Euthanasia is the Fifth leading cause of death in Canada.

This article was published by National Review online on August 10, 2024.

Previous article on this study: The rise of euthanasia in Canada: From Exceptional to Routing (Link)

Wesley Smith

By Wesley J Smith

Euthanasia is homicide. Such (legal) killings by doctors and nurses now constitute the fifth-leading cause of death north of the 49th Parallel. From a study conducted by Cardus, a Canadian Christian think tank:

• The number of Canadians dying prematurely by “medical assistance in dying” (MAiD) has risen thirteenfold since legalization. 
• In 2016, the number of people dying in this way was 1,018. In 2022, the last year for which data are available, the number was 13,241.
• MAiD in Canada is the world’s fastest-growing assisted-dying program.
• MAiD is now tied with cerebrovascular diseases as the fifth-leading cause of death in Canada. Only deaths from cancer, heart disease, Covid-19, and accidents exceed the number of deaths from MAiD.
• Assisted dying was not meant to become a routine way of dying. Court rulings stressed that it be a “stringently limited, carefully monitored system of exceptions.” Then-minister of justice and attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould agreed: “We do not wish to promote premature death as a solution to all medical suffering.” The Canadian Medical Association likewise stated that MAiD was intended for rare situations.
• MAiD assessors and providers do not treat it as a last resort. The percentage of MAiD requests that are denied continues to decline (currently it is 3.5 percent). MAiD requests can be assessed and provided in a single day.

It was even worse in 2023, with more than 15,000 people lethally injected according to preliminary data. If the same proportion of Americans were euthanized, the total carnage would approach 150,000 each year, or about the population of Savannah.

The euthanasia movement intends to normalize lethal injections and assisted suicide as a means of dying, and certainly not just for the terminally ill, but for elderly people, those with disabilities, chronic illnesses, and mental issues, indeed, eventually anyone who wants to die. Canadians demonstrate how darkly seductive that message can be. Good grief, our closest cultural cousins are jumping into the abyss with a smile on their collective face.

If it can happen there, it can here. The only sure preventative is to reject the assisted-suicide agenda while it remains relatively limited in scope and reinvigorate the ethical tenets of Hippocratic medicine.

Researcher argues health-care serial killer could take advantage of Canada's assisted dying program

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Christopher Lyon

Professor Christopher Lyon, who teaches at the University of York in the UK, recently published a research article concluding that Canada's (MAiD) euthanasia law enables healthcare serial killers (HSK).

(Read the research article with references (Link).

The National Post published an article by Sharon Kirkey on August 9, 2024. Kirkey interviews Lyon and tries to challenge his research.

Previous article: Does Canada's euthanasia law enable healthcare serial killing? (Link).

 Kirkey introduces her article by stating:

“Canada’s MAID (medical assistance in dying) system is criticized as the most permissive or least safeguarded in the world, raising the question of whether it could protect patients who fit the clinical profile of adult victims of HSK (health-care serial killers) from a killer working as a MAID provider,” Christopher Lyon, a Canadian social scientist who teaches at the University of York in the United Kingdom, wrote in a newly published paper.

Insufficient vetting of staff, poor surveillance and oversight, and a failure by authorities to act on concerns raised by suspicious colleagues or witnesses have allowed health-care serial killers to go undetected for considerable periods, Lyon wrote in the journal HEC (HealthCare Ethics Committee) Forum, a partner journal of the American Society for Humanities and Bioethics.

Canada’s MAID regime “has similar features,” Lyon wrote, “with added opportunities for killing” afforded by broad Criminal Code exemptions from homicide and suicide offences “amid broad patient eligibility criteria.”

MAID’s oversight and delivery needs a “radical restructuring” to help mitigate the possibility of abuses, he said.

Kirkey gives some insight into Lyon's concerns. Kirkey writes:

Lyon’s 77-year-old father died by MAID in 2021 in a Victoria hospital room, over the family’s objections that he had not been properly assessed. He’d had bouts of depression and suicidal thinking, but was approved for MAID nonetheless. In essays, Lyon has described his father’s MAID provider as “Death.”

Lyon explains to Kirkey that he is not saying that there are criminally culpable homicides occurring within Canada's MAiD regime, but rather he is saying that based on the law it could happen because the MAiD regime protects homicidal personalities and enables them to legally kill.

Kirkey quotes Lyon as stating:

“I want to be clear: I’m not calling anybody out there a murderer or a serial killer in a culpable sense,” Lyon said in an interview. No police investigations or criminal charges are known.

Euthanasia “is fundamentally homicide by lethal injection,” he said. “Whatever one’s views are on MAID, it should be foremost in our minds that, at a basic level, we are empowering a privileged class of people to poison disabled and distressed people to death.

“A key reference point is health-care serial killers,” Lyon said. “Patient safety and ethical and rigorous medical practice demands that we be extremely careful about who we let do this, but I don’t see that happening in Canada.”

“Disabled people have been raising the risks of MAID being attractive to ‘angel of death’ characters for a very long time,” he added.

Spanish court to decide if 23 year old woman dies by euthanasia.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Spanish media reported today that the father of a 23 year-old woman has challenged in court the approval of euthanasia for his daughter. An article published by ACI Prensa (google translated) reported that:

The Spanish courts are currently maintaining the suspension of the execution of a euthanasia procedure on a 23-year-old girl that was to be carried out on August 2, pending the intervention of higher authorities.

The father of the young woman, aged 23, urged the suspension of euthanasia because his daughter does not have the capacity to “make decisions freely, consciously and informed” due to “mental disorders, which include suicidal ideation, paranoid ideas and bipolar disorder” as reflected in the petition for precautionary measures.

ACI Prensa reported that:

The young woman, who lacks full mobility in her legs as a result of a suicide attempt in 2022, suffers from a “borderline personality disorder” as well as an “obsessive-compulsive” type of disorder.

The Spanish case is similar to the Calgary case of the father of the 27-year-old autistic woman who successfully challenged the planned euthanasia of his daughter. (Article Link).

The Rise of Euthanasia in Canada: From Exceptional to Routine.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Canada had approximately 15,280 euthanasia deaths in 2023 (Article Link).

I would like to thank Alexander Raikin for his research report on the Rise of Euthanasia in Canada that was produced for and published by Cardus.

In one week there have been three exceptional studies on Canada's euthanasia program published from different perspectives. I hope that the interest in Canada's euthanasia law will lead to changes and a social shift towards rejecting the killing of people by lethal poison.

The first study was a landmark study by Chelsea Roff and Catherine Cook-Cottone on Assisted Death and Eating Disorders. (Link 2).

The second was a research study by Professor Christopher Lyon that asked the question: Does Canada's euthanasia law enable healthcare serial killers?

This third study, by Alexander Raikin, examines the change in the attitude towards euthanasia in Canada under the title: The Rise of Euthanasia.

The Rise of Euthanasia in Canada: From Exceptional to Routine.

Alexander Raikin

The key points by Raikin are:

• The number of Canadians dying prematurely by “medical assistance in dying” (MAiD) has risen thirteenfold since legalization. In 2016, the number of people dying in this way was 1,018. In 2022, the last year for which data are available, the number was 13,241.
• MAiD in Canada is the world’s fastest-growing assisted-dying program.
• MAiD is now tied with cerebrovascular diseases as the fifth leading cause of death in Canada. Only deaths from cancer, heart disease, COVID-19, and accidents exceed the number of deaths from MAiD.
• Assisted dying was not meant to become a routine way of dying. Court rulings stressed that it be a “stringently limited, carefully monitored system of exceptions.” Then Minister of Justice and Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould agreed: “We do not wish to promote premature death as a solution to all medical suffering.” The Canadian Medical Association likewise stated that MAiD was intended for rare situations.
• MAiD assessors and providers do not treat it as a last resort. The percentage of MAiD requests that are denied continues to decline (currently it is 3.5 percent). MAiD requests can be assessed and provided in a single day.
• Government departments and agencies continue to state that Canada’s MAiD experience is similar to that of other jurisdictions, that the rate of increase is expected, and that the growth is gradual. The data contradict these statements.
• Health Canada has dramatically underestimated what a “steady state” of MAiD deaths would look like and how quickly Canada would reach the 4 percent threshold of total deaths. This threshold was reached in 2022, eleven years ahead of what Health Canada predicted only months earlier, and double its prediction just four years earlier.
• Despite the importance of accurate vital statistics, some provinces’ death records do not record MAiD as a cause of death, instead recording the underlying condition that led to the MAiD request and subsequent death. Further, Health Canada reports on the number of MAiD deaths, but Statistics Canada does not consider MAiD a cause of death. These inconsistencies in reporting have an impact on research about MAiD and about causes of death more generally.
• The systematic underestimation of MAiD in government statements and reporting is a serious impediment to understanding the scale of MAiD’s normalization in Canada and its abnormality with regard to other countries where some form of assisted dying is permitted.
• For policymakers and the public to properly understand the Canadian reality, it is essential that government agencies collect consistent data and issue correct statements.

Euthanasia was sold to Canadians as a "last resort" but in fact it has been normalized as "medical treatment." The number of Canadian euthanasia deaths has far exceeded the projected numbers and euthanasia has been falsely asserted to be a "right" in Canada.

Scottish parliament seeks submissions concerning assisted death bill.

This message was received from the Care Not Killing Alliance (UK). There is a consultation on Liam McArthur's assisted suicide bill. If you wish to make a submission it must be done by August 16. Alex Schadenberg

Dear friends,

The call for evidence launched by the Scottish Parliament’s Health Committee, as part of its scrutiny of Liam McArthur’s assisted suicide bill, closes on Friday 16 August (at 6:00 pm). Individuals and organisations are invited to express their views; we will be submitting evidence, and we encourage all supporters (the call is not restricted to respondents in Scotland) to do likewise, bearing in mind that any change in the law at Holyrood (Scotland) would have ramifications across these islands.

The Committee has published both a short survey and a detailed call for evidence.

The short survey requires answers to only four questions:

• Which of the following best reflects your views on the Bill? *Multiple choice; we recommend "Strongly oppose"
• Which of the following factors are most important to you when considering the issue of assisted dying? *Multiple choice
• Do you have any other comments on the Bill? *Open text - you may wish to consult our guide to the detailed all for evidence.
• How did you find out about this consultation?  *Multiple choice

Anyone can submit evidence to the Scottish parliament. If you have a personal story, that will also suffice.

Disabled campaigners' warn about Lord Falconer's aim to legalise assisted suicide in the UK

Not Dead Yet UK published the following article on the Falconer assisted suicide bill.

Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Charlie Falconer) introduced a Private Members Bill (there’s an explanation of what they are here) to make it legal to assist people who are terminally ill to die.

As a group of disability rights campaigners, Not Dead Yet UK are deeply concerned about this course of action.

Like many disabled people, we are conscious that attempts to build legalised suicide into healthcare can be profoundly discriminatory – if a non-disabled person wants to die, their doctor does not give them the means to kill themselves.

We want the same care and respect to be given to terminally ill people if they are suicidal.

Rather than legalising the suicides of disabled people, we argue that the only safe way forward is better investment in palliative care and a commitment to improving the things that people often cite when they apply to die in other parts of the world, such as a lack of dignity and feeling like a burden.

Can an assisted suicide law ever be “safe”?

Charlie Falconer told The Guardian, 

“My bill is designed for people who will die in the near future. I don’t think the state should be helping people who are not terminally ill to take their own lives.”

However, this does not reassure us.

We have seen, again and again, across the world, that laws that begin with relatively strict parameters, such as terminal illness, expand and expand until people with treatable conditions, children, and people who simply can’t afford accessible housing end up being approved to die by assisted suicide.

While Falconer assures us there will be “safeguards”, in reality, these safeguards are virtually impossible to implement effectively. Even the idea that doctors can accurately predict when a person has six months left to live does not reflect reality.

And in a world where there is growing awareness of coercive control, and where we know that many do not receive adequate or appropriate medical care, pain management or social care, we are creating the conditions for people to find themselves agreeing that yes, they should probably die, including to avoid feeling like a burden, when providing them with what they actually need to live could allow them to enjoy and participate in their own life again.

What if good care stopped us from wanting to die? Where are the proposed laws to provide everybody with compassionate and appropriate care instead?

Can Falconer succeed?

Falconer has already failed at changing laws in the area of assisted suicide six times, as detailed here, but he hopes that this iteration of the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults Bill will be the one that enables assisted suicide for terminally ill people.

Private members’ bills, especially from Lords, are generally thought to be an ineffective way to create a new law. According to Politics Home, “almost all Private Members’ Bills fail. In all sessions of each Parliament between 1997 and 2015 generally only between three per cent and six per cent of bills succeeded”

What could be different this time is that Keir Starmer, the new Prime Minister, seems to be keen on legalising assisted suicide. Earlier this year, he said that if he became prime minister, he would ensure parliamentary time was made available to debate the issue and he would allow a free vote (where politicians vote according to their conscience and personal beliefs, not according to what their political party wants).

Falconer told LBC that he “strongly feels the time for this reform has come”, but presumably he felt the same when he introduced attempts to change the law in 2009, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2019 and 2022 too.

However, with the Prime Minister on side, this time, disabled people could find ourselves under threat in an unprecedented way in this country. Follow Not Dead Yet UK on Twitter / X to stay on top of our campaign to ensure that disabled people are helped to live, not to die.

Does Canada's euthanasia law enable healthcare serial killing.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Christopher Lyon

Professor Christopher Lyon, who teaches at the University of York in the UK, researches and concludes that Canada's (MAiD) euthanasia law enables healthcare serial killers (HSK).

Lyon's research was published by HEC Forum on August 2, 2024 under the title: Canada's Medical Assistance in Dying System can Enable Healthcare Serial Killing. 

(Read the research article with references (Link).

Healthcare serial killers (HSK) is not a new phenomenon. Lyon writes about several well known HSK's, and examines what enable them to remain undetected for long periods of time while killing their patients.

Lyon outlines his article by stating:

Criminal HSK appears globally. Offenders may kill fewer than ten to hundreds of people. They are often challenging to detect and stop due to job-related access to means of killing, responsibility for record-keeping, trusted role, professional insularity and protectionism, poor oversight, and victims whose deaths are less likely to attract suspicion due to age, illness, or existing likelihood of dying. Ambiguous or divergent legal and medical concepts and practices can make prosecuting HSK challenging.

He continues:

Landmark study: Assisted death for eating disorders.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

A landmark study by Chelsea Roff and Catherine Cook-Cottone titled: Assisted death in eating disorders: a systematic review of cases and clinical rationales, was published by Frontiers in Psychiatry on July 30, 2024. Both authors are experts in the treatment of eating disorders (EDs).

Chelsea Roff recovered from
a serious eating disorder

The authors provided a systematic review of cases of euthanasia or assisted suicide for eating disorders by examining the assisted dying reports from jurisdictions that have legalized euthanasia and/or assisted suicide. The authors use the term assisted death because it encapsulates both euthanasia, the act of the physician or nurse, and assisted suicide, the prescribing of the lethal drugs whereby the person must self-administer.

The authors uncover at least 60 cases of assisted death based on eating disorders. There may be many more but countries, such as Canada, don't publish data that would enable them to uncover all of the assisted deaths for eating disorders.

Join the EPC webinar on August 9: Assisted Death for Eating Disorders with Chelsea Roff.

EPC is hosting a webinar: Assisted Death and Eating Disorders with Chelsea Roff on Friday August 9 at 11 am (ET).

Register for the Zoom webinar in advance. (Registration Link).

Chelsea Roff

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information for joining the meeting.

Chelsea Roff is the co-author on a recent study on Assisted Death and Eating Disorders published by Frontiers in Psychiatry on July 30, 2024 which examined 60 known cases of euthanasia or assisted suicide for eating disorders.

During the webinar, Roff will discuss the cases that she researched for the study, she will discuss why eating disorders are not terminal, she will tell her own story, and she will explain how she helps people recover from eating disorders. We will leave time for questions.

Roff is the founder of Eat Breathe Thrive, which is an organization that helps people recovery from eating disorders. Roff herself recovered from anorexia.

Register for the Zoom event in advance. (Registration Link).

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information for joining the meeting.

Further information on this topic:

• At least 60 people with eating disorders euthanized or assisted in suicide since 2012 (Link).
• ANAD clarifies that Anorexia Nervosa is not a terminal condition (Link)
• When I was Anorexic I would have chosen assisted suicide (Link).
• Psychiatrist: Anorexia does not justify Aid in Dying (Link).
• Anorexia is not a terminal condition (Link).

At Least 60 People with Eating Disorders Euthanized or Assisted in Suicide since 2012

This article was published by National Review online on August 1, 2024.

Register for the August 9 webinar: Assisted Death for Eating Disorders (Link).

By Wesley J Smith

“Strict guidelines protect against abuse” my left nostril.

Wesley Smith

A very disturbing — but, alas, unsurprising — report has been published from a review of medical studies that demonstrates that at least 60, but almost surely more, people with eating disorders (EDs) have been euthanized or assisted in suicide between 2012 and 2024. From the long, meticulously researched and thoroughly detailed study published by Frontiers in Psychiatry  (citations omitted):

We identified 10 peer-reviewed articles and 20 government reports describing at least 60 patients with EDs who underwent assisted dying between 2012 and 2024 (Table 4). Note that this figure does not represent the total number of patients with EDs who have undergone assisted dying in countries where it is legal. It represents only those which were identifiable via the limited data available in public reports.

This includes at least three patients from the U.S.:

One case study has been published in the United States (2), which described three patients, two of whom were prescribed MAiD. . . .

Of the 78 data reports reviewed from U.S. states where assisted dying is only legal for terminal conditions, which report on a total of 11,983 cases, none include reporting on psychiatric conditions. Only one report mentions an ED specifically. Oregon’s Death with Dignity Report noted that seven individuals were prescribed MAiD for Other Illnesses, of which anorexia was listed as an example condition in the footnote. It is unclear how many of those seven deaths were persons with anorexia.

All of the descriptive cases reported were of women:

Of the 60+ cases identified across all studies and reports, 19 included descriptive case summaries with information about the patients and the clinical rationales that were used to justify assisted death. All 19 patients were women. Specifically, 32% were under the age of 30 (N = 6), 37% were between the ages of 30 and 50 (N = 7), and 31% were over 50 years old (N = 6). 61% (N = 11) had been diagnosed with anorexia, one person was described as obese (but her ED was not specified), and 28% (N = 5) had EDs (but the specific diagnoses were not identified).

Most had other mental illnesses:

All but one person described in the case reports had multiple comorbid psychiatric diagnoses. Rates of comorbidity were high; 95% had more than one psychiatric disorder, 61% had more than three, and nearly a quarter had four or more comorbid conditions (Table 6). Specifically, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were common, occurring in 33% and 37% of cases respectively. One patient was described as having a mild intellectual disability, and 16% of patients (N = 3) had autism spectrum disorder. Nearly half of patients were diagnosed with at least one personality disorder.

Good grief. How might those mental disorders have affected these poor people’s ability to “choose” to be killed or kill themselves?

Also, the meaning of “terminal illness” was redefined to justify life terminations (my emphasis in bold):

In cases in the United States, where a terminal prognosis is a legal prerequisite for assisted death, authors asserted that ED patients prescribed MAiD had terminal conditions. . . .

Notably, this conception of terminality deviates from medical definitions of a terminal condition, by describing reversible cognitive behaviors (thoughts, thinking patterns, cognitive distortions) as indicators of a terminal illness (i.e., an understanding that treatment is futile, choosing to stop trying, and accepting death). Medical texts describe the terminal phase of an illness as a period of inexorable and irreversible decline leading to death, with no expectation of recovery and a survival prognosis of only months or less. Unlike cancer or Alzheimer’s disease, most medical complications associated with anorexia can be treated with adequate nutritional intake and weight restoration, even in severely emaciated patients. Furthermore, cognitive and emotional symptoms associated with anorexia, such as despair and cognitive distortions, also improve with effective treatment.

There is only one way to describe these cases: abandonment.

That’s certainly how 40 disability-rights, psychological, aging-advocacy, and anti-assisted-suicide organizations see it. From their Joint Statement against Assisted Suicide for Eating Disorders:

Eating disorders are treatable conditions that require timely and comprehensive treatment. Yet many cannot access care due to cost, inadequate insurance coverage, extensive wait times, and a shortage of specialist services. The notion that they are incurable or terminal is scientifically unsupported and dangerously misleading. The term “terminal anorexia” is not recognized by any formal medical body, has been widely rejected by researchers and clinicians, and represents a profound misunderstanding of these conditions.

Moreover:

People with eating disorders need access to evidence-based and inclusive treatment, not lethal medications. Poor outcomes, including deaths, are nearly always preventable.

Indeed.

Please stop buying the demonstrable nonsense that the legalization of assisted suicide would be a minor change in ethics. Once the legalization train leaves the station, it is no longer containable or controllable. Or, to put it another way, once a society decides that killing is an acceptable answer to human suffering, the category of “killables” never stops expanding.

Joint Statement Against Assisted Suicide for Eating Disorders

Register for the August 9 webinar: Assisted Death for Eating Disorders (Link).

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition signed the Joint Statement Against Assisted Suicide for Eating Disorders 

(Link to the Eat Breathe Thrive Joint Statement)

We, the below signatories, urge governments everywhere to take immediate action to address the unethical practice of assisted suicide for individuals with eating disorders. This practice undermines decades of research on effective treatments and endangers the lives of vulnerable individuals.

A recent study revealing at least sixty published cases of assisted suicide and euthanasia among patients with eating disorders in Belgium, the Netherlands, and the United States, raises significant public safety concerns. A third of the cases involved young people in their teens and twenties, some of whom had never received comprehensive treatment before they were assisted in suicide. This highlights a tragic failure of healthcare systems, legal safeguards, and a grave violation of physicians’ ethical duty to do no harm.

Eating disorders are treatable conditions that require timely and comprehensive treatment. Yet many cannot access care due to cost, inadequate insurance coverage, extensive wait times, and a shortage of specialist services. The notion that they are incurable or terminal is scientifically unsupported and dangerously misleading. The term “terminal anorexia” is not recognized by any formal medical body, has been widely rejected by researchers and clinicians, and represents a profound misunderstanding of these conditions.

People with eating disorders need access to evidence-based and inclusive treatment, not lethal medications. Poor outcomes, including deaths, are nearly always preventable.

We categorically reject the argument that assisted suicide is a form of compassionate care for individuals with eating disorders. Compassionate care involves consistent, effective treatment — not facilitating suicide. Together, we call on governments to act to ensure that every individual with an eating disorder receives the care, compassion, and treatment they need to recover. We urge policymakers, healthcare providers, and the broader community to take immediate action by doing the following:

1. Prevent Assisted Suicide for Eating Disorders: Legally prevent eating disorders from being considered qualifying conditions for assisted suicide.
2. Strengthen Oversight and Reporting: Ensure reporting on assisted death includes psychiatric conditions. Establish review boards and create clear pathways for members of the public, officials, and healthcare professionals to investigate and report violations.
3. Amend Existing Safeguards: Review the existing safeguards on assisted suicide to ensure that eligibility terms like ‘terminal condition,’ ‘mental capacity,’ and ‘irremediable condition’ are clearly and operationally defined by law.
4. Increase Access to Eating Disorder Treatment: Invest in improving access to high-quality, timely treatment for eating disorders, focusing on long-term recovery and support.
5. Increase Research Funding: Invest in research to develop more effective treatments for eating disorders, particularly for individuals with severe and chronic conditions.

Link to become a signatory (Link).

Further information on this topic:

• ANAD clarifies that Anorexia Nervosa is not a terminal condition (Link)
• When I was Anorexic I would have chosen assisted suicide (Link).
• Psychiatrist: Anorexia does not justify Aid in Dying (Link).
• Anorexia is not a terminal condition (Link).

Disability rights opponents of assisted suicide are not a “vocal minority”

Meghan Schrader

By Meghan Schrader

Meghan is an autistic person who is an instructor at E4 - University of Texas (Austin) and an EPC-USA board member.

Over and over again assisted suicide proponents claim that disabled people who oppose assisted suicide are a “vocal minority.” For instance, American euthanasia advocate Thaddeus Mason Pope ridiculously wrote on X that “millions” of disabled people want the right to have “MAiD.” Well, it’s not true. 

Assisted suicide, even in its more conservative form, is opposed by United Nations Special Rapporteurs on the Rights of People With Disabilities. In 2021 every disability rights organization in Canada and several ally organizations like Black Lives Matter Toronto and Reproductive Justice New Brunswick signed a letter telling the Canadian government not to expand its assisted suicide program to disabled people who weren’t dying, because the Canadian government’s decision to privilege the autonomy of a few disabled people would force the rest of the disabled community to become members of a killable caste. One can see evidence that disabled proponents are in the minority by comparing the webpages of USA groups Compassion and Choices and Not Dead Yet. NDY lists 17 national disability rights organizations that oppose assisted suicide. In contrast, C&C lists 4 state disability rights organizations who have said that the Oregon model of assisted suicide is acceptable.

Disability studies literature shows a similar pattern. In his essay in Disability Bioethics, Harold Braswell asserts:

“The framework of this debate limits the potential for disability discrimination. PAS is itself a moderate iteration of the right to die. And this moderate iteration is, in the USA, only available to individuals who are terminally ill. This makes the American interpretation of PAS relatively conservative even relative to other countries where it is legal. This conservatism makes it possible for some disability bioethicists to justify supporting it, though such support is still relatively marginal within the field.”

Yes. As someone who has also studied the euthanasia issue, I can tell you that support for assisted suicide is “marginal within the field.”

Self-proclaimed “disability rights advocate” and unrestricted assisted suicide enthusiast Christopher Riddle also admits that his efforts to sell death to disabled people set him apart from most of the disability studies field. In his article “Assisted Dying and Disability,” Riddle writes:

“While academic literature has a multitude of perspectives on this issue, the public attitude amongst mainstream disability rights scholars, activists, and more generally, people with disabilities, is relatively consistent in its position: assisted dying should not be permitted.”

Yes. That is true.

In an British Medical Journal article entitled “Disability Community Feels Ignored in Canada’s Assisted Dying Expansion,” Sammy Chowm writes:

“While some in the disability community support MAID expansion, the vast majority are opposed. More than 100 disability organisations have opposed track two and the 2021 bill given the gaps in mental health services their community needs.”

Yup.

Proponents like to point to commissioned poles, like the one paid for by the recently formed USA astroturf group UsForAutonomy, or the Populous pole commissioned by Dying With Dignity in the UK. However, there is no way for the proponents to prove that the majority of people who answered those anonymous polls were disabled. I live with disabilities that most people cannot perceive at first. When I’ve sought accommodations for my invisible disabilities, I’ve had to present rigorous documentation that they exist. Therefore, I think it’s reasonable to take the anonymous poll respondents’ claims to be disabled with a grain of salt.

There are also polls that indicate that the majority of disabled people oppose assisted suicide, such as one commissioned by the disability rights organization Scope in the UK. However, I doubt that polling is the best way to gauge people’s positions on various issues. I think people can probably get any result that they want from a poll, if they ask the right questions and the right people.

As for the few disabled people I know of who support assisted suicide, it seems to me that they generally fall into two categories of people: the privileged and the despairing. Such disabled people need to be considered in respect to intersectionality and the high suicide rate in the disabled community.

The first category of disabled people, who typically spearhead the legalization of assisted suicide for people with disabilities, generally fit the profile of the rest of the “aid in dying” proponents: they are privileged. Apart from being disabled, they are usually wealthy and white. Hence, they have the resources to circumvent some of the structural ableism and interpersonal pressure that pushes other disabled people towards PAS.

Nicole Gladu and Julie Lamb, the two women who lead the fight to remove Canada’s “reasonably foreseeable death” standard for assisted suicide, are quintessential examples of what I mean when I say that a disabled supporter is otherwise privileged. Both people would have qualified to die under Canada’s “reasonably foreseeable death” standard for assisted suicide, but they were not willing to compromise and wait until their deaths were imminent. Gladu lived in a mansion by the ocean, and she demanded the right to kill herself before her death was “reasonably foreseeable” so that she could die “with a glass of rose champagne in one hand and a canape of foie gras in the other.” Julie Lamb was also affluent, white and married, and she fought to remove Canada’s reasonably foreseeable death standard so she could plan her death down to the very minute that suited her whims, whether that be tomorrow or in ten years. She said, “I am comfortable and happy with my days. But it is a huge relief and gives me so much peace to know that when I am ready, I do have a choice." So, a judge gave her her choice and now every other disabled Canadian has to live in a society where doctors and suicide hotlines suggest that they kill themselves.

As for the less privileged type of disabled person who wants “MAiD” because of suffering and despair, it’s not shocking that the right to die movement can find disabled people who would like assistance to kill themselves. Research indicates that disabled people have a much higher suicide rate then the general population. For instance, I met one disabled woman on X who is one of the few disabled people I’ve met who supported Canada’s “Track 2 MAiD program.” She was living with severe psychiatric suffering, trauma, poverty and other forms of dysfunction. She had reached out to several government and medical agencies seeking help but did not get it. I and a few others tried to reach out to her with other resources, trying to encourage her to live, but it was as though she lacked the reasoning ability or wherewithal to respond to those offers. Tragically, she killed herself “the old fashioned way” about two weeks ago.

Another disabled Canadian who supports “Track 2 MAiD” tweeted that he wants it to exist because he perceives that he is “a loser, failure, and a disabled guy who gave up long ago.” He tweeted, “I’m not seeking MAiD for an extra $1000 a month. I have barely gotten $1000 a month for twenty years, the damage is done. Never healed or grew roots, developed agoraphobia and bulimia from eating junk and living in abusive slums. My best twenty years gone. TOO LATE!”

I empathize with both of these people. I’ve experienced severe depression and eating disorders; I would never judge someone for being so overwhelmed by their circumstances that all they can think about is death. But, a legal and medical system built on the philosophy of “It’s too late, kill yourself,” is not conducive to helping other disabled people lead happy, healthy lives. A person tweeting under the username F-k Capitalism expressed a similar sentiment: “Yeah. Like I said, I don't judge individuals choosing MAiD. It's sad there was no support for them and I hope they'll find peace, but it's the pushing of that choice onto others, esp by wealthier disabled people that constitutes lateral violence.”

Exactly. I’m angry that there isn’t more support for such individuals and I strongly support giving them better support, but giving such persons exactly what they want right now goes too far. I can have empathy for such individuals while also holding that is unjust for their suicidal ideation to become the basis for a public policy that affects everyone else. And that’s the position on assisted suicide that prevails in the disabled community.

EPC-USA August 21 training webinar: Assisted suicide is Not the Answer: Killing is Not Caring

Join the EPC-USA webinar on August 21, 2024 at 7:30 pm (Eastern Time) titled: Assisted Suicide is Not the Answer: Killing is Not Caring.

When: Wednesday, August 21, 2024 at: 7:30 PM Eastern Time.

Register in advance for this webinar: (Registration Link).

Alex Schadenberg

The webinar will explain the strategy and the concerns that the assisted suicide lobby will deny in states when they are trying to legalize assisted suicide.

Alex Schadenberg will examine the increasing numbers and reasons for assisted suicide and provide an analysis of assisted suicide expansion bills. Talking points and strategy will be provided.

The online webinar is designed as a training session to help people oppose assisted suicide in their state. There will be a specific focus on how to prevent the legalization of assisted suicide in New York State. The information will be helpful for people from other jurisdictions.

There will be time for questions and answers.

When: Wednesday, August 21, 2024 at: 7:30 PM Eastern Time.

Register in advance for this webinar: (Registration Link). 

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information for joining the meeting.