Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
A similar article was written by Cameron Henderson and published by The Telegraph on October 26, 2024.
Schreiber explains that the BC Civil Liberties Association, which is the group that carried the Carter case through the British Columbia trial court and then up to the Supreme Court of Canada is warning that euthanasia has become too easy to obtain and the government must enact safeguards. Schreiber reported that:
Liz Hughes, who has served as BCCLA executive director since June 2023, said in a statement to the National Post that the group is “aware of concerning reports of people being offered MAID in circumstances that may not legally qualify, as well as people accessing MAID as a result of intolerable social circumstances.”
Hughes called for government action: “Governments must put in place, actively review, and enforce appropriate safeguards to ensure that people are making this decision freely.”
The BCCLA’s work around MAID has evolved, Hughes said, and the organization “will continue to hold the government accountable.”
Schreiber points out that the BCCLA already agreed in September 2023 that the law was being abused.
In a video shared with the National Post by disability activists, a BCCLA litigation staff lawyer told a Zoom town hall on Sept. 27, 2023, that her work with the association “may very well involve adopting either a modified or a new policy around our position on MAID in light of the fact of, you know, that it’s being abused.”
She said she is “very uncomfortable with our previous work around MAID,” and said staff want to be “making sure people have adequate supports and access to health care and other financial resources.”
Another BCCLA staff member told the town hall “we’ve done an environmental scan, so that was a kind of review of what’s currently happening with MAID in Canada, and it’s very concerning … the whole coercive dynamic that’s inherent with, you know, disabled people and their health-care providers.”
The BCCLA were particularly concerned about euthanasia for prisoners and people with disabilities.
Of particular alarm to the staff members were reports of MAID being used in prisons while incarcerated people were shackled to their beds, the program’s lack of legal oversight, disproportionate representation of impoverished people receiving assisted suicide, and health-care practitioners offering assisted suicide when patients asked for support for living.
Disability activist, Roger Foley, told Schreiber:
In an interview, disability activist Roger Foley said it is significant that these comments come from the civil liberties group that spearheaded the inception of Canada’s MAID program: “BCCLA was the driving force and creator of the legal challenge that decriminalized euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada,” Foley said.
Schreiber continues by outlining concerns with Canada's euthanasia data:
Health Canada’s Fifth Annual Report on Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada last week revealed that over 15,300 Canadians died by MAID in 2023, representing a 15.8 per cent increase in deaths from the previous year. In 2023, MAID accounted for 4.7 per cent of deaths in Canada.
Quebec accounted for 36.5 per cent of all Canadian MAID deaths in 2023. Quebec’s 5,601 MAID deaths represented 7.2 per cent of the province’s total deaths — about one in every 14. B.C. is not far behind; MAID now represents 6.1 per cent of all deaths in that province.
Health Canada’s report reveals that 47.1 per cent of non-terminally ill Canadians who applied for MAID reported “isolation or loneliness” as one of the causes of their suffering. Just under half of all Canadian MAID cases (terminal and non-terminal) indicate that they want an early death in part lest they become a “perceived burden on family, friends or caregivers.”
Health Canada's Fifth Annual Report released last week revealed that MAiD was responsible for about one in 20 deaths in Canada in 2023, including 622 people who received MAID for a non-terminal illness.
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