Alberga reported for CTV news that Tracey Thompson, a Toronto resident who is in her 50's, has requested MAiD (euthanasia) because she is living with Long Covid and is approaching poverty as she is unable to work. Alberga reported:

Thompson, a Toronto resident in her 50s, says the enduring illness and lack of substantive financial support has led her to begin the process of applying for Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD), a procedure that first became legal in Canada in 2016.

“[MAiD] is exclusively a financial consideration,” she told CTV News Toronto.

After 26 months of lost income since the onset of symptoms, no foreseeable ability to work and an absence of support, Thompson said she expects to run out of money in about five months.

When parliament passed Bill C-7 (March 2021) Canada's euthanasia law was expanded by not requiring that a person's death be reasonably foreseeable. Based on the current law Alberga probably qualifies for euthanasia (MAiD) even though her condition does not have a prognosis.

Alberga explains that Thompson doesn't want to die, but she says that she cannot live without an income or support. Alberga reports:

It’s not that Thompson wants to die. In fact, she still treasures the little bursts of joys in life.

“I'm very happy to be alive. I still enjoy life. Birds chirping, small things that make up a day are still pleasant to me, they're still enjoyable. I still enjoy my friends,” she said.

“There's a lot to enjoy in life, even if it's small.”

Yet, a world in which Thompson cannot access an income is not one she thinks she’ll survive.

Alberga explains that Thompson's condition may not qualify for the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) and even if she does qualify it would take a long time to be approved, and even then, ODSP only pays $1169 per month, which would only cover her rent. 

In other words, Thompson probably qualifies to be killed but she may not qualify for income support to enable her to live.

When euthanasia was debated in the courts and then in parliament, the concept of euthanasia for people living in poverty was considered reactionary and yet this is happening. 

In April an Ontario woman (51) with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS) died by euthanasia because she was living in poverty and couldn't find a suitable place to live.

A federal government committee is currently examining the expansion of euthanasia (MAiD) to children, by advanced directive, and they are debating the rules for MAiD given to people with mental illness.

Canada's federal government needs to re-evaluate the MAiD program. From its inception, Canada's MAiD law employs undefined terms, and it states that the assessor only needs to be 'of the opinion' that a person fits the criteria of the law. Therefore, when cases of questionable euthanasia deaths are identified, the assessor is assured by the law that they cannot be prosecuted.

Countries that have not legalized assisted death need to recognize that when the clear line (kill or not kill) is crossed and doctors and/or nurses are legally permitted to kill their patients, the law will expand. 

There are many reasons why someone may seek death; once death is deemed to be a reasonable response to human suffering, then more reasons will be approved for death.

Society needs to care for its citizens, not kill its citizens.

Canada is an example of how killing becomes contagious.

Abbotsford police investigating (MAiD) euthanasia death

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Duncan's daughters, Alicia and Christie

CTV National News Medical Correspondent, Avis Favaro, reported on April 26 that Abbotsford police are investigating the (MAiD) euthanasia death of Donna Duncan (61). Favaro reported:

The case involves Donna Duncan, a nurse and mother who died on Oct. 29, 2021. It appears to be among the first assisted-death cases being reviewed by a police unit in Canada, although federal officials don’t keep statistics on when such cases are reported to police.

Her daughters, Alicia and Christie Duncan, say they requested a police investigation after what they claim were troubling circumstances around their mother's case that raise questions about why she was approved for medical assistance in dying (MAID).

Duncan's daughters told Favaro that they never want what happened to their mother to have again. Favaro reports:

On Feb. 25, 2020, Duncan was in a car accident, near her home in Abbotsford. The following day at a walk-in clinic, she was diagnosed with a concussion.

But as COVID-19 restrictions were implemented across Canada, her daughters say her medical care and rehabilitation were curtailed.

"It was March and that's when the COVID shutdown happened. So she didn't have treatment for months and months,"

Medical documents obtained by the sisters and shared with CTV News also show that Duncan complained about headaches, bright lights, and difficulty concentrating, watching TV, or using a computer. In July 2020, she was identified as having post-concussion syndrome. Her daughters suspect the problems were compounded by stay-at-home orders during the pandemic.

Doctors did not treat Duncan's health problems but approved her for MAiD. Favaro reports:

In early October, a psychiatrist in Abbotsford, Dr. Shah Khan, saw Donna and reported in medical records that while the source of her physical problems was unclear, a somatic disorder was likely part of the picture. This condition causes an extreme focus on physical symptoms such as pain that cause emotional distress. Treatments include therapy, antidepressants, and treatment by a specialist in mental health, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

Weighing just 82 pounds, Duncan kept losing weight and was using a walker. Her common-law partner, Rick Hansum, said she had been suffering for months and was rapidly losing weight despite consuming 1,500 calories a day.

"She couldn’t wear clothes because they hurt. Pureed food and shakes felt like broken glass. People don’t realize the pain she was in," Hansum told CTV News in a phone interview.

Duncan's asked Dr. Parin Patel, for MAiD but he refused and noted that she needed treatment for her mental health. Duncan then asked Fraser Health for MAiD. Favaro reports:

Alicia and Christie say they didn't learn of their mom's plans for a medically-assisted death until Oct. 22, when Duncan texted them to say she had been assessed and approved by one MAID practitioner with Fraser Health: Sean Young, a nurse practitioner. The second approval was from Dr. Grace Park, a MAID practitioner also with Fraser Health. Park visited Donna in person on Oct. 24 and signed the second approval.

MAID laws in Canada require two health practitioners to approve someone for a medically-assisted death. There are criteria doctors or nurse practitioners must follow, including discussion of whether other measures to treat the patient’s illness have been taken.

With the two signatures, Duncan’s death was scheduled for two days later, on Oct. 26.

Duncan's daughters immediately obtained an injunction pending a psychiatric consult. Duncan received a psychiatric consult on Oct. 26 by Dr. Zia Ui Haque who, according to Favaro, stated:

he “saw no convincing evidence of depression (or) anxiety” and deemed Duncan competent to make the choice "even though she may be making an unwise choice about medical assistance in dying.” He also noted that she had “not explored other avenues including pain relief or any other medical intervention,”

On October 27, she had another psychiatric assessment by Dr Khattak: 

who found Duncan "in distress," said that her mood was “depressed” and that she had “limited insight into her problem.”

Duncan agreed to be transferred to the Chilliwack hospital where Duncan was given a third psychiatric assessment where she was declared competent and released at 4:30 pm. Duncan died that evening at 9:30 pm by euthanasia (MAiD).

Alan Nichols

The Chilliwack hospital is where Alan Nichols was assessed, approved and lethally injected. Nichols was not terminally ill, but depressed. Nichols family has also demanded an investigation into Alan's death.

The family hopes that no other family experience a similar death. Duncan's daughter Alicia told Favaro:

“If my mother had not been suffering from mental illness, she would [not have] thought this. She is a two-time cancer survivor. She would have survived this, but she was not in a place mentally to be able to make that decision subjectively,”

Abbotsford police, the physician and nurse practitioner who approved the death and the family doctor have all refused to comment on the case. Fraser health offered condolences.

Fraser health is the same British Columbia health authority that demanded that the Delta Hospice Society provide euthanasia. When the Delta Hospice Society refused to kill their patients, the BC Ministry of Health defunded the Delta Hospice Society and expropriated their 10 bed hospice and placed it under the control of Fraser Health.

Sadly this is not the first family who have wondered how a family member was killed by (MAiD) euthanasia in Canada.

Canada's law does not provide effective oversight. People requesting to be killed do not need to try effective treatments for their condition, they only need two medical practitioners who approve the death, the two medical practitioners only have to be "of the opinion" that the person meets the "criteria" of the law and there is no mechanism in the law to challenge a questionable approval.

COVID-19 patients may be eligible for euthanasia in New Zealand

The following article was published by DefendNZ on December 19, 2021.

An Official Information Act reply to The Defender, from the Ministry of Health, which says that patients with COVID-19 could be eligible for euthanasia, has left National MP Simon O’Connor disappointed but not surprised.
In November The Defender wrote to the New Zealand Ministry of Health (MOH) to ask some important questions about the practice of euthanasia and assisted suicide in New Zealand.

In light of the serious deficiencies in the End of Life Choice Act (EOLCA), and concerns that have been raised by healthcare professionals, we felt it was crucial to put some urgent questions to the MOH.

In our Official Information Act (OIA) request we asked the following question:

“Could a patient who is severely hospitalised with Covid-19 potentially be eligible for assisted suicide or euthanasia under the Act if a health practitioner viewed their prognosis as less than 6 months?”

There were several reasons why The Defender wanted to seek clarity from the MOH about this issue.

Firstly, New Zealand is currently described as being in a precarious position when it comes to COVID-19 and hospital resources. In light of this, it would not be hard to envisage a situation in which a speedy and sizeable rise in COVID-19 hospitalisations could result in pressure to utilise euthanasia and assisted suicide as tools to resolve such a serious crisis.

Overseas commentators have raised the prospect of these kind of unethical motivations since early in this pandemic.

Last year’s tragic case of the elderly Canadian woman who had an assisted suicide to avoid another COVID-19 lockdown highlights exactly why caution is warranted in relation to COVID-19 and euthanasia.

“The lack of stringent safeguards in the EOLCA raised red flags with us. Could a patient with COVID-19 find their way into the eligibility criteria? And, if so, what serious risks would this pose to the already often-vulnerable elderly members of our communities?” says The Defender editor Henoch Kloosterboer.

The MOH responded to our OIA request on Tuesday (7th of December, 2021).

Their reply to The Defender started on a more promising note:

“There are clear eligibility criteria for assisted dying. These include that a person must have a terminal illness that is likely to end their life within six months.”

But then their response becomes more disturbing (emphasis added):

“A terminal illness is most often a prolonged disease where treatment is not effective. The EOLC Act states eligibility is determined by the attending medical practitioner (AMP), and the independent medical practitioner.”

This raises serious concerns.

Firstly, there is nothing concrete about the phrase “most often”, in fact, its inclusion in this specific context clearly seems to suggest that the MOH considers the definition of terminal illness to be subjective and open to interpretation.

The very next sentence seems to back this up. It clarifies that the MOH considers the attending medical practitioner (AMP) and the independent medical practitioner to be empowered by the EOLCA to make the determination about what does and doesn’t qualify as a terminal illness.

“In light of this vague interpretation, it is reasonable to suggest that COVID-19 could be classified as a ‘terminal illness’ depending on the prognosis of the patient and the subjective judgments of the AMP and independent medical practitioner. This feels like we’ve been sold one thing, and been delivered another.” says Kloosterboer.

In the final paragraph the MOH put this issue beyond doubt when they state (emphasis added):

“Eligibility is determined on a case-by-case basis; therefore, the Ministry cannot make definitive statements about who is eligible. In some circumstances a person with COVID-19 may be eligible for assisted dying.”

If you examine the eligibility criteria for assisted suicide and euthanasia, as stated on the MOH website, it becomes easier to see how, given the right circumstances, a COVID-19 diagnosis could qualify:

• aged 18 years or over 
• a citizen or permanent resident of New Zealand 
• suffering from a terminal illness that is likely to end their life within six months 
• in an advanced state of irreversible decline in physical capability 
• experiencing unbearable suffering that cannot be relieved in a manner that the person considers tolerable 
• competent to make an informed decision about assisted dying
  

It seems to us that the only possible protective factor here, and it’s an extremely flimsy one, is that all of this hinges on the tenuous grounds of how the phrase ‘terminal illness’ is interpreted.

In particular, whether or not the AMP and independent medical practitioner are willing to hold firm to the MOH’s suggestion to us that a terminal illness is a “prolonged disease”.

Even then, the term ‘prolonged disease’ is still extremely fraught due to its highly subjective nature. Who is to say that a medical practitioner who considers an illness which lasts longer than a fortnight to be a ‘prolonged disease’ isn’t actually correct in making such a determination?

The End of Life Choice Act doesn’t offer any clarity or robust safeguards that would put this matter beyond doubt. Instead it does just the opposite, leaving the door wide open for abuse.

When we put this matter to National MP Simon O’Connor, he expressed concerns about what clearly seems to be an expansion of the new law less than a month after it came into force.

“When New Zealanders voted in the referendum in 2020, did they anticipate the law could be used for COVID-19 patients? The wording of the law was always deliberately broad and interpretable, placing far too much into the judgement of the doctor.”

He also said that this development raises serious questions about the problems in the EOLCA.

“In my mind, it is just a timely demonstration of how badly drafted the law is. When you consider the lack of key safeguards, and the risky shroud of secrecy that the EOLCA has thrown over the practice of euthanasia and assisted suicide, you can see that those of us warning about this Act shouldn’t have been dismissed so flippantly,” says O’Connor.

The implications of this are extremely serious.

Not simply because of the potential threat COVID-19 poses to our ill-equipped NZ healthcare system, or the fact that vulnerable elderly people are the most affected by the ravages of this illness.

There is also the fact that an unacceptable lack of transparency has been built into the EOLCA which will cloak all of this in a dangerous veil of secrecy that prevents robust public scrutiny.

In a nutshell, the poorly considered structure of the EOLCA has now made the COVID-19 pandemic potentially even more dangerous for the people of Aotearoa New Zealand.

#DefendNZ, who publish The Defender, are calling on the Ministry of Health to take urgent action to ensure that the End of Life Choice Act cannot be used to provide assisted suicide or euthanasia to COVID-19 patients in New Zealand.

#DefendNZ have created a petition to send a message to Parliament, calling for urgent amendments to the law including required detailed reporting and required independent witnesses – among other things – and are asking concerned citizens to sign and share it.

‘Systemic Ageism’ Blamed for Excess COVID Deaths, Ignored with Euthanasia

This article was published by National Review online on December 14, 2021

By Wesley J Smith

Governor Andrew Cuomo’s New York wasn’t the only government that inflicted blatant harm and unnecessary death on elders during during the Covid pandemic. Quebec did too. From the Toronto Sun story:

“Systemic ageism,” outdated health-care facilities and government reforms contributed to the tragedy that unfolded in the province’s long-term care homes during the first wave of COVID-19, a former Quebec health minister told a coroner’s inquest on Monday.

Réjean Hébert, who is also a gerontologist, told coroner Géhane Kamel that nearly 10 per cent of the province’s long-term care patients died of COVID-19 in the early months of the pandemic — a rate five times higher compared to Canada as a whole.

It didn’t start with Covid:

Hébert, who served as health minister under former premier Pauline Marois, said that even before the pandemic there was a tendency to shift health-care resources toward other priorities, leading to a lack of doctors and nurses to care for vulnerable seniors in care homes. As a result, the homes were no longer able to provide acute care, forcing them to transfer distressed patients to hospital, which was “extremely difficult” for those with cognitive impairments, he said.

Hébert also pointed to outdated facilities where patients were subjected to inadequate ventilation and forced to share bedrooms and bathrooms as factors that contributed to Quebec’s high mortality rate.

Article: Quebec doctor testified that COVID patients were euthanized rather than treated (Link).  

Now, do you think that this clear warning about the threat to elders caused by “systemic ageism” will be applied as Quebec and the rest of Canada expand access to euthansia among the elderly? Is Putin a friend of Ukraine?

The media will often report in detail and with righteous indignation about varied failings and abuses in health-care systems — such as the drumbeat of criticism often seen against HMOs in the states. But these crucial questions are often forgotten once the subject turns to euthanasia.

I call this phenomenon “Euthanasia Land,” a magical realm of chirping birds and butterflies, where systemic failures in health-care and social policy disappear and life terminations happen only under the most rigorous protective guidelines and by the most deeply caring and compassionate medical personnel.

But Euthanasia Land isn’t real. The crises reported in this story have equal impact on doctor-prescribed death as they do lapses in proper care. They are just far less discussed.

Consider the Canadian woman who was euthanized because she didn’t want to be lonely during Covid lockdowns. She wasn’t allowed family visitors while she was alive, but they were allowed to be with her when her doctor killed her. She wasn’t the only such victim, either. A Canadian government study found that hundreds of people who died by euthanasia in 2019 requested death at least in part due to loneliness and isolation.

But none of that stops the death juggernaut. When these horrors are reported, which isn’t often, they are soon forgotten.

Would it have been too much for the critics of the elder-care in Quebec — and the reporter, for that matter — to connect these crucial dots, and thereby open a vital conversation about how these same systemic problems also impact the provision of euthanasia?

I’ll bet the thought didn’t occur to them because, somehow, it never does.

More articles on this topic:

• Quebec doctor testified that COVID patients were euthanized rather than treated (Link).  
• Quebec COVID inquest uncovers nursing home deaths from neglect and abuse (Link).
  

Germany: You Must Be Fully Vaxxed before dying by Assisted Suicide

This article was published by National Review online on November 28, 2021.

Wesley Smith

By Wesley J Smith

The ironies of assisted suicide never end. Germany allows suicide on demand — including assistance — as a fundamental constitutional right. But now, you must be vaccinated against COVID before a euthanasia group will help you kill yourself. From the Spectator story:

As European countries battle to limit the spread of the virus, Verein Sterbehilfe – the German Euthanasia Association – has issued a new directive, declaring it will now only help those who have been vaccinated or recovered from the disease. In a statement, the association said:

“Euthanasia and the preparatory examination of the voluntary responsibility of our members willing to die require human closeness. Human closeness, however, is a prerequisite and breeding ground for coronavirus transmission. As of today, the 2G rule applies in our association, supplemented by situation-related measures, such as quick tests before encounters in closed rooms.”

‘Close encounters in closed rooms’ – what a fabulous German euphemism for assisted suicide.

Sometimes words even escape me!

Woman awakens from coma on the same day that life-support was to be withdrawn.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

I have listened, over the years, to many people who have contacted to discuss whether they should discontinue life-sustaining treatment for a person when they are the Power of Attorney for Personal Care.

Bettina Lerman

These are never easy discussions. In these circumstances I will listen to the concerns of the decision maker and ask questions to help them assess what the person would have wanted if they were capable of making the decision or discuss what is the best decision. I only discuss the issues, people have to make decisions for themselves.

Michelle Butterfield, reported for Global News on a 69-year-old Florida woman who came out of coma, related to COVID-19, on the same day as the family had agreed to remove her from life-support. Butterfield reported:

Bettina Lerman’s family had already made funeral arrangements and had picked out a casket and headstone for the 69-year-old woman. They were preparing to say goodbye after doctors said it didn’t look like she would ever wake up.

“We had a family meeting with the hospital because my mother wasn’t waking up. No matter what they (did), they couldn’t get her to wake up,” Andrew Lerman, Bettina’s son, told CNN. “They said that her lungs are completely destroyed. There’s irreversible damage — that it’s just not going to happen.”

The family was picking up her headstone on Oct. 29 when they received a call from the hospital.

“There’s nothing wrong. Your mother woke up,” the doctor told Andrew, more than four weeks after she was first placed on the ventilator.

Withdrawing life-sustaining treatment is different than euthanasia or assisted suicide. When asked, I will usually advise the person to ask for more time. Medical professionals are not always right and sometimes a person needs a little more time to awaken.

For instance, a few years ago, a close family member had a profound heart attack. Doctors urged her husband to withdraw life-sustaining treatment, telling him that she would not likely come out of coma, and if she did she would never be the same. 

Her husband insisted on continuing treatment. She not only came out of coma but she fully recovered and remains healthy today.

I am not suggesting that recovery is always possible, but patience and time can save lives.

Québec Doctor testifies that some Covid patients were euthanized rather than treated.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.

A Québec inquest into Covid related deaths has uncovered more disturbing facts. In September I published an article from the testimony of an auxilary nurse claiming that many of the COVID 19 nursing home deaths were caused by abuse and neglect.

A Québec doctor told the inquest into Covid related deaths that many treatable patients actually died by euthanasia.

An article by Clara Descurninges for The Canadian Press reported on the testimony from Dr Vinh-Kim Nguyen who worked in the emergency room at the Jewish General Hospital during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Nguyen who had previously managed the Ebola pandemic for Doctors Without Borders told the inquiry that:

Patients who arrived from CHSLDs with heavy cases of COVID-19 were, according to him, “surprisingly well after a day or two of infusions or oxygen”. "By hydrating these patients, they recovered very easily,"

Dr Nguyen was sent to CHSLDs to work with their COVID-19 patients. Dr Nguyen testified that he found himself in a very different situation. Descurninges states:

Wanting to transfer patients to the hospital, he quickly discovered "the many obstacles" put in his way, while public health guidelines recommended keeping residents there.

For patients stuck in CHSLDs, the only measures available were often end-of-life respiratory distress protocols, or strong cocktails of drugs used to reduce suffering, he testified. “These are protocols that lead to death. […] It was in fact euthanasia,” he insisted.

“What really traumatized me was that I saw patients who didn't have to go there, they could have been treated."

Duscurninges also reported on the testimony from Dr. Réjean Hébert who told the inquest that 10% of patients at CHSLDs died of COVID-19 during this period. Dr Hébert is a specialist in gerontology and a professor in health policy evaluation at the University of Montreal testified that these deaths represented a "massacre" by "systematic ageism."

Dr Hébert referred to the management of healthcare in Québec as "administrative monsters" with reference to what he referred to as the six hierarchical levels of management.

The Québec inquest was established to investigate why from February 25 - July 11, 2020, Quebecers aged 70 and over accounted for 92% of deaths from COVID-19.

I have written several articles concerning COVID-19 deaths. I believe that with varying degrees, the same abuse neglect and euthanasia that occurred in Québec COVID-19 deaths also happened in other jurisdictions. The only difference is that Québec has established an inquest into these COVID-19 related deaths.

Further articles on this topic:

• Canada's claim to value seniors and disabled people rings false during COVID-19 pandemic (Link). 
• 43% of US COVID-19 deaths were nursing home residents (Link). 
• Stealth euthanasia: How many seniors with COVID-19 were killed? (Link). 
• 81% of Canada's COVID-19 deaths were long-term care residents (Link).
  

Québec Covid-19 inquest uncovers nursing home deaths from abuse and neglect.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Herron nursing home

A Québec inquest into Covid related nursing home deaths has uncovered some disturbing facts. A report by Tu Thanh Ha that was published in the Globe and Mail on September 14 reports on testimony concerning the Herron nursing home in the suburb of Dorval in Montréal. The report indicates that Covid was cited as the cause of death at the Herron nursing home to hide the fact that residents were dying of dehydration, malnurishment and neglect, also known as elder abuse.

An auxilary nurse (name is protected) reportedly stated in her testimony:

Starting March 13, 2020, a government directive banned visitors, including family caregivers, from entering nursing homes in Quebec. Many elderly residents with Alzheimer’s disease declined quickly when left by themselves. “I saw firsthand that they were dehydrated, in spite of my best efforts to keep them hydrated. I saw that they were malnourished,” the auxiliary nurse said.

In her testimony, and in a 55-page report that she submitted to the inquest, she said that many fatalities at Herron were misleadingly marked as suspected COVID-19 cases, when the deaths were a result of the chaotic handling of the crisis.

“I had the impression that they were blaming the virus because it would be easier to blame the virus than to acknowledge the hard truth that these people suffered from malnourishment and dehydration. I felt that it was a way to escape culpability,” she told the inquest.

The auxilary nurse explains that when staff at the home learned that one of the residents had Covid that many of them abandoned their job and did not return leaving the nursing home critically understaffed. The auxilary nurse stated:

When she came to work on March 29, most of the personnel were missing. The registered nurses left early. One said he had a fever. Another had been told by managers to go and get tested because she had cared for a patient who was found to have been infected.

The auxiliary nurse said she and two orderlies were left to care for a floor with 60 residents. While dispensing medications, she also had to help the orderlies. “I helped out feeding, I helped serve trays, I helped wash people. I was running around like a fool.”

Some of the deaths were clearly from neglect and elder abuse. The report states:

She found one of the first fatalities at Herron, Léon Barrette, whose body was already cold when she visited his room the morning of March 29. There were no physicians or registered nurses present, so a Herron administrator told her she had to handle the paperwork, which she had never done before.

The cause of death was indicated as possibly the new disease. “Everybody was ‘COVID-19 suspected,’ regardless of what symptoms they had,” she testified.

Mr. Barrette had been admitted March 27 and needed oxygen because of breathing problems. But there were no notes on his chart from between his admission and when the auxiliary found him dead. She testified that she saw no oxygen bottle in his room. His family members believe Herron’s staff had forgotten about him.

The report states that even those who had died were treated in an abusive manner:

She said she often “butted heads” with a CIUSSS nursing supervisor when she tried to tidy and clean the bodies of deceased residents. In one case, she said, the supervisor snapped at her for reporting that a dead resident had been left in vomit. “It takes five minutes to clean someone and show respect,” the auxiliary nurse said.

In another case, in a room shared by a married couple, the wife died and was left in her bed for a day. The husband had Alzheimer’s. Every few hours, he checked on his spouse and rediscovered that she had died. “It was extremely callous,” the auxiliary nurse said.

The testimony from the auxilary nurse at the Herron nursing home proves that some of the deaths were not caused by Covid but rather neglect and level of care at this nursing home could only be described has inhumane elder abuse.

The data appeared to indicate that significant abuse was occurring in our nursing homes which prompted me to ask last year - How many Canadian seniors with Covid-19 were killed?

We need to rethink nursing homes and move to community based care (Link).

For several years EPC has been advocating for changes to funding to enable home care. For many, home care is preferable because it enables people to stay in their homes and in their communities. People experience greater respect and dignity when they are cared for by people who know of them

Care Not Killing Alliance comments on Scotland's assisted suicide bill.

Dr Gordon Macdonald, the CEO of the Care Not Killing Alliance comments on Scotland's "assisted dying" bill.

We at Care Not Killing have a lot of concerns about this. 

We have seen, with the COVID pandemic how elderly people and disabled people have suffered more than others. How they haven't received the same care as other people have received in many cases, how there has been a disproportionate number of disabled people who have died as a result of COVID, how do not resuscitate orders were placed on people without their consent or their knowledge. The government have been very clear that the policy on do not resuscitate orders wasn't that it should be applied in a blanket way and it is almost certainly a breach of human rights and yet it happened.

So how can we trust the safeguards which are being talked about for this bill that the government will actually implement them?

And more over, in other jurisdictions we have seen how the safeguards have eroded.

In the Netherlands, when assisted suicide and euthanasia were introduced, they were expanded from people who were terminally ill to people who are chronically ill. From people who were mentally competent to people who are not mentally competent. To people with psychiatric illnesses, from adult's to children and there is a debate currently applying it to children aged 1 to 12 and it already applies to infants who are disabled with spina bifida and other conditions, up to the age of 12 months.

In Belgium we see that the laws are not implemented properly and euthanasia deaths happen outside of the law without consent being obtained. In many cases they happen to people with a multitude of minor conditions, even when they don't have any major terminal illness or major suffering which would qualify under the law.

There are all sorts of abuses happening in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Even in Oregon we see where the numbers have increased from 16 in 1998 to 245 in 2020 of those who are having an assisted suicide. Its likely that 25% of those people, at least, are clinically depressed and yet only one or two per year have been referred for psychiatric evaluation. So there is a huge number of people, probably 60, in 2020, who should have been referred for a psychiatric evaluation before they were given an assisted suicide but they weren't.

This is what happens in places like Oregon. They claim that they have strict safeguards but those safeguards are not implemented.

In other places, such as Belgium and Canada we are seeing hospice funding being threatened. In Canada the government published data recently saying that they had saved $140 Million on care services as a result of introducing euthanasia.

These are the dangers, I think, that whilst its introduced on the basis of autonomy and rights, actually it ultimately gets driven by other factors, saving money, people who are vulnerable being deemed by other people that their lives are not worth living.

This is a very dangerous development and we really need to not go down this road in Scotland

More information:

• Scottish politician claims assisted suicide bill doesn't legalize assisted suicide (Link)
• Scotland to debate assisted dying bill (Link).