Canadian doctor supports euthanasia for children, poverty and more.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Sign our petition: We demand a review of Dr Ellen Wiebe's euthanasia practice (Link).

Dr Ellen Wiebe

James Reinl wrote an insightful article that was published by the Daily Mail on August 27, 2025 interviewing Ellen Wiebe, one of Canada's most prolific euthanasia doctors. In the interview Wiebe states that she supports euthanasia for children, poverty and more. Reinl reports:

She has been called 'Dr Death,' the 'High Priestess of euthanasia,' and dragged through courts for greenlighting controversial assisted suicides.

But Dr Ellen Wiebe – one of Canada's most prolific providers of state-sanctioned euthanasia – insists she is not evil.

Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail from her Vancouver home, the 73-year-old revealed she has overseen more than 400 lethal injections since Canada legalized Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) in 2016 – and still defends expanding access to children and even the poor.

Wiebe admitted to having done at least 400 euthanasia deaths in 2022. Since then she continues to refer to the 400 deaths but its likely more than 1000.

Reinl comments on Wiebe's support for euthanasia based on poverty:

Dr Wiebe admits she sometimes feels like a social worker, trying to untangle whether her patients are motivated by illness or destitution.

'In some situations, I will actually ask: 'If you could have better housing, if you could have better services, would you want to live longer?' And you know, some would say 'yes',' she said.

She has even lobbied local officials for housing and support, but often finds 'that service may not simply be available.'

Still, she argues poverty should not invalidate someone's right to die.

Wiebe also tells Reinl that children should have access to euthanasia.

Perhaps most controversially, Wiebe says Canada will doubtless extend assisted suicide to 'mature minors' – teenagers with terminal illnesses.

Canada's law currently limits MAiD to adults over 18, but a parliamentary committee has already recommended following the Netherlands in allowing access for some children.

'I'm surprised we haven't yet had a 17-year-old with terminal cancer insist on their rights,' said Wiebe.

'When it happens, a judge will agree — I have no question about that.'

Wiebe also supports extending euthanasia to people with mental illness and beyond. Reinl reports:

Despite the controversies, Wiebe is unapologetic, and says she expects Canada's MAiD program to grow further. 

Dr Wiebe is also known for several controversial euthanasia deaths.
Wiebe's liberal approach to MAiD has repeatedly landed her in hot water.

She has been accused of sneaking into a Jewish nursing home to euthanize a resident against the facility's rules.
She once performed MAiD on a 52-year-old psychiatric patient while he was on a day pass from a psychiatric hospital. 

Last year, a judge temporarily blocked her from euthanizing a woman with bipolar disorder after her partner claimed she was ineligible.

Critics say she pushes the boundaries of the law, with complaints, lawsuits, and headlines following in her wake. None have yet led to professional sanctions.

Previous articles about Dr Ellen Wiebe (Articles Link).

Roger Foley - Trapped in a hospital for 9 years and told that death is his way out.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Roger Foley, London Health Sciences Centre

Yesterday I published the article: Roger Foley has served more than 9 years in hospital care. He deserves to be sent home with self directed care. (Link).

James Reinl wrote an article that was published in the Daily Mail on June 8, 2025 titled: I've been trapped in a hospital for NINE YEARS and staff tell me the way out is killing myself. Reinl explains Roger Foley's dilemma:

A disabled Canadian man has told the Daily Mail about his living hell of nine years in a hospital where he says caregivers badger him to end his life by lethal injection.

Roger Foley is stuck in a room in the London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) in London, Ontario, where staff repeatedly drop hints about euthanasia, he says.

He suffers from spinocerebellar ataxia, an incurable brain disease that makes it difficult to move. He needs to be lifted so he can eat, drink, and take medication.

Last month the hospital switched out the amber lights in his room for bright bulbs that leave Foley, who is light sensitive, in pain and unable to be lifted for meals, he says.

The 49-year-old ate his last mouthful of food on May 6 and has since received sustenance through a drip.

Now, his strained veins are collapsing, and he is at risk of a heart attack or other health crisis, he adds.

Last week, I visited Roger Foley at the hospital. During the visit we discussed that he has not received any food since May 6, which was more than a month. Roger is receiving fluids with some sustenance through an IV tube, but that does not provide the necessary nutrition to sustain him.

Yesterday I wrote that Roger, who I have been communicating with for several years, does not want to live in the hospital. Roger has served his time and deserves to be sent home. The catch is that based on his disability he needs significant care.

Roger proposed, from the beginning, that he be sent home with self-directed care, meaning that Roger would hire the care team to provide for his needs. Self-directed care is a program that exists in Ontario, but Roger has been denied access to the program.

Reinl reports Roger as stating:

His state-funded at-home caregivers were negligent, dragging him across floors and banging him into walls, he says.

He ended up in hospital with food poisoning in February 2016 and he has been there ever since.

Foley says he will only go home once he can choose his own caregivers, in what is called 'self-directed' care — a rarity in the province's tax-funded healthcare system.

Reinl explains the stand-off that Foley has with the London Health Sciences Centre:

Last month, hospital bosses took away the soft amber lighting Foley needs in favor of the regular blue lights that hurt his disease-ravaged eyes, he says.

As a result, he cannot be lifted to eat and has since been fed through a drip, he says.

That raises the risks of heart attacks, infections and blood clots, he says.

'They know that my body can only last so long without access to food, medicine, and water, and they know that my eyes can't tolerate the light,' he said.

'They would be more than happy if I died of a heart attack.

Foley wants to leave the hospital and go home, Reinl writes:

He says he yearns to get back to his one-bedroom apartment on Highbury, where he can compose music and carry out voluntary work for disability rights charities.

Foley's home has an accessible shower and gym. If he is granted self-directed care, he could also see his mom, two brothers, and niece more often, he says.

'That's my light at the end of the tunnel,' he says.

An online fundraiser for his legal battle has so far raised nearly $3,000.

As I stated in my article yesterday when you do the math, self-directed care is the least expensive and preferable option for care.

The hospital is an incredibly expensive place to care for Roger and he does not want to be there. "Care agencies" bill the government for the cost of the care and the costs associated with the agency.

Self-directed care, whereby Roger would hire his own care team, is the least expensive and the preferable option since most of the cost is limited to the cost of the care team.

It is time to release Roger from the confinement of the hospital room and send him home with self-directed care. Roger has already created a proposed model of care that outlines the requirements of his team and the cost associated with his care.

Roger deserves to be sent home and be approved for self-directed care.

Britain's financial crisis may lead the government to legalize assisted suicide

Human life is devalued when a price is put on people's lives or their care

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director,
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

A report from the UK government's National Audit Office on the financial sustainability of the NHS - National Health Services in the UK, that was released on July 23, 2024 may lead to their government pushing to legalize assisted suicide.

The conclusion of the NHS financial sustainability report states:

The scale of challenge facing the NHS today and foreseeable in the years ahead is unprecedented.

When we consider how the health needs of the population look set to increase, we are concerned that the NHS may be working at the limits of a system which might break before it is again able to provide patients with care that meets standards for timeliness and accessibility.

The NHS financial sustainability report was released just when Keir Starmer, the leader of Britain's Labour Party, became the Prime Minister. Starmer is a long-time promoter of assisted suicide. During the election Starmer promised that he would introduce a bill and allow a free-vote to legalize assisted suicide in the UK. The July 4 election resulted in the Labour Party winning a massive majority of seats.

An article in The Standard states about the NHS financial sustainability report:

The report is the ninth of its kind by the NAO, and the first to be published since February 2020.

Experts said its findings depict “a picture of systemic failures and inefficient decision-making”.

The report warned that NHS England’s financial position is “worsening” due to a “combination of long-standing and recent issues, including failure to invest in the estate, inflationary pressures, and the cost of post-pandemic recovery”.

The article also pointed out that the UK is undergoing a demographic shift towards an aging population.

It said there is scope for NHS England to “make better use” of its funds, but long-term sustainability depends on how the Government addresses the “steeply increasing demand for healthcare”.

It added that the country’s changing demographics “will continue to create significant additional demand for NHS services” and warned “people are living longer and spending more years in ill-health”.

According to the report, the NHS received £153 Billion and the combined deficit in the system was £1.4 Billion which doesn't take into account the increased funding that was already invested into the NHS system to balance the funding.

Legalizing euthanasia and/or assisted suicide to control the cost of health care leads to dangerous outcomes, as has happened in Canada. 

When human lives are deemed to be "better off dead" or "costing too much" then people with healthcare needs, especially people with disabilities, will be urged to "choose" death. Subtle pressure is often enough to cause a significant shift in healthcare.

Tracy Poleczuk with her husband.

James Reinl recently published an article in the Daily Mail where he interviewed Heather Hancock, a Canadian Saskatchewan woman who lives with spastic cerebral palsy who was pressured three times, while receiving medical care, to ask for euthanasia.

An article by Matt Gilmour that was published by CTV news Montreal concerned Tracy Polewczuk, a woman who lives with Spina Bifida, who on two separate occasions was urged to request euthanasia by a medical professional without Tracy initiating the request.

Both Canadian women live with disabilities and feel that their lives have been devalued by the pressure to "choose" death over life.

Polewczuk told Gilmour in the interview that:

"Pain sucks. We all agree. It's terrible. I'm in pain 24/7. It never stops. I can survive that. I cannot survive being treated like a sack of meat,"

Heather Hancock

While Hancock told Reinl in the interview that:

A nurse was helping her into the bathroom at night, during a lengthy bout of care for muscular spasms in 2019, when the carer crossed a line into the unthinkable.

'You should do the right thing and consider MAiD,' said the nurse, referring to the country's Medical Assistance in Dying program.

'You're being selfish. You're not living, you're merely existing.'

Hancock, now 56, says she was 'gobsmacked' but stood her ground, telling the nurse that her life had value, even if she spent four fifths of it in a wheelchair.

People with disabilities are right to be concerned.

We fear that the NHS financial crisis may create pressure for the new UK government, led by long-time assisted suicide activist Keir Starmer, to push the UK government to legalize assisted suicide as soon as possible.

Human life is devalued when a price is put on people's lives or their care.

Canadian woman pressured to "choose" euthanasia. She was told that she was selfish for living.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Heather Hancock

A few weeks ago I published a personal story by Heather Hancock, a woman who lives with spastic cerebral palsy, who stated that she was having medical difficulties she was pressured to "choose" euthanasia.

James Reinl, the Social Affairs Correspondent for the Daily Mail recently interviewed Hancock. The Daily Mail published the article on July 12. Reinl writes:

It was an odious encounter with a nurse in a remote Alberta hospital that persuaded Heather Hancock how Canada's euthanasia system was coming badly off the rails.

Hancock suffered from cerebral palsy since infancy and was used to bullying from her school days, but the treatment she got at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital was something else.

A nurse was helping her into the bathroom at night, during a lengthy bout of care for muscular spasms in 2019, when the carer crossed a line into the unthinkable.

'You should do the right thing and consider MAiD,' said the nurse, referring to the country's Medical Assistance in Dying program.

'You're being selfish. You're not living, you're merely existing.'

Hancock, now 56, says she was 'gobsmacked' but stood her ground, telling the nurse that her life had value, even if she spent four fifths of it in a wheelchair.

'You have no right to push me to accept MAiD,' she recalls saying to her sneering carer.

She later complained about the nurse, who was taken off her care team, but did not make an official complaint.

Health Alberta said the nurse's comments were 'entirely unacceptable.'

Reinl states that it was the most egregious, but not the only time her supposed carers advised her to end her discomfort with a lethal injection. Hancock told Reinl that she has been pressured on three different occasions to "choose" MAiD (euthanasia).

Since legalization in 2016, Canada's euthanasia law has expanded quickly. Reinl explains:

Last year, doctors helped 15,280 suffering people end their lives prematurely, according to estimates obtained by DailyMail.com — a 15 percent jump on 2022.

Some 60,000 people have died from MAiD since the program was launched, and it accounts for 4.6 percent of all fatalities.

Doctor-assisted suicides helps recipients escape the misery of cancer, heart disease and other terminal illnesses, but for Hancock and others with disabilities, its availability has changed the way they are seen by carers.

Hancock told Reinl that medical professionals 'just view me as a drain on the medical system and that my healthcare dollars could be spent on an able-bodied person,'

Tracy Polewczuk with her husband

As bad as Hancock's experience has been that she is not the only one. Reinl continues:

Another Canadian, Tracy Polewczuk, came forward this month about suffering similar problems in Quebec.

Polewczuk has spina bifida, a birth defect that can cause weak bones, and bemoans the worsening daily home care visits she gets in Pointe-Claire, Montreal.

'Pain sucks. We all agree. It's terrible. I'm in pain 24/7. It never stops. I can survive that,' she told CTV News.

'I cannot survive being treated like a sack of meat.'

On two separate occasions and without prompting, Polewczuk says she was told she was eligible for MAiD by members of her care team.

'It feels like we are being pushed towards the MAiD program instead of being given the help to live,' Polewczuk said.

'I want to survive. I want to thrive. I want my life back. I want the opposite of what they're trying to have us do.'

Reinl then provides a little bit of history around Canada's euthanasia law and emphasizes that euthanasia is not limited to terminally ill people in Canada and euthanasia for mental illness alone is now scheduled to become an option in March 2027.

Heather Hancock points out that Canada's euthanasia practise is at least 10 times worse than the assisted suicide regimes in 10 American states but she shows concerns about where the law is headed. Hancock also pointed out her concern that Delaware recently passed an assisted suicide bill, but she pointed out that it could still be stopped since Delaware Governor John Carney has not yet signed the bill.

Reinl reports on Hancock's concerns:

Legislation in Delaware cleared both houses, leaving Gov John Carney with the ultimate decision about whether to sign it into law.

'Take a look at what's going on in this country,' Hancock said in a warning to Americans.

'It's a Pandora's Box. Once the lid is off, you cannot control it. All the restrictions disappear really quickly and your freedoms are undermined.'

Every jurisdiction that is debating euthanasia or assisted suicide need to recognize what has happened in Canada and then reject it. Hancock is correct. Legalizing medical killing is a pandora's box. It is sold as a autonomy and it becomes abandonment.

Assisted suicide lobby launches lawsuit to allow assisted suicide tourism in New Jersey.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The assisted suicide lobby launched a lawsuit on Tuesday, August 29 to force the state of New Jersey to drop its assisted suicide residency requirement. The lawsuit claims that the New Jersey assisted suicide law is unconstitutional because it denies equal treatment.

If the residency requirement in the New Jersey assisted suicide law is withdrawn, the assisted suicide lobby will establish an assisted suicide clinic in New Jersey to assist the suicides of people in the neighboring states that have not legalized assisted suicide.

New Jersey is not far from: New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland and New Hampshire --- states that have not legalized assisted suicide.

The Compassion and Choices media release stated:

Compassion & Choices filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday afternoon on behalf of cancer patients in Delaware and Pennsylvania and two New Jersey doctors asserting the residency mandate in New Jersey’s medical aid-in-dying law violates the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of equal treatment. The lawsuit asks the U.S. District Court in Camden, New Jersey, to prohibit state officials and the Camden County prosecutor from enforcing this unconstitutional provision of the law. The lawsuit complaint is posted at: bit.ly/NJMedicalAidinDyingLawResidencySuit

...The plaintiffs assert that the law’s residency requirement violates three clauses in the U.S. Constitution, specifically the:

• 1. Privileges and Immunities Clause by limiting the availability of medical aid in dying to residents of New Jersey. 

• 2. Dormant Commerce Clause by restricting interstate commerce, including medical care. 

• 3. Equal Protection Clause by failing to provide residents and nonresidents equal protection under federal law.

On October 2021, the assisted suicide lobby group, Compassion and Choices, and Dr Nicholas Gideonse, an assisted suicide doctor, launched a court case challenging the Oregon assisted suicide residency requirement. Instead of defending the residency requirement, the Oregon Government, on March 29, 2022 agreed to remove the residency requirement.

A February 2023 article by James Reinl for the Daily Mail reported that Dr Nicholas Gideonse has opened the first assisted suicide clinic in Oregon to prescribe lethal assisted suicide drugs for death tourists. At least one person from Texas and an east coast resident has died by assisted suicide in Oregon.

On August 26, 2022, Compassion and Choices launched a lawsuit on behalf of a Connecticut woman and a Vermont doctor challenging Vermont's assisted suicide residency requirement.

Lisa Rathke reported on March 14, 2023 for the Associated Press that Vermont's attorney general's office reached an agreement with the assisted suicide lobby and dropped the Vermont assisted suicide residency requirement.

The assisted suicide lobby failed to legalize assisted suicide in any more states since 2021. By dropping the state assisted suicide residency requirements the assisted suicide lobby is creating suicide tourist states. 

New Jersey neighbors several highly populated states that have not legalized assisted suicide. If New Jersey drops its residency requirement, the assisted suicide lobby will establish an assisted suicide clinic in New Jersey to service the killing across the Northeast United States.

California's assisted suicide deaths surge. People with disabilities steered to death.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Article: California assisted suicide deaths increase by 63% in 2022. (Link)

James Reinl wrote an excellent article that was published in the Daily Mail on August 15 on the 63% surge in 2022 California assisted suicide deaths. Reinl reports on the data but he also received input from myself and several people with disabilities for his report. Reinl states:

Record numbers of people ended their lives in California last year in America's biggest doctor-assisted suicide program, after lawmakers made it easier for residents to get their hands on lethal drugs.

Last year, 1,270 people got fatal prescriptions under the state's End of Life Option Act (ELOA), and 853 people used them to end their lives, the California Department of Public Health said in its annual report.

That's a jump from 863 scripts and 522 deaths the previous year.

The surge in assisted suicides came after California lawmakers in 2021 backed a law that shortened from 15 days to 48 hours the time needed to apply for a cocktail of suicide drugs. That law took effect in January.

Matt Valliere

Matt Valliere, director of the Patients' Rights Action Fund, told Reinl:

'It's no wonder that the number of assisted suicides soared in the year after the California legislature effectively removed the original 15-day cooling-off period,'

'Most Medi-Cal patients cannot get a mental health consult in less than 72 hours and are not guaranteed palliative care, but now, they can get suicide drugs in 48 hours and the state will pay for it every time.'

I was questioned by Reinl on the possible under-reporting of assisted suicide in California:

Alex Schadenberg

Alex Schadenberg, director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, warned that many US assisted-suicide programs have unreliable data, as not all doctors accurately report scripts and deaths back to the state health body.

In California last year, doctors wrote 294 prescriptions for which there was an 'unknown ingestion status,' says the 15-page report.

That could mean... that life-threatening drugs are sitting unused in a drawer, or that the patient used them to kill themselves and the death was not recorded.

'This self-reporting system makes it is impossible to know when a doctor does not send in a report or abuses the law,' said Schadenberg.

Reinl commented on the lawsuit that was filed in April to overturn the California Assisted Suicide Act:

Several campaign groups for disabled people earlier this year filed a lawsuit to declare California's ELOA 'unlawful and unconstitutional' because it violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.

In their suit, they complain about the bias they faced trying to get health care during the coronavirus pandemic and say the system is too quick to offer assisted suicides.

People with disabilities often struggle to get the medical care they need and, as a result, may be quick to seek assisted suicide as an option, lawyers in the case say.

Ingrid Tischer (left)

Reinl interviewed Ingrid Tischer and Diane Coleman, from Not Dead Yet, a group representing people with disabilities that are directly involved with the lawsuit:

Ingrid Tischer, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, who lives with a form of muscular dystrophy, says doctors were unwilling to treat her properly when she contracted pneumonia during COVID-19.

'The law gets in your head. That's what happened to me,' says Tischer.

A non-disabled person is steered towards suicide prevention. And the disabled person is steered toward a suicide prescription.'

Diane Coleman

Diane Coleman, a woman with neuromuscular disabilities who has used a wheelchair since childhood, and now heads the national rights group Not Dead Yet, is also involved in the lawsuit.

'Assisted suicide is just one of the many symptoms of an ableist eugenics society that believes life with a disability is a fate worse than death,' she said.

Reinl also includes interviews with disability leaders, Brianna Hammond, John Kelly and Anita Cameron, and an interview with a man named Christopher, whose father died by assisted suicide in Oregon.

Ontario Euthanasia deaths increase by more than 25% in 2023

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The number of reported euthanasia deaths in Ontario has increased by more than 25% in the first 5 months of 2023 to 1866 which is up from 1488 for the same time period in 2022. Ontario is Canada's most populated province.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC) regularly reports on the increasing number of euthanasia deaths. Last January, we were told that we needed to wait for the 2023 data based on a new reporting procedure.

Recently EPC received an updated report from the Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario reporting that there were 395 reported euthanasia deaths in May 2023 and 1866 total in 2023.

On January 31, 2023 The Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario reported the December 2022 euthanasia data indicating that there were 3934 reported euthanasia deaths in 2022 up by 27% from 2021. With another 25% increase, there will likely be 5000 Ontario euthanasia deaths in 2023.

Euthanasia deaths are increasing across Canada.

Data collected by EPC indicates that there were approximately 13,500 Canadian euthanasia deaths in 2022. 

Québec is the world's euthanasia hotspot. James Reinl, the social affairs correspondent for the Daily Mail, published an article on June 15 indicating that Québec has the highest euthanasia rate in the world. 

Reinl reported that there were 4810 (MAiD) reported Québec euthanasia deaths in 2022 which was up by 55% from 2021. Reinl further states that the number of MAiD deaths will only increase since Québec recently passed Bill 11 which expanded their euthanasia law. 

Euthanasia for mental illness is also scheduled to go into effect on March 17, 2024. Canada is also experiencing a scourge of euthanasia for poverty, homelessness and an inability to receive medical treatment. 

Recently Rose Finlay, a quadriplegic woman, was approved for death by euthanasia, but given a 90 day waiting period, because she is not terminally ill. Finlay could die by euthanasia in 90 days but was told that she had to wait 6 - 8 months to be approved for ODSP (Ontario Disability Support Payments).

Euthanasia tightens its grip as quadriplegic Canadian considers assisted death

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Rose Finlay

Approval for euthanasia is faster than getting disability benefits.

James Reinl has published another in his series of articles on euthanasia and assisted suicide. This latest article, published on July 3, 2023 in the Daily Mail, focuses on the growth of euthanasia and assisted suicide in the countries where it is legal.

Reinl reports:

The warning comes on the heels of revelations that the Netherlands euthanizes otherwise healthy people with autism, and as Australian officials debate whether to let children as young as 14 end their lives in the nation's capital.

In Canada, with the world's most permissive assisted suicide program, a quadriplegic woman has said she's considering euthanasia because it's easier to get than disability benefits.

Matt Vallière, director of the Patient's Rights Action Fund told Reinl that legalizing assisted suicide tells people with certain disabilities that they are better off dead. Vallière told Reinl that:

'Every expansion of assisted suicide and euthanasia simply adds additional subsets of people with disabilities to the group of those who qualify or makes it easier, quicker, or cheaper for them to get it,'

Every jurisdiction that has legalized euthanasia or assisted suicide have experienced expansions in the number and reasons for death. Reinl comments on the Netherlands:

The Netherlands in 2002 became the world's first country to allow doctors to kill patients, at their request, if strict conditions were met.

Nearly 60,000 opted for the procedure between 2012 and 2021, official figures show.

The country's program came under scrutiny this week with revelations that several people with autism and intellectual disabilities had been legally euthanized in recent years because they said they could not lead normal lives.

The cases included five people younger than 30 who cited autism as either the only reason or a major contributing factor for euthanasia, stretching the limits of what the law originally intended.

Reinl quoted Irene Tuffrey-Wijne, from Britain's Kingston University, and her colleagues, who reviewed Dutch files on euthanasia requests from people with autism or with lifelong mental impairments. They published their findings in the journal BJPsych Open.

Many of the patients cited different combinations of mental problems, physical ailments, diseases or aging as reasons for seeking euthanasia.

Some said they were lonely, in great pain, or felt isolated.

'There's no doubt in my mind these people were suffering,' Tuffrey-Wijne said. 'But is society really okay with sending this message, that there's no other way to help them, and it's just better to be dead?'

Reinl comments on a proposal in Australia to expand euthanasia to 14 year-olds, and the Australian euthanasia case of Lily Thai (23) who lived with a rare autoimmune condition and died by euthanasia.

Then there is the case of Rose Finlay (33), an Ontario quadripligeic woman. Finlay released a video where she explains that she can get euthanasia in 90 days, but that it will take 6 to 8 months to qualify for disability benefits. Finlay did not collect disability benefits before because she was employed but recently has become ill. When she applied for disability benefits she learned that she would have a long wait.

Alex speaking at the European Parliament

Interviewed by Reinl for this article, I called it a case of 'abandonment':

'She can die by MAiD in 90 days, but she is forced to live in complete poverty for six to eight months as she waits for approval for disability benefits,'

Canada may have had as many as 13,500 euthanasia deaths in 2022, an increase of more than 30%. I further comment:

'As soon as it is legalized there are always people who are experiencing some form of suffering who will then argue that euthanasia should also apply to them,'

'This is not about a slippery slope argument, but it is a logical extension of the law.'

Vallière agreed.

Quebec is the world's euthanasia hotspot, 6.1% of all deaths are lethal injections.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

As part of a series of articles on Canada's (MAiD) euthanasia law, James Reinl, the social affairs correspondent for the Daily Mail, published an article on June 15 concerning Québec, which now has the highest euthanasia rate in the world. Reinl reports:

Quebec has emerged as the world's euthanasia hotspot, where nearly 5,000 people opted for assisted suicides last year even as the Canadian province's officials make it easier for the terminally ill to end their lives.

Nearly 8 percent of all deaths in Quebec are assisted suicides — far higher than Canada's other provinces and even such countries as Belgium and the Netherlands, which have much older euthanasia laws.

The new data comes as Quebec officials expand access to assisted suicides to those with Alzheimer's and other serious diseases, and require all the region's hospices and private hospitals to offer the procedure.

Reinl reports that there were 4810 (MAiD) Québec euthanasia deaths in 2022 which was up by 55% from 3102 in 2021. As he further states, the number of MAiD deatsh will only increase since Québec recently passed Bill 11 which expanded their euthanasia law. Reinl reported:

Earlier this month, Quebec's regime was expanded to allow persons suffering from neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's, to request an assisted suicide in advance — before their mental competence degrades.

The amended law will also require palliative care homes and private hospitals to offer access to medical assistance in dying (MAiD), as it is known.

Living with Dignity, a non-profit opposed to euthanasia, slammed the bill's 'profoundly unfair treatment of palliative care hospices, particularly those not wishing to offer MAiD.'

Reinl reported that people with disabilities in Québec are concerned:

Steven Laperriere, general manager of the Group of Activists for Inclusion in Quebec (RAPLIQ), which advocates for the rights of disabled people, called Quebec's euthanasia record a 'disappointment.'

'It's dangerous. It's almost encouraging people who are exhausted to die,' said Laperriere.

Even though the Québec government recently expanded their MAiD law, Reinl reported that the Quebec College of Physicians wants to expand MAiD to newborns.

Dr Louis Roy, from the Quebec College of Physicians — said newborns who enter the world with 'severe malformations' or 'grave and severe syndromes' should be entitled to a doctor-aided death.

Addressing Canada's Special Joint Committee on MAiD, Dr Roy said euthanasia should be available to 'babies 0 - 1 years ... whose life expectancy and level of suffering mean it would make sense to ensure they do not suffer.'

Alex Schadenberg

Reinl reported that Canada is on track to have approximately 13,500 euthanasia deaths in 2022.

Rights groups say the country's regulations lack necessary safeguards, devalue the lives of disabled people, and prompt doctors and health workers to suggest the procedure to those who might not otherwise consider it.

Canada is on track to record some 13,500 state-sanctioned suicides in 2022, a 34 percent rise on the previous year, according to an analysis of official data by Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.

Links to the previous articles on Canada's 2022 MAiD (euthanasia) deaths.

• 2022 projection: 13,500 euthanasia deaths in Canada (Link).
• British Columbia: 24% rise in euthanasia deaths in 2022 (Link).
• Québec has the highest euthanasia rate in the world (Link).
  

British Columbia: 24% rise in euthanasia deaths in 2022.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

James Reinl, the social affairs correspondent for the Daily Mail, published an article on June 13, 2023 about British Columbia's euthanasia data. Reinl obtained data from the BC Ministry of Health showing that there were 2515 (MAiD) euthanasia deaths in the province in 2022, up by 24% from 2030 euthanasia deaths in 2021. 

British Columbia had the highest 2021 euthanasia rate in Canada. Québec has the highest euthanasia rate in the world in 2022.

Reinl's article is part of a series of articles that he has written on research concerning Canada's euthanasia law. His last article was based on the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition prediction that there were approximately 13,500 euthanasia deaths in Canada in 2022, up from 10,064 in 2021. The prediction was based on data collected by the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and data obtained by Reinl.

Reinl states:

British Columbia saw 24 percent more people getting assisted suicides last year — what campaigners call an 'alarming' sign of unraveling safeguards on euthanasia in the Canadian province.

Some 2,515 people received Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD), as procedures are known, in the West Coast region, more than the 2,030 who did so in 2021, BC Ministry of Health figures show.

The data come amid concerns that BC and Canada as a whole are headed toward a euthanasia free-for-all, as federal officials weigh whether to extend the procedures to the mentally ill and even children.

Reinl continues:

'Not only has there been a 24 percent increase in the number of people who died by euthanasia, but the number of MAiD deaths relative to the overall deaths in the province continues to climb as well.'

Last year, some 5.5 percent of all fatalities in BC were assisted suicides, making it one of the top causes of death in the province after cancer, heart disease, and dementia, and roughly on par with drug overdoses.

Of particular concern was Vancouver Island, a pristine, forested territory on the Pacific Ocean with a population of only about 865,000 people.

Some 823 residents opted for MAiD last year, the data show.

Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, said that amounted to 'an unbelievable' 10-15 percent of all deaths — perhaps the highest euthanasia rate of anywhere in the world.

Donna Duncan's daughters

For greater clarity concerning the experience with euthanasia in British Columbia, Reinl writes about the police investigation into the euthanasia death of Donna Duncan. Reinl quotes Donna's daughter Alicia:

'I don't want this to ever happen to another family ever again,' daughter Alicia told CTV.

'Ultimately, I want stronger laws and legislation.'

Alan with his brother Gary.

Reinl then compares the Duncan story to the euthanasia death of Alan Nichols.

The Duncan family tragedy echoes the case of Alan Nichols, a 61-year-old BC man with a history of depression who was greenlighted for euthanasia on the basis of a single health condition: hearing loss. 

Nichols submitted a request to be euthanized, and he was killed by lethal injection in 2019, despite concerns raised by his family and a nurse practitioner. His brother, Gary, says he was 'basically put to death.' 

Alex Schadenberg

Reinl examines why so many Canadians are dying by euthanasia. He explains the history of how euthanasia was legalized in Canada and then writes:

The law was later amended to allow people who are not terminally ill to choose death, significantly broadening the number of eligible people.

Critics say that change removed a key safeguard aimed at protecting people with potentially decades of life left.

Today, any adult with a serious illness, disease, or disability can seek help in dying.

Schadenberg said MAiD teams in clinics were aggressively pushing for sick people to opt for euthanasia.

He described cases of medics asking terminally sick people as many as five times if they wanted to end their lives. In some cases, they asked them when relatives were present, and again when alone, Schadenberg said.

'The selling of MAiD by the MAiD teams is a big reason why the numbers are skyrocketing.

'If you're going to pay people to be on a MAiD team, they will sell what they are offering,' Schadenberg said.

More articles on this topic:

• 2022 Projection: 13,500 Canadian euthanasia deaths in 2022 (Link). 
• Québec has the highest euthanasia rate in the world (Link). 
• Alberta euthanasia deaths increased by more than 40% in 2022 (Link).
• Ontario 2022 euthanasia deaths increase by 27% to 3934 (Link).
  

Princeton University Professor slammed for promoting euthanasia for babies.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Peter Singer

James Reinl, the social affairs correspondent for the Daily Mail, published an article on June 6, 2023 concerning Princeton University Professor, Peter Singer, who promotes euthanasia in general but also euthanasia of babies born with disabilities.

Reinl explained why people are concerned about Singer:

Princeton University scholar Peter Singer is under fire for promoting euthanasia for adults and even sick newborns as he touts his new book on a tour of the US, Britain, and Australia.

Singer, 76, one of the world's top living philosophers and an animal rights champion, has stoked fury with his recent vocal support for doctor-assisted killings, including for infants born with terminal conditions.

Critics have slammed Singer's comments as 'dangerous eugenics,' accusing the Australian of undermining the terminally ill and disabled by suggesting they are better off dead.

Reinl quoted Alex Schadenberg concerning Singer:

'He justifies that certain lives are unworthy of life, and his philosophy undermines the concept of human equality by justifying the killing of people who lack an undefined level of cognitive capacity.'

Reinl points out that Peter Singer is currently on a speaking tour of the US, Britain and Australia. Singer is controversial and has been protested by the disability community for his views on euthanasia of newborns and people with disabilities. Reinl writes:

More contentious still, the bioethicist said parents of a newborn with a 'very severe disability' should be able to ask doctors to give the child a lethal injection.

'Parents should still have the option of saying: 'We think that it's better that the child should not live,' and doctors should be able to make sure that happens, to give the child a drug so that the child dies without suffering,' Singer said.

His comments have provoked outrage among rights activists, who say legalizing euthanasia devalues the lives of disabled people, and prompts doctors to suggest the procedure to those who might not otherwise consider it.

Calling for lethal injections for sick newborns is even more emotive.

Meghan Schrader

Reinl continues:

Meghan Schrader, 40, an autistic woman and instructor at the University of Texas at Austin, likened Singer's 'euthanasia program' to state-sanctioned killings of disabled people in Nazi Germany.

Schadenberg said promoting euthanasia for newborns is 'dangerous,' as Canadian officials are weighing whether to expand access to assisted dying, as it is known, to include the mentally ill and children.

During the Canadian government committee hearings on Canada's MAiD law, the representative for the Quebec College of Physicians expressed their support for both child euthanasia and the euthanasia of newborns, also known as infanticide.

• Recent article: Philosopher Peter Singer on euthanasia and killing newborns (Link).