Guernsey Deputy said that assisted suicide will save money.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Deputy Lester Queripel

Guernsey Deputy, Lester Queripel, told the Health & Social Care Committee that the States’ financial problems provide an ideal opportunity to revisit the issue of assisted suicide.

The Guernsey Press reported on August 30 Queripel saying that:

‘no stone should be left unturned’ as committees battle to save millions of pounds a year in spending. And he urged HSC to accept that ‘considerable savings could be realised if assisted dying was to be introduced here in the island’.

‘Those savings obviously wouldn’t just be exclusively financial, because islanders with terminal illnesses could be saved from months of unnecessary excruciating pain and suffering if they were permitted to end their own life whenever they choose to,’ he said.

The Guernsey Press reported that Queripel asked the health service:

In written questions to HSC, Deputy Queripel asked how many people had been kept alive, against their wishes, in the past five years, how much their medication and treatment had cost taxpayers, and how many staff hours had been taken up keeping them alive.

Queripel continued with his position by stating:

‘They say we need to look at everything, so this is the next logical step.

‘Many people don’t want to keep on living and I think we need to put a figure on that.’

Guernsey has debated assisted suicide on several occasions. A screening of the film by the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, Fatal Flaws, in Guernsey helped to defeat the assisted suicide bill in May 2018.

Fatal Flaws film received awards. Purchase today.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director 

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

We are pleased to announce two more International film festival awards for the Fatal Flaws film - "Outstanding Social Issue Doc: Docs Without Borders Film Festival 2019" and "Official Selection: Great Lakes International Film Festival 2019."

The Fatal Flaws film has won awards at the Life Fest Film Festival, the Reel to Reel Film Festival, the International Christian Film Festival, the Great Lakes International Film Festival and the Docs Without Borders Film Festival.

Fatal Flaws continues to be screened and it continues to change the way people view assisted death.

Fatal Flaws features personal stories from people who oppose assisted suicide and interviews with euthanasia proponents in the Netherlands and the United States.

Fatal Flaws was screened in Guernsey (UK) while their legislature was debating an assisted suicide bill. One of the sponsors of the bill attended the Fatal Flaws screening. The next day he stated in the legislature that he changed his mind after watching Fatal Flaws. The Guernsey assisted suicide bill was defeated by a 24 to 14 vote.

The Fatal Flaws pamphlet is based on the main stories in the film. The pamphlet is excellent for distribution at a screening. (Inside of the pamphlet) (outside of the pamphlet).

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

• DVD: $15 each + tax.
• Pamphlets: $25 for 100 + tax.

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

• With any Fatal Flaws order, order The Euthanasia Deception  documentary for $20.

Further bulk orders are available upon request.

Order the Fatal Flaws DVD with pamphlets online, or email:  info@epcc.ca or call EPC toll free at: 1-877-439-3348 or mail your cheque to:

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition - Box 25033 London, Ontario N6C 6A8

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

Portugal rejects euthanasia.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Portugeese Assembly

I have fabulous news.

Members of the Assembly in Portugal defeated four proposals to legalize euthanasia. The closest vote was on a bill drafted by the ruling socialist party. Reuters reported:

The bill, drafted by the ruling Socialists garnered 110 votes in the 230-seat parliament, but was outvoted by 115 opponents, with 4 abstentions, after a heated debate and a vote that required each lawmaker to declare his or her stance.

Reuters reported that protesters, opposing euthanasia, were outside of parliament with three main slogans:

“Yes to life, no to euthanasia!” and carrying placards “We demand palliative care for ALL”, or “Euthanasia is a recipe for elder abuse”

The Portugeese American Journal reported that the Medical Association opposes euthanasia:

The Portuguese Doctors’ Association opposed the bill, saying it violated their professional principles. A petition by the Portuguese Federation for Life a few collected more than 14,000 signatures opposing the bill on the principle that society and the state have a duty to protect human life.

The Morning Star online reported why the Communist party opposed euthanasia:

Communist MP Antonio Filipe explained that the party saw euthanasia “not as a sign of progress but a step towards civilisational retrogression with profound social, behavioural and ethical implications. 

“In a context in which the value of human life is frequently made conditional on criteria of social utility, economic interest, family responsibilities and burdens or public spending, legalisation of early death would add a new dimension of problems,” he told parliament. 

“Faced with human suffering, the solution is not to divest society of responsibility by promoting early death but to ensure conditions for a dignified life.”

In the past month, euthanasia bills have been defeated in Finland, Guernsey (UK), and the courts have declared that the California assisted suicide law is unconstitutional.

Fatal Flaws Screening Helps Defeat Assisted Suicide proposal in Guernsey.

Kevin Dunn with Dr Carmen Wheatley

By Kevin Dunn
Director - Fatal Flaws

“During the government debate there was a moving moment when Deputy Graham McKinley, after announcing he had seen the Fatal Flaws film on Alderney, and how moved he was by it, bravely explained why he was abandoning the Requete.” 

Dr. Carmen Wheatley, Executive Director, Assisted Living, Guernsey (UK)

I had always hoped this film would be a game-changer. Looks like it’s happening.

• Assisted suicide proposal overwhelmingly defeated in Guernsey.

I’ve just returned from The Channel Islands, UK where we had two screenings of Fatal Flaws: Legalizing Assisted Death. One in Guernsey and another in Alderney. These screenings happened just prior to a three day debate and vote on assisted suicide. According to The Guardian, “if the Requete had passed, Guernsey would have become the first place in the British Isles to offer euthanasia for people with terminal illnesses.” Instead they voted to improve palliative care on the island.

Newspaper ad promoting Fatal Flaws

The sponsor of the screening, Dr. Carmen Wheatley, Orthomolecular Oncology Medical Researcher and Executive Director of Assisted Living, Guernsey, reached out to me a few weeks ago and asked me if I would come to the Island before the vote. 

Order the film - Fatal Flaws and the Fatal Flaws pamphlets today.

In an email Dr Wheatley sent me today, she told me that during the debate, a Deputy for Alderney revealed to all that he had seen your film there, had become very moved by the content, listened to the Alderney folk, and changed his mind. The other Requeteers were not expecting this final coup de grace. In a more formal statement, she wrote 

“In spite of misrepresentations of the film by campaigners, who refused to view it, and a mysterious blockade on TV and radio interviews from the one person on Guernsey, Kevin Dunn, who not only lives in a country, Canada, with such death legislation, but has been to no less than 6 jurisdictions/countries, interviewing doctors, patients, families on both sides of the divide, this documentary deeply impressed those few Deputies and the larger public who saw it.”

She went on to say, 

“To the extent that 1 of 2 Alderney representatives, who had originally, – and probably against his better judgement, been one of the signatories of the Requete, found the courage shortly before the decisive vote to publicly and dramatically renege on his allegiance to the Requete, thus adding to the strength of the decisive final No vote.”

In the film, I asked journalist Gerbert Van Loenen from The Netherlands, “who is telling the other side of the story?” He said, “I’m afraid no one.” 

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

Through the testimonies of so many brave and passionate people in this film, we were able to do just that: tell stories of a highly underrepresented group of people and shine a light on a dark corner of the political and medical landscape. 

What could be more important than saving the lives of the vulnerable?

Kudos to the entire FF team.

Kevin Dunn, Director

Assisted suicide bill overwhelmingly defeated in Guernsey

Guernsey Parliament

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

More incredible news: The Guernsey parliament, today, defeated a proposal to legalize assisted suicide in the British Island state by a vote of 24 to 14.

This is incredible news considering the resources that the assisted suicide lobby invested into passing assisted suicide in Guernsey, that they viewed as a possible "opening" to the legalization of assisted suicide in the UK.

Guernsey newspaper ad.

According to the Guardian the assisted suicide proposal was based on the Oregon model.

A coalition of groups formed to defeat the bill included disability rights groups - Not Dead Yet UK, and the Guernsey Disability Alliance, also the British Medical Association, and the Care Not Killing Alliance in the UK. 

Carmen, from Assisted Living Guernsey booked Kevin Dunn, producer of the film - Fatal Flaws - to address a audience after the screening of Fatal Flaws in Guernsey. We are happy to state that some members of the Guernsey parliament attended the screening of Fatal Flaws and one member changed his position on assisted suicide after watching Fatal Flaws.

Dr Peter Saunders

Peter Saunders, campaign director for the Care Not Killing Alliance was reported in the Shropshire Star as stating:

“We welcome this strong rejection of this dangerous proposition by the elected Deputies on the Island. 

“Parliamentarians across the UK have rightly rejected attempts to introduce assisted suicide and euthanasia ten times since 2003 out of concern for public safety, including in 2015 when the House of Commons overwhelmingly voted against any change in the law by 330 votes to 118. 

“We know the Deputies in Guernsey will now turn their attention to the real issues facing disabled people and the terminally ill on the island, ensuring equality of access to the very best health care available and how to fund this.”

Recently the Finland parliament rejected euthanasia and a California court struck down the California assisted suicide law as unconstitutional.