Kevin Dunn: A Tale of Two Films

By Kevin Dunn

Kevin Dunn in Guernsey

If someone told me that one day I would be travelling around the world to speak on euthanasia and assisted suicide I would have been hard pressed to believe them. I mean, who in their right mind would want to talk about death as a calling?
 
For most of my career, I was either in front of the camera entertaining —or behind it, producing films on things like dinosaurs, spies, entrepreneurs or modern history. However, as I began inching towards the age of 50 (I’m a young 54 as I write this) the subject matter for my films took a seismic shift towards social justice issues - and in particular, laws that imply that some lives are not worth living.

As I write this, I’m flying home from my 20th talk of 2019 - this time in Minnesota and Wisconsin. I call it my “Prophets of Hope” tour because I honestly believe that is where the solution lies. Each of us has to become a prophet of hope - a reason for someone’s tomorrow - especially in light of laws that tell others to give up on hope. For some reason, despite dire warnings from jurisdictions experienced with the cultural effects of euthanasia and assisted suicide, countries and states continue to enact laws that allow doctors to provide lethal injections or drugs to citizens who ‘qualify’ under certain criteria. What was once deemed unthinkable is now an option — and in many ways has become a subtle obligation —as fear of future suffering, losing autonomy or becoming a burden are among the top reasons why people request it.

In my recent film Fatal Flaws: Legalizing Assisted Death, I asked Dutch journalist Gerbert Van Loenen if there was anyone covering the other side of the euthanasia debate. He emphatically responded - ‘I’m afraid no one’. I found this especially alarming because the boundaries of the euthanasia law in the Netherlands are expanding to the point where even people who are ‘tired of life’ might get access to a lethal dose - legally - in the near future. I mean how could things have gone off the rails so badly that a civilized country would actually consider legalizing suicide for what would otherwise be diagnosed as depression and despair? Is it not bad enough that people are now asking for euthanasia at the first diagnosis of terminal illnesses? Where was the media in all of this? Journalists have not been doing their job. This is what inspired me to do more.
 

Alex Schadenberg & Kevin Dunn

Thankfully there are a handful of people who have been doing this issue justice - and one in particular for the past two decades: my friend Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition — a position he’s held for the past 20 years. Everywhere I speak, anytime I mention his name, Alex is known and respected. Even those who disagree with him have good things to say about his candour.

In November of 2015, I received an email from Alex asking me to create an information video which would educate people on these issues. He wanted to expose the risks associated with turning these previously criminal acts into some form of health care. Alex has been ringing the alarm bells since 1999, aware that the Kevorkian ideology was slowly trickling across the US border into Canada - and of the subtle but deadly introduction of language that was changing the act of murder into mercy killing; and assisted suicide into something called death with dignity.

With funding from the EPC, the information video quickly grew into a major documentary called The Euthanasia Deception produced by EPC and DunnMedia. The film took my crew and I through Belgium and various places in Canada where we found a plethora of underrepresented people who were waiting to tell their story on how these laws had deceived them. Patients, family members, medical professionals and ethicists all weighed in to paint a very grim picture of assisted dying laws.

Purchase the Fatal Flaws film (Link).
Purchase the Euthanasia Deception documentary (Link).

Just months after releasing The Euthanasia Deception, Alex and I heard about a strange phenomenon in the Netherlands called “Euthanasia Week”: an annual event of conferences, films and media interviews all geared at extolling the ‘virtue’ of Holland’s euthanasia law. This became one of the focal points for our next film, Fatal Flaws . It is now being screened and distributed internationally and won numerous awards.

Both films speak with authority because we hear stories from victims directly. As a filmmaker I know how important this is. I’ve seen first hand how the assisted death philosophy defines the person by their illness. This is absurd. We should never be defined by what malady assails us. We are defined by our worth as a created human being, deserving of the best care, the best pain management, the kind of dignity that says “I will walk with you and fight for you to the end - I will never abandon you by ending your life prematurely. As Mark Davis Pickup aptly noted in The Euthanasia Deception, “We should never judge tomorrow based on the fears of today.” Mark has lived with Multiple Sclerosis for over 30 years.

Margreet Van der Valk's mother

I am formalizing plans for a speaking tour in Australia in August. It would seem the land down under is quickly falling prey to the culture of abandonment which we have sadly embraced here in North America and in parts of Europe. I share the stories of those who bravely came forward on camera to tell me how these laws have taken them or their loved ones to the brink of death. Sadly, some are not living anymore - like 29 year old Aurelia Brouwers whose life was cut short by euthanasia for psychiatric reasons; Tom Mortier’s mother who was euthanized for depression; and Margreet Van der Valk’s mother who was euthanized without request . I carry these heartbreaking stories with me everywhere I speak.

At the end of my talks, people always ask me for one practical thing they can do to stem the tide. Yes, we must step up to inform our politicians and medical professionals of what these laws imply. Sharing these films are a great start. However we must do more. We must challenge ourselves daily to become a prophet of hope: the reason for someone’s tomorrow. It could be as simple as visiting elderly parents, volunteering to drive someone to the hospital or playing Scrabble for an hour with a senior in a nursing home. These are ways we inspire hope in others so they don’t reach for these laws.

It’s been quite a journey creating these films along with with Alex Schadenberg - a true Prophet of Hope for our times. Thanks, too for inspiring me to take this ‘show on the road’ and inspire others. You can be sure I’ll be toasting your 20th - perhaps from some Irish pub in the land down under!

Kevin Dunn can be reached through his Website: www.KevinDunn.info

Successful screenings of Fatal Flaws in Oregon

By Dr Kenneth Stevens
President, Physicians for Compassionate Care

Dr Bill Toffler, Dr Chuck Bentz, Alex Schadenberg, Dr Ken Stevens

The “Fatal Flaws – Legalizing Assisted Death” film was shown to over 200 people in Portland, Salem and Medford Oregon on February 17 - 19, 2019. This important film produced by Kevin Dunn of DunnMedia & Entertainment and Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition shows both sides of the assisted suicide and euthanasia experience in Europe and North America. The version shown was the 56 minute International educational version. Link to order the film.

Fatal Flaws film will change the way you view assisted death.

Alex Schadenberg, the Executive Director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition from Ontario, Canada was present at all three presentations to introduce and provide additional information about this important film.

Drs. Bill Toffler, Chuck Bentz and Ken Stevens were also present to answer questions and provide additional commentary regarding assisted suicide.
 
Oregon Right to Life helped by organizing, advertising and obtaining venues for each of the presentations.

Each presentation was received with much interest and enthusiasm, with many appropriate questions and comments from attendees.

We appreciate all the effort that went into the production of this important film production; and to Alex Schadenberg in coming to Oregon from Ontario, Canada for these presentations.

We encourage those interested in assisted suicide and euthanasia information and experience, to purchase the Fatal Flaws film and accompanying printed pamphlets, and to show the film to others in your communities. You may be able to book Alex Schadenberg for your event.

See www.FatalFlawsFilm.com for more information.

FATAL FLAWS: a must see doc on assisted suicide and euthanasia

This film review was published by Richard Egan on his blog.

Fatal Flaws is a newly released film by Kevin Dunn on euthanasia and assisted suicide laws.

As its title suggests the movie documents real flaws in these laws that pose fatal risks to the elderly, the disabled, the mentally ill and, indeed, all of us.

In a series of interviews with doctors and advocates on both sides of the issue Dunn’s conversational technique draws out the underlying viewpoints that characterize the pro and anti assisted suicide/euthanasia positions.

• Fatal Flaws film will change the way you view assisted death. Order yours today. (Link)

On the pro assisted suicide side it becomes clear that there are in fact two drivers which only partially overlap. Firstly there is the so-called principle of autonomy which affirms, effectively without limit, a person's right to demand and to be given assisted suicide or euthanasia for any reason at all.

This is the basis on which advocates and politicians in the Netherlands are now proposing euthanasia for completed life. This is a far cry from the original justification of intolerable suffering. Watch the Fatal Flaws preview (below).

It also underlies the heartbreaking story of Aurelia Browers, a young Dutch woman who had struggled for many years with depression and suicidal thoughts. Dunn warms to her enthusiastic, seemingly bubbly personality and seeks to offer her hope. However, in the death affirming culture of the Netherlands, her “choice” to despair of life is affirmed and she was euthanased on 26 January 2018 by doctors from the End of Life Clinic.

The second principle is the view that many people would simply be better off dead. This principle is shown by Dunn's interviews to operate often independently from any requirement for an autonomous request for euthanasia.

In Canada, a young disabled woman, Candice Lewis, was encouraged – or rather bullied – by a doctor to agree to euthanasia. Candice had to endure hearing a doctor talking to her mum about killing her.

In the Netherlands two middle aged women talk about attempts by doctors to kill their mothers without any request from the mothers. In one case the daughter was able to intervene in time and her mother lived long enough – another year – to see her second great grandchild. Sadly in the other case the mother was dead by the time the daughter got to the hospital. The mother had been told she was being given an injection to help her sleep but was in reality a lethal injection without request or consent.

With Victoria Australia's assisted suicide and euthanasia law set to go into effect on June 19, 2019 and an inquiry into end of life choices set to report in Western Australia in August 2018 it would be timely to order a copy of Fatal Flaws and arrange a screening for your friends, church group or community group.

So much discussion on assisted suicide and euthanasia is shallow and ill-informed. Viewing Fatal Flaws will equip you to make an informed contribution to the debate.

Order the film Fatal Flaws for $40 for 1 DVD or $100 for 3 DVD's.

Order the Fatal Flaws pamphlet for $40 for 100 pamphlets or $100 for 300 pamphlets.

The pamphlet re-enforces the Fatal Flaws stories.

Fatal Flaws can be ordered at: (Link)

There is no extra fee for a public screening.

Fatal Flaws - Successful Ottawa Screening

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.

The Premiere Screening on May 8 in Ottawa of the film - Fatal Flaws was a tremendous success. More than 100 people attended the screening and most of the attendees stayed for the Round Table discussion that followed the film.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition urges all of our supporters to organize a screening of Fatal Flaws in their community. Simply order a copy of the film Fatal Flaws and the Fatal Flaws pamphlets and promote the event. Speakers may be available upon request.

• Fatal Flaws: A film that chronicles the march of euthanasia.
• Order the film - Fatal Flaws or the Fatal Flaws pamphlets (Link).

Many attendees had seen the youtube video's promoting Fatal Flaws featuring the stories of Candice Lewis, a woman with disabilities in Newfoundland, who was pressured by doctors to ask for euthanasia, and Margreet from the Netherlands, whose mother died by euthanasia without consent.

The audience were also moved by Helen's story, in the Netherlands, who saved her mom from euthanasia by pushing for a second opinion. People asked Helen why are you bothering, she's 94, Helen replied: 

It's my mom, don't take her away from me.

Nancy Elliott

The audience were also affected by the stories of love from Nancy Elliott and Dr Bill Toffler. 

Nancy began to oppose assisted suicide as a three-term New Hampshire representative. The legislature of debating the legalization of assisted suicide while Nancy was also caring for her very ill husband. Nancy said:

It was pretty clear that the legislation was clearly aimed at people like my husband, who, in their opinion, shouldn't be living.

Nancy Elliott is the Chair of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition - USA.

Dr Toffler spoke about the death of his wife. He states:

If taking a massive overdose of medication to kill yourself is dignified, then what does it say for the majority of people who die naturally, like my wife, at home, peacefully with family surrounding her. She didn't take an overdose so that's not dignified?

All prices for the DVD and pamphlets include taxes and shipping: All orders can be made online (Link).

• DVD: $40 each, 3 for $100, or Pamphlets: $40 for 100, 300 for $100.

Further Discounts: All orders can be made online (Link).

• 1 DVD + 100 pamphlets for $75,
• With any Fatal Flaws order, get The Euthanasia Deception documentary for $20.

Further bulk orders are available upon request.

Order the Fatal Flaws DVD with companion pamphlets online, email: info@epcc.ca or call EPC at: 1-877-439-3348.

The Fatal Flaws Film will change the way the culture views assisted death.

• Fatal Flaws - Premiere Screening May 8 in Ottawa.
• Fatal Flaws - She was euthanized without consent in the Netherlands.
• Fatal Flaws - Lessons from Canada. Don't legalize assisted suicide.

Fatal Flaws: A Canadian film chronicles the march of euthanasia.

This article was published by Mercatornet on May 14, 2018. (edited for length)

By Denyse O'Leary

I first became interested in euthanasia in 1972 when I unexpectedly received a letter from a Florida death with dignity group, in connection with a public plea for the euthanasia of a child who had Down syndrome.

I recalled that letter while watching the international film premiere, in Ottawa on May 8, of Fatal Flaws, (promo on right) a film by Canadian broadcaster Kevin Dunn. As host and narrator, he asks, are euthanasia and assisted suicide laws leading society down a dangerous path? In partnership with the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, the film looks at selected cases from the Netherlands, Belgium, the United States, and Canada.

• Fatal Flaws film will change the way you view assisted death. Order yours today.

The Netherlands is among the most advanced euthanasia countries. Dutch cases recounted in Fatal Flaws include an elderly woman who was pressured to accept euthanasia. But her daughter Helen heard of it and got a second medical opinion which revealed that her mother was not even in danger of dying of natural causes at that time. She passed away peacefully a year later, among family and friends.

Margreet, (video on right) however, lost her mother to euthanasia without request. The circumstances made me wince. My own mother had had a similar illness, a virulent, fast-acting pneumonia, several years before euthanasia was legal in Canada. She recovered, with emergency treatment, and lived another reasonably pleasant five years. In a euthanasia-positive environment, her life might have ended that winter night.

• Organize a screening of Fatal Flaws in your community.

On a cheerier note, Newfoundlander  Candice Lewis, 26, (video on right) who lives with cerebral palsy, was pressured by her doctor to ask for assisted death. Her mother took her home instead and a whole Down East community pitched in to help, restoring her to her normal life. But, one is left to wonder, what is euthanasia doing to the medical profession?

The most arresting case was Aurelia, the Dutch girl whose psychiatric problems included a fixation on dying. Despite Dunn’s (and others’) best efforts to help her, she was euthanized January 26, 2018, a poster child for euthanasia for psychiatric reasons. It’s hard to see how things could have turned out this way if lethal injection were not simply one of life’s many choices in the post-modern Netherlands.

The death with dignity group that contacted me in 1972 and its many successors have achieved much but they are only just beginning. As Dunn puts it, “Almost every country in the world is discussing some form of legalization and America is “at a tipping point.” Now and then the euthanasia and assisted suicide campaigners face setbacks. Recently, the American Medical Association restated its objection to assisted suicide, rejecting the claim that it somehow isn’t “suicide,” a big talking point with the campaigners. Indeed, progress is stalling as Americans realize that the Netherlands is their future if the vote is yes.

But medical acceptance of euthanasia is not only what American opponents most fear. They also fear a Supreme Court decision that sweeps aside all laws against assisting to kill another human being, where consent is offered. That has already happened in Canada. Not only are the numbers rising swiftly, but doctors are increasingly asked about child euthanasia. And according to one survey, most Quebec caregivers approve euthanasia for dementia patients without their consent. Given the sharp progressive tilt of the American bar and bench, the Americans interviewed have every reason to worry.

Five percent of deaths in the Netherlands, we are told, are now attributed to euthanasia. Euthanasia for anyone on request is currently debated for all adults (“completion of life”). And why not? If death is a good or at least neutral thing, why should anyone be denied? Why should those who can’t consent be denied? Why shouldn’t doctors who are unwilling to kill, be compelled to refer for death, as they now are in Ontario, Canada?

The Netherlands opposition, as recorded in the film, amounts to feeble, apologetic peeps from people with little influence in an emphatically post-Christian culture. I was unimpressed with the early campaigner for euthanasia, Boudewijn Chabot, who mumbles about a “worrisome culture shift” in which euthanasia is “‘getting out of hand.” Given the cultural drivers, there was no possibility that it would turn out any other way. He is partly responsible for the change, whether he chooses to embrace it or not. One struggles to remember that, during the Nazi occupation in World War II, 6,200 doctors went on strike against the “deportation of the insane and sick persons [to death camps] and the sterilization of healthy people.”

And what of the other side in those days? Spencer Tracy, as judge Dan Haywood ) in Judgment at Nuremberg, ponders how the deaths of millions proceeded from the Nazi medical euthanasia program in the 1930s) in orderly steps. He says, “Herr Janning, it came to that the first time you sentenced a man to death you knew to be innocent.”

Cultures can change fast and hard. No one watches that kind of stuff anymore. Opponents of euthanasia, as portrayed in the film, think and speak in a way that no longer communicates effectively. That is not their fault. It is hard to know how they could communicate effectively. They argue rationally, citing evidence and precedent, among people whose education has taught them to reject, as a matter of duty, the rigors of rational thinking and the demands of evidence and to do what feels right to them at given time.

“Care, don’t kill” is the film’s urgent plea. But, to a post-modern, killing someone who seems to want or need it is the ultimate act of caring. And in that, post-moderns are consistent. If a woman can show her baby love by having the baby dismembered alive in an abortion, she can also show a surviving child love later by having him lethally injected if he has a disability.

Fundamental assumptions about human life have changed in recent decades. Over 40% of Americans today believe that humans are not special. The cultural revolution that would overturn such an assumption is nowhere in sight. Quite the contrary. In the Western world, many are gradually losing touch with traditional reasons to avoid suicide or euthanasia, typically religion, philosophy, family, or lifelong friends, in favour of transient, fungible relationships. Are you old enough to remember when divorce was a legal problem? When people worried about the effect of daycare on infants? Or of promiscuity?

As things unfold, opposition to euthanasia will likely come to be seen the way that opposition to abortion increasingly is: a sort of hate crime, an injustice against those who wish euthanasia for themselves or for a dependent person. Suicide hotlines will be pressured, if not compelled, to tell callers that they can have medical assistance in dying if they wish, just as pro-life pregnancy counselling services are pressured or required today in a number of jurisdictions to advertise abortion. In any event, many people will feel that they should not have to endure unpleasant, moralistic opposition to their possible choices.

What to do? If more jurisdictions adopt the Ontario approach and eliminate conscientious objection, patients will soon lack local access to doctors unwilling to help kill them, in an age when a rising senior population is challenging public healthcare systems across the world. No-kill medical facilities in jurisdictions that are not answerable to the euthanasia lobby may eventually be the only hope for dissenters from death.

The evening I went to the film, a New York Times article whistled past my desk, noting that states that inflict capital punishment are starting to use nitrogen gas rather than lethal injections because they are “hamstrung by troubles with lethal injection — gruesomely botched attempts, legal battles and growing difficulty obtaining the drugs.” Gruesomely botched attempts? We never hear about that in articles that promote euthanasia.

Fatal Flaws notes that the Dutch doctor who forcibly injected a woman who was struggling against him was exonerated. I hadn’t heard that either. Later, we won’t hear about such things because they won’t be news. And, after a few decades of euthanasia, no matter what else happens, Western society will be very different, and — one suspects — more sparsely populated, at least by Westerners.

Denyse O’Leary is an Ottawa-based author, blogger, and journalist.

Fatal Flaws Film: Legalizing Assisted Death (Early preview).

By Kevin Dunn, Director - Fatal Flaws Film

Today we launch the fundraising campaign for our new film FATAL FLAWS. Over the past two years, my crew and I have logged over 50,000 kms in the air and on the road to ask one of the most fundamental philosophical questions of our time:

Should we be giving doctors – or anyone – the right and law to end the life of another human – and how do these laws affect society over time?

Kevin Dunn in the Netherlands

As a producer/director with over 30 years experience, my work has been seen on broadcasters like the Discovery Channel, History UK, ARTE France and Germany, SBS Australia, CTV, CBC and Global TV in Canada. Over the years I’ve produced a number of independent “passion” projects, but none to the size and scope of Fatal Flaws. I’m about to tell you why.

Just over a year ago, my country (Canada) passed laws that allow for an assisted death under certain criteria. Within months these laws have been challenged, arguing that they were too restrictive. I had heard about the ever expanding euthanasia laws in Belgium and The Netherlands which now include euthanasia for children, for people with psychiatric problems – and just as disturbing – a report that over 1000 people in Belgium were euthanized without consent in 2013. And it was all on public record. So why weren’t we hearing about these things in the media on this side of the pond? Shouldn’t these facts be raising alarm bells?

Kevin at Dutch euthanasia clinic

Some 20 years after these laws were introduced, even some of the most staunch supporters of assisted dying are questioning where these laws are taking us. The grandfather of euthanasia in the Netherlands, Dr. Boudewijn Chabot speaks of a ‘worrisome culture shift’ and that euthanasia is ‘getting out of hand’ – especially as it relates to patients with psychiatric issues.

I asked a prominent author and journalist in The Netherlands if there’s anyone telling the other side of the story. He paused and said, “no one”. I decided then and there that this film had to be made.

In what was the most surreal 7 days of my life, my crew and I traveled to The Netherlands for their annual “Euthanasia Week.” Yes there is such a thing. As part of the week long events, they had a conference for seniors and – believe it or not – a youth conference to discuss euthanasia related issues. Much of the discussion was around a government bill called “The Completed Life” where otherwise healthy people who are ‘tired of life’ could ask for a lethal prescription. To me it all sounded like a futuristic novel. Except it’s happening now and in real time.

Fatal Flaws filming in Washington

We’ve all heard the tragic and much publicized stories of people who have asked for an assisted death here in North America. Heartbreaking cases. Some of these cases have made their way to the top courts of the land to overturn longstanding criminal laws on what used to be classified as homicide. Since 1998, five countries and six US states have laws making an assisted death legal under certain criteria. Victoria, Australia is the most recent jurisdiction to adopt such a law – one that passed by two votes. Almost every country in the world is discussing some form of legalization and America is “at a tipping point”.

I’ve traveled around the globe learning about the rationale behind these laws from people on both sides of the issue. I’m told that it’s about personal autonomy and choice, however if you ask others I’ve interviewed in the film, they will tell you that ‘choice’ is an illusion and that these laws are an invitation to abuse. People have come forth with stories of elder abuse, coercion by family members, by doctors and nurses. Some of these stories have led to death by lethal injection or assisted suicide. I’ve interviewed people with a disability whose ‘quality of life’ was deemed unworthy of living by doctors who have a severely warped sense of compassion. These stories trouble me deeply.

Time for a disclaimer. This film is not out to demonize doctors, advocates – or anyone for that matter. In fact, most doctors want nothing to do with assisted death. However a small minority do, and the number is growing. Rather, this film is about the growing adoption of a new cultural philosophy, one that has the potential to wreak havoc on society’s vulnerable. And let’s face it, we are all vulnerable.

The film will endeavour to be fair to both sides. However, I will make no apology for showing the ugly reality of the ramifications of these laws. While some feel these laws are progressive, others bear witness to the irreversible emotional scars on individual lives and families. It’s high time the world heard both sides of the story.

PLEASE MAKE THIS FILM A REALITY

Between The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, and my own contributions through DunnMedia & Entertainment, we’ve been able to take the film this far. We have a few more shoots in the USA and then it’s on to writing, editing, paying for music and footage rights and of course distribution around the world. 

We need just under $100,000 to complete the film. 

Please consider making a donation by clicking HERE!

Fatal Flaws Film: "She was euthanized without consent (in the Netherlands). They decided."

The Fatal Flaws film (Spring 2018) questions the long term effects of assisted death laws on society.

Euthanasia is being debated in Australia and several US states are debating assisted suicide. Political leaders and decision makers need to see this film clip.

The most shocking story in Fatal Flaws comes from Margreet whose mother was euthanized in the Netherlands without consent. Please watch and share this film clip.

Kevin Dunn traveled to the Netherlands, throughout the United States and Canada to interview people with personal stories concerning euthanasia and assisted suicide laws.

Purchase the DVD or pamphlets include taxes and shipping: All orders can be made online (Link).

• DVD: $30 each, 2 for $50, or 10 for $200.
• DVD: online download $30 US (Link).
• Pamphlets: $30 for 100, 200 for $50.
• You can purchase Fatal Flaws as a download through VIMEO ON DEMAND for $30 US. (Link).

The first video, The Euthanasia Deception, continues to be an incredible success. We need you to enable Fatal Flaws to also be an incredible success.

Film Producer Seeking Assisted Suicide Stories

The producers of The Euthanasia Deception documentary (www.VulnerableFilm.com) are working on a new film dealing with the effects of assisted suicide in America. 

Assisted suicide is currently legal in the States of Oregon, Washington, Vermont, California, and the District of Columbia. 

If you or a loved one have felt coerced, experienced abuse, or come back from the brink of death by assisted death, we would like to hear from you. 

Email us a brief description with contact information at VulnerableStories@gmail.com.

The Mother Situation: Award winning comic short film about euthanasia is a hit.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Mother Situation won first
prize at the Tropfest film festival

After all the recent films promoting euthanasia, it is interesting how The Mother Situation won first prize in the Tropfest film festival in Australia. Tropfest is the world's largest short film festival.

Link to: The Mother Situation film.

Warning: This film contains swearing.

Director, Matt Day, insists that he supports euthanasia and that this is not an anti-euthanasia film, yet The Mother Situation is a comic film that casts doubt on the effectiveness of "safeguards" concerning euthanasia.

Film is a powerful cultural medium.

Recently a euthanasia advocate changed her mind after watching The Euthanasia Deception documentary with her grandson. The Euthanasia Deception documentary is produced by The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC) and DunnMedia.

EPC is committed to producing films for social change at: www.vulnerablefilms.com.

Euthanasia advocate changes her mind after watching the Euthanasia Deception documentary

Alex Schadenberg 

Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

I am pleased to share this great news.  

I recently met Shane at an training event that we organized in Washington DC. Shane attended the event to share with us his gratitude concerning his grandmother, who had been a member of the Hemlock society, a group that is now known as Compassion and Choices, but has now changed her mind. 

Watch the interview with Shane Johnson:

Shane is grateful that his grandmother saw the Euthanasia Deception documentary. She had been an active supporter of euthanasia and assisted suicide most of her life. 

 

Shane and his grandmother watched the Euthanasia Deception documentary together. While watching the documentary, Shane's grandmother flipped 180 degrees and changed her mind about euthanasia.

Order the Euthanasia Deception documentary today for $30 for 1 copy or $100 for 4 copies (+ tax) (further bulk orders are available) from the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition by calling: 1-877-439-3348 by email: info@epcc.ca or at: www.vulnerablefilm.com.

I am also pleased to announce that a bilingual version (french subtitles) is available for ordering.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition has distributed thousands of copies of the Euthanasia Deception documentary on DVD and there have been many downloads on Vimeo.

Link to more information about the Euthanasia Deception documentary.

The Euthanasia Deception documentary.

The Euthanasia Deception Documentary is available by ordering the DVD at info@epcc.ca or downloading it online at www.vulnerablefilm.com

“A thought-provoking, emotionally-gripping film that will impact hearts and minds. It effectively dismantles the fallacies of euthanasia proponents’ appeals to compassion and autonomy.” 

- Richard Weikart, Professor of History at California State University, Stanislaus, Author of The Death of Humanity: And the Case for Life.

“Stunning documentary. No doubt this film will save lives and prevent the destruction of a large number of families." 

- Anne LeBlanc, Rochester, NY

There are two ways to view The Euthanasia Deception.

Purchase a DVD from the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition or View or download online at www.vulnerableflim.com

Purchase The Euthanasia Deception DVD for: $30 for 1 DVD, $100 for 4 DVD's or $200 for 10 DVD's (add HST to all orders).

Link to the trailer.

The Euthanasia Deception is also available to rent or purchase online at Vimeo On Demand. Detailed instructions: 

1. Go to the film’s Web site www.vulnerablefilm.com and click rent or download. 
2. Click "Rent or Download Here”. You will be directed to Vimeo On Demand. 
3. Scroll down and click on the version you wish: Canadian or International Version 
4. You will be asked to join Vimeo, a free service, with no obligation. 
5. You will be prompted to pay $3.00 CAD (or equivalent) for a 48 hour rental download or $30.00 to purchase a downloadable version of the film. Most credit cards or Paypal accepted.
6. Be sure to enter your email to receive updates. 
7. Enjoy the Euthanasia Deception documentary!

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC) in association with DunnMedia is pleased to announce the International release of The Euthanasia Deception, complete with interactive website and resource materials at: www.vulnerablefilm.com. 

The fifty-two minute documentary features powerful testimonies from Belgium and Canada, exposing the three main deceptions used by the assisted dying lobby:

• Euthanasia & assisted suicide are falsely promoted as compassion or mercy.
• Euthanasia & assisted suicide are falsely promoted as a form of autonomy. 
• The myth that safeguards can protect people is exposed. 

The Euthanasia Deception documentary is also available to be ordered with French subtitles.

The Euthanasia Deception features; 

• Professor Tom Mortier, a Belgian man whose depressed mother died by euthanasia,
• Dr Catherine Dopchie, a palliative physician in Belgium,
• Dr Benoit Beusselinck, a Belgian oncologist and palliative care doctor in Belgium,
• Carine Brochier, the co-ordinator of the European Institute of Bioethics in Belgium,
• Professor Etienne Montero, Dean of the Faculty of Law, Namur Belgium,
• Hendrik Reitsma's grand-dad died an assisted death with no request in the Netherlands,
• Kristina Hodgetts, a nurse speaks about her experience with assisted death in Canada,
• Lionel Roosemont, a Belgian man who is the father of a significantly disabled child,
• Amy Hasbrouck, a lawyer and a disability rights leader in Québec Canada,
• Mark Pickup, a disability rights activist and public speaker in Alberta Canada,
• Steven Passmore, a disability rights activist in Ontario Canada,
• Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.

We are all vulnerable at different times in our lives. This documentary is a dire warning for Canada and the rest of the world.

Your donations to EPC enable us to continue our commitment to resisting the acceptance of euthanasia while providing jurisdictions with data to prevent its legalization.

Purchase The Euthanasia Deception by (paying $30 + HST by credit card or paypal) or order by email: info@epcc.ca or call toll free: 1-877-439-3348.

A New Documentary Confronting the “Euthanasia Deception”

The Euthanasia Deception - Promo from DunnMedia on Vimeo.

Order the Euthanasia Deception documentary. or buy the Euthanasia Deception documentary for $30 for 1 DVD / $100 for 4 DVD's or $200 for 10 DVD's (Link to purchase) or you can download the Euthanasia Deception documentary for purchase or rental (link).

By Richard Weikart

“What is our society becoming? It’s a quality society. Only the best will survive.”

So testifies Belgian Professor Tom Mortier in the powerful new documentary, “The Euthanasia Deception,” that is both thought-provoking and emotionally gripping.

Many interviews therein strip away the sugar-coated rhetoric that is increasingly tempting us to embrace euthanasia and assisted suicide as supposedly compassionate alternatives to agony and suffering. Mortier, however, knows something about the more sordid reality: without his prior knowledge his physically healthy mother was legally killed by a physician because she suffered from depression.

Belgium, which legalized euthanasia almost fifteen years ago, is the focus of much attention in “The Euthanasia Deception,” because it serves as a powerful warning to us. Physicians in Belgium are allowed by law to administer lethal injections to patients, even to children (with parental consent), if they say they are suffering in any way and want to die. They do not have to be suffering any physical pain, nor do they have to be physically sick in any way.

"The Euthanasia Deception” illustrates that though the law supposedly requires the patient’s consent, now that euthanasia has been accepted by Belgian society, some physicians are killing patients with Alzheimer’s or dementia without their consent. Though technically illegal, the government is turning a blind eye to these frequent cases of involuntary euthanasia, thus de facto sanctioning it.

What has brought about this “massive cultural shift” in the past couple of decades that has caused some countries (as well as some states in the United States) to jettison the ideals of the Hippocratic Oath, which forbade physicians from helping people kill themselves?

Tom Mortier's mother.

As Mortier’s quotation suggests, one of the most powerful themes to emerge from “The Euthanasia Deception” is that we no longer consider all people’s lives valuable. We now measure the value of a person’s life by our (elastic) judgement about their “quality of life.” Thus, some human lives are valuable, while others are not.

This comes through poignantly in an interview with “Lionel,” a Belgian man whose twenty-year old daughter is severely disabled. He explains that many people, including strangers on the street, have asked him over the years why he did not euthanize his daughter, whom he loves as dearly as his other children.

Another man, “Mark,” who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at age 30, explains that at one point in his life he was very depressed and wanted to die. Now, many years later, he is extremely thankful that assisted suicide was not legal at that time.

Mark Pickup with Kevin Dunn

Mark is delighted to be alive, even though he uses a wheelchair. In the interview he then waxed rather indignant, pointing out that while people with disabilities are being offered assisted suicide, healthy people are offered suicide prevention programs. Apparently we don’t really believe in human equality.

The film dismantles three key deceptive ideas used to promote euthanasia. First, euthanasia proponents try to take the moral high ground by presenting it as a compassionate alternative to pain and suffering. However, as several physicians and palliative care specialists explain, pain is rarely the reason for euthanasia. Rather patients usually request euthanasia because of fear of disability, or because they feel they will be a burden to others.

The really compassionate choice for us as a society is to care for people with disabilities and dying, loving them until the end. Indeed the word compassion derives from root words that mean to suffer along with (someone). Killing is not compassion.

Second, euthanasia advocates claim that euthanasia is an individual right that provides the individual with “autonomy.” As one person being interviewed astutely remarked, euthanasia may end pain for one individual, but it does so by transferring much pain to the next generation.

I was disappointed that no one in the film mentioned another obvious problem with the autonomy argument: suicide brings one’s autonomy to a screeching halt. We should ban assisted suicide for the same reason we ban slavery: because it is the antithesis of personal liberty. We don’t let people choose to become slaves.

Finally, fans of euthanasia insist that safeguards will protect the vulnerable. Belgium is a powerful counterargument, as they have fairly quickly allowed more and more forms of euthanasia for almost any ailments, even purely psychological problems. Worse yet, physicians are admitting that they do not follow the law, but nothing is being done to constrain their unfettered killing.

If you want to understand the perils of the “culture of death” that is gaining ground in our society, you owe it to yourself to watch this video. It not only confronts the false arguments, but it portrays the ways that euthanasia hurts all of us—the victims and the survivors.

“The Euthanasia Deception” is directed by Kevin Dunn and produced by the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition in association with DunnMedia & Entertainment. Information about “The Euthanasia Deception” is available at vulnerablefilm.com.

Editor’s note. Richard Weikart is professor of history at California State University, Stanislaus, and author of “The Death of Humanity: And the Case for Life and Hitler’s Religion.”