Dutch man convicted of selling suicide powder causing at least 10 deaths

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

A man from the Netherlands, (Alex S) was convicted for selling a suicide powder, with instructions, to as many as 1600 people. He was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison in the suicide deaths of at least 10 people, DutchNews.nl reported.

Judges in Den Bosch have jailed the man who supplied so-called suicide powder to at least 10 people who killed themselves, saying he had harmed the value of human life.

The court ruled that Alex S from Eindhoven had been selling the powder, named in court as “substance X” for three years, including instructions for its use.

He was jailed for 3.5 years, with 18 months suspended. The jail term is less than the four years demanded by the public prosecutor because of the length of the trial and his own personal circumstances.

S, 29, had taken other people’s lives far too lightly over a three-year period, the court said. “He asked no questions and delivered as required. In doing so, the accused treated the lives of others very lightly and harmed the value of human life in general,” the court said in a summary. The full ruling will be published later.

According to DutchNews.nl,  Alex S first purchased the powder because he wanted to die by suicide. He then decided to buy large quantities of the powder and sell it for 45 euro per lethal package. He sold approximately 1600 lethal packages.

Evidence from the trial showed that it took up to 40 hours to die from the suicide powder.

According to news reports, it was not illegal to sell the suicide powder, but it was illegal to sell it with instructions for the purpose of suicide.

Ximena

Ximena, who was 19 years-old, (pictured on left) died in February 2018 after ingesting the suicide powder. Her father Randy Knol has been working to get the suicide powder banned.

The Netherland Coöperatie Laatste Wil (CLW) assisted suicide lobby group has been promoting the suicide powder. The Public Prosecution Service arrested the CLW chairman, Jos van Wijk, in September 2021 for his alleged involvement in promoting and distributing the suicide powder.

On May 9, 2023, Kenneth Law (57) was charged in Canada with two counts of aiding and abetting the suicide deaths of two people in Peel Region, through online sales of a substance that is lethal in high concentrations. Law sold the substance online for the purposes of aiding suicide. Law allegedly distributed 1200 packages of the suicide powder and is likely linked to deaths in many countries.

Aunt Mary's Voice - A woman with Cerebral Palsy dies by dehydration.

[Names are withheld based on the privacy of the family.]

As proposals come forward for amending federal legislation to expand access for Canadians to medical assistance in dying, it is important to be educated about palliative care and how to maintain respect for life from beginning to natural death especially for the most vulnerable, those with physical disabilities who are deserving of assisted living not assisted death.

This is the story of very special woman who, because of her disability, was denied, by both her immediate family and the physicians in charge, the same “latitude and treatment” that would be given to someone else her age who was not physically disabled. Instead, our Aunt Mary was denied IV (food and water), medical investigative tests, and simply sedated to death. A person can survive 8 to 15 days without fluids, and on the eighth day of forced sedation and dehydration our beloved Aunt Mary left this world.

British Columbia woman denied cancer treatment

British Columbia (BC) has the second highest euthanasia rate in Canada.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Sign our petition: BC Health Authorities Must Stop Using Euthanasia to Replace Medical Care (Petition Link).

Kim Angell

Kim Angell (41), who lives in Ladysmith British Columbia (BC), is organizing a campaign to change the healthcare system in BC for people who live with cancer.

An article by Jordan Cunningham that was published by Chek News on July 17 tells of Kim Angell and her campaign to get the BC government to fund cancer treatment that is necessary to extend her life.

Angell, who has been living with incurable Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer for 2.5 years, can't get a drug that she needs because she is considered incurable. Cunningham reports:

Kim Angell lives with incurable Stage 4 breast cancer.

“The average lifespan of someone living with metastatic breast cancer is three to five years, and I’ve been living with this for two and a half years,” says the 41 year-old.

In May, a PET scan confirmed a progression, and Angell needed to switch to a medication known as Enhertu. She says the drug is not provincially funded, but she got access to a course of treatment through an application by her oncologist to Astrazeneca’s Patient Support Program.

A common side effect of cancer-slowing drugs is neutropenia, which can be offset with injections of Filgrastim.

Angell says BC Pharmacare no longer covers this drug now that she’s deemed incurable.

“Just because we may be living with Stage 4 cancer and are no longer considered curable, we still deserve access to those treatments because our lives are important,” she says.

Angell says she recently purchased ten injections of Filgrastim for $500, which will last her six weeks.

Angell has contacted BC Premier David Eby and BC Health Minister Adrian Dix. Cunningham reports Angell as saying:

“I feel like my life doesn’t matter,” she says in regards to the lack of funding for terminal patients, “I want action.”

“I’m so grateful to be here today, even with all the other stuff that I’m dealing with,” she says. “That’s all you can do, is focus on what you’ve got right now.”

An article by James Reinl that was published in the Daily Mail stated that the number of British Columbia euthanasia deaths increased by 24% in 2022 to 2515 euthanasia deaths, representing the second highest rate of euthanasia in the world.

A recent article by Will Potter that was also published in the Daily Mail indicated that Fraser Health, a healthcare authority in BC has been sending a slideshow promoting euthanasia to pensioners. Potter reported:

The slideshow included advice on 'expressions of wanting to die', noting that it can be used to 'promote a sense of control'. Terminally ill patients are also seemingly offered the chance to die within 'a day'.

British Columbia is making it easier to die by lethal drugs than to live with medical treatment.

Canadian woman with anorexia wants to die by euthanasia

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Anna Mehler Paperny wrote an article for Reuters, published on July 15, examining Canada's March 2024 expansion of euthanasia to include mental illness. Paperny examined the issue based on the story of Lisa Pauli, a 47 year-old woman who lives with anorexia. Pauli, who says that she has struggled with her eating disorder since the age of 8, said:

"Every day is hell," she said. "I'm so tired. I'm done. I've tried everything. I feel like I've lived my life."

Pauli does not currently qualify for MAiD (euthanasia) but in March 2024 Canadians whose sole underlying condition is mental illness, will qualify for euthanasia. Paperny states that Canada will have one of the most expansive euthanasia laws in the world.

Canada's Justice Minister, David Lametti told Paperny that:

"We have gotten where we are through a number of very prudent steps,"

"It's been a slow and careful evolution. And I'm proud of that."

Paperny stated that in 2022 there were 15 Québec euthanasia cases that were outside of the law and there were 19 cases in British Columbia since 2018.*

David Lametti

Lametti believes that Canada's euthanasia law does not go far enough.

Lametti told Paperny that the federal government is considering recommendations from a parliamentary committee to allow euthanasia by advance requests and for "mature minors" - people under 18 deemed capable of making this decision.

When asked about the cases of people with disabilities who are living in poverty, homeless or having difficulty receiving medical treatment Lametti said:

But "you can't get MAID simply because you're having some social challenges or economic challenges. ... Unless they fall into the medical criteria, they can't access."

Lametti ignores the fact that people qualify for MAiD (euthanasia) based on their medical condition (disability) but they are not seeking death because of their disability but because of their social, medical and economic challenges.

Dr Sonu Gaind

Sonu Gaind, the Chief of Psychiatry at Toronto's Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre told Paperny that:

It can be difficult to determine whether a mental illness is truly irremediable, as the law requires, and to differentiate between pathological suicidality and a rational desire to die,

"We don't even understand the biology of most mental illnesses,"

Michelle Hewitt

Michelle Hewitt, co-chair of the advocacy group Disability Without Poverty told Paperny:

"My biggest fear is that we go to this absolute terminal end and people die but we haven't invested time, money, people in putting the things in place that would mean that people don't want to consider"

Hewitt commented on the euthanasia death of Sean Taggert in 2019.

Sean Tagert, with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig's disease who opted for medically assisted death in 2019 after he struggled to get 24-hour care.

"He was very clear on what he wanted - more care hours at home - and when he was told he would have to move to a care facility a distance from his family, particularly his young son, he used MAID,"

Paperny completed the article by asking Charles Falconer, a British Labour peer who supports euthanasia, how Canada's experience with euthanasia is affecting the debate in Britain, where euthanasia is not legal. Falconer stated:

"Canada is being used primarily as an argument against us, not an argument in favour,"

"It does in one sense [represent a slippery slope], doesn't it, because it started off with terminal illness and it's ended up with non-terminal illness and mental illness."

Canada's has experienced a slippery slope when it comes to euthanasia. Lisa Pauli's wish to die by euthanasia does not bring assurance that euthanasia for mental illness is ever warrented. Her story is an illustration of a woman who needs good medical and mental health treatment and support, not death.

It is natural that in her condition she would feel "tired of living" but the answer is not death by lethal drugs, but supportive and intensive treatment that is life giving, not death giving.

* The data does not tell the whole story. Canada has a self-reporting system. The doctor or nurse practitioner who approves the death is also the same doctor or nurse practitioner that can carry-out the death and the same doctor or nurse practitioner required to report the death. Self-reporting systems protect the doctors and nurse practitioners who are willing to participate in euthanasia.

France's National Academy of Medicine says NO to euthanasia but YES to assisted suicide

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

France euthanasia protest

David Sadler reporting for Globe Echo World News on July 14, 2023 stated that France's National Academy of Medicine decided on July 12, to support assisted suicide and oppose euthanasia. Sadler reported that they support “assisted suicide consisting in making a lethal product available to a person who requests it and self-administers it” and reject“euthanasia consisting of the administration by a third party of a lethal product to a person who requests it”.

On April 1, 2023, France’s National Council of the College of Physicians stated their opposition to legalizing euthanasia stating that it is against the participation of a physician in a process that would lead to euthanasia, and that a doctor cannot deliberately cause death by administering a lethal product. If assisted suicide does become legal, there should be conscience clauses put in place to protect doctors. The doctor should not actively participate when the patient takes the lethal product.

On December 29, 2022; the highest administrative court in France rejected a challenge to France's law by Switzerland's Dignitas assisted suicide group. France's Council of State has ruled that European Law does not recognise the right to die with dignity, and thus, France is not obligated to establish a regulation that legalises assisted suicide.

The National Academy of Medicine opposes any future law legislating that physicians can do the act (euthanasia) and they oppose physicians being forced to participate in assisted suicide.

The French people need to demand that their politicians say no to euthanasia or assisted suicide.

Embracing An Ethic of "Chosen Family" to Fight Euthanasia and Advance Disability Rights

Meghan Schrader

By Meghan Schrader

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

In reflecting on what I think is the best ethic for our culture to follow in terms of safeguarding the lives and well-being of disabled people who could be at risk of assisted suicide, or who are experiencing other forms of extreme oppression, I find myself reflecting on the concept of family. My mental illness makes me very grateful for my family. For instance, I certainly wish that I had not had a manic episode in 2019, or relapsed into psychotic depression in 2020. During the latter episode I found myself ready to just give up-I didn’t feel that I could live with the constant screaming and the voice taunting me. I didn’t feel able to access any feelings of hope, and I did not feel that I could bear the impending blow to my health and life.

But, what happened when I reached out for help during that episode, and the one in 2019, gave me hope. During both of those mental health crises, my family rallied around me. Not just my parents, but my brother, his wife, and my cousin as well. Before those two episodes, only my parents had seen how sick I could get, and I used to have a lot of fear about what would happen to me after they died. I worried that if my brother and sister-in-law, and my cousin ever saw the depths to which my mental illness was capable of sinking, they would walk away from me. I used to struggle with mental images of myself on the street, eating out of a garbage can.

During my 2019 manic episode, though, I learned that those fears about my other family members were unfounded. When I realized I was experiencing mania and would probably wind up hospitalized, I called my cousin and my brother and let them know what was happening. My cousin, who lives in New York, took time away from her job and flew to Texas to be with me. She took care of my cat, even though she really, really hates cats. Being in the hospital is traumatic, and it was such a relief to see her standing there in the hospital corridor, waiting to embrace me. I was able to leave by the end of that week, but if I had to stay in the hospital for longer than that, my brother was going to take off from work and fly to Texas to take my cousin’s place.

Then, a few months later, as I slipped deeper and deeper into depression, my brother and sister-in law brought me from Texas to their house in Indiana. They paid for my train ticket and let me stay with them for a month. Also, my brother paid for me to see a counselor from a very high-quality counseling service that specialized in spiritual care for people with disabilities. My brother has more money than I do, but he isn’t rich, either. I’m sure that he had to make some sort of financial sacrifice to give that therapy to me, and the fact that he was willing to do that moves me greatly.

Unfortunately, though, nothing worked, and I found myself psychotic again. I engaged in some very disturbing behaviors. For instance, in my psychotic state, I told my poor parents that I didn’t really love them, I just thought that I did. That’s a very cruel thing to say. Also, I had to live with my parents during the relapse, and when we attended my nephew’s Confirmation, we stayed at my brother’s house again. During that time, I engaged in deeply disturbing behavior. I am not sure exactly what happened-my memories of the experience don’t always match my family’s-but I’m pretty sure that one of the things I did was gouge my brother’s wall with a pen, which meant that he had to repair his wall. And, of course, my nephew had to deal with seeing all of that while he was trying to celebrate this important event in his life.

However, my family treated me with deep mercy. After the episode passed, I texted my sister-in-law to ask how I could apologize to my nephew for my frightening behavior. She texted back, “Your behavior did not frighten him. He totally understood your mental illness and is very compassionate about it. He loves you a lot. The best amends to make is to love yourself as God does.” Shortly after that, I had a Facetime meeting with my brother, and he talked about what a good person he thought I was and reminded me of all the good things I had ever done in my life. It means a great deal to me that even after seeing me at my worst, my family would be willing to see the best in me. I wish that my family and I hadn’t experienced all of that, but seeing the way they responded gives me hope and peace.

Unfortunately, not all families respond to mental illness or disability in that way. I have met people at NAMI meetings whose families won’t talk to them because they’ve tried to die by suicide, have fallen into addiction, etc. And, utilitarianism, which is driving a lot of social policy right now, doesn’t really encourage people to put resources into helping broken and difficult individuals. The fact that Canadian ethicists recently published a treatise talking about how great it is to euthanize homeless and low income disabled people at the end of their rope is just a very extreme consequence of a culture that wants to throw broken people away.

Having observed my own family’s response to my struggles with mental illness, I think that the best solution to a climate in which disabled people are regularly encouraged to die by suicide is for those of us in the disabled community, and in the human community more generally, to be each other’s “family.” This isn’t a new idea. The concept of chosen family is common in marginalized communities with many members who have experienced social rejection, and rejection from their immediate families. People tend to need close knit communities of people who share their specific experiences, who can help them problem solve about how to address their shared needs; the concept of chosen family is tied to that effort. More broadly, though, I think that an ethic of chosen family is particularly critical in regard to forming disability rights policies. Right now, people with disabilities are often viewed as using copious resources that would be more equitably spent on other things, and they are seen as an emotional drain on the people around them. Disabled people’s rights are simply ignored by society while it busies itself with doing other things. If our culture decides to love disabled people like we are part of a “human family,” society will be less likely to embrace a utilitarian perspective about disabled people’s human rights and make the changes necessary to for the world to be hospitable to people with disabilities.

And, regardless of what laws are passed, we in the human community can step up for each other when society fails. We can make whatever sacrifices we can, and show the generosity that is necessary, to love the most marginalized members of our communities like they are our parents, our children, our cousins and our siblings. By embracing an ethic of “chosen family,” we can help the most disenfranchised members of society keep walking with us together, away from death, darkness and precarity, and towards abundance, life and light.

Death by loneliness: Study of euthanasia in neurodiverse people

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Louise Kinross wrote an excellent blog article about Dutch adults with autism and/or intellectual disabilities who died by euthanasia.

According to a recent study, loneliness was the main reason for 30 of 39 Dutch adults with autism and/or intellectual disabilities to die by euthanasia, according to a study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry.

Kinross writes:

Physician reports revealed many despaired at being rejected by society. For an autistic man in his 50s with intellectual disability, "panic and despair were constant companions. The patient felt powerless to function in today's society and could not be the person he wanted to be, with a job and a family." An autistic man in his 20s "had felt unhappy since childhood and was persistently bullied because he was just a bit different.. [He] longed for social contacts but was unable to connect with others." A woman in her 80s with intellectual disability "suffered from the social isolation that her behaviour had led to... People thought her repulsive and nobody wanted to be near her."

Kinross explains that of the 39 people who died by euthanasia, 20 were women, 19 were men and almost half were under the age of 50. 15 of the 39 had an intellectual disability, 20 had autism, 4 had both. The deaths took place between 2012 and 2021. Kinross wrote:

Researchers at Kingston University in London analyzed doctors' reports that described the person's suffering, possible alternatives, discussions with the patient and other doctors, and how the suicide was carried out.

The aim was to identify what made pain "unbearable, with no prospect of improvement," which is one of six criteria that must be met.

About two-thirds of participants chose assisted suicide due to aspects of their disability, the scientists said, such as anxiety, loneliness and not feeling accepted. Of course, these states resulted more from the interplay between their way of being in the world and rigid social expectations.

For some, it was a combination of these factors and coping with physical illness or decline, or mental illness.

In addition to loneliness, being dependent on others, difficulty coping with life, and a lack of flexibility were factors.

Many physician comments located the problem in the person, as opposed to asking why society couldn't change to better accommodate them. "His intellectual disability and affective neglect in childhood had led to insufficient resilience to cope with suffering," one wrote of a man in his 50s. "...the patient was unable to build a normal life," explained a doctor of an autistic man in his 40s.

In one-third of cases, doctors specifically wrote that autism or intellectual disability were not treatable. For example: "Autism is incurable and treatment is purely symptomatic," wrote one in regards to an autistic woman in her 30s.

"The implicit message communicated to patients in granting [assisted suicide] requests on the basis of intellectual disability or autism-related suffering is that such conditions are indeed hopeless," the researchers wrote. "This is of concern, as is the risk that the option of [assisted suicide] hampers investment in appropriate treatments and societal changes."

In two-thirds of cases, doctors' reports didn't mention the patient's family or other important people in their life. Presumably this would have provided a more complete social picture, and perhaps been a source of alternative solutions.

Kinross concludes her article by stating:

"What these individuals needed was a society where they felt they belonged, with people around them who not just accept and accommodate, but welcome their unique ways of being," said lead investigator Irene Tuffrey-Wijne, a professsor of intellectual disability and palliative care at Kingston University.

Previous articles on this topic:  

• Dutch study shows that some people are being euthanized for having autism (Link). 
• A record number of euthanasia Netherlands deaths in 2022. 288 dementia euthanasia deaths. (Article Link).
• Dutch doctors approve euthanasia for incompetent people (Article Link).
• Study examines euthanasia for people with intellectual disabilities in the Netherlands (Article Link).

Australian government offers euthanasia webinar for seniors

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care is offering a webinar on euthanasia for seniors.

The Australian Department of Heath and Aged Care website, offers a webinar titled: Voluntary assisted dying - what you need to know on July 21, 2023. The promotion states:

Join Swinburne’s Wellbeing Clinic for Older Adults for a free webinar on ageing on Friday 21 July at 4.45‑6pm AEST.

This webinar is for people employed in aged care, as well as psychologists, social workers, counsellors and volunteers who work with older adults.

Kristen Kappel is a clinical psychologist who has worked in a variety of health care settings over the past 23 years. Kristen will provide information about the eligibility for, and process involved in, voluntary assisted dying (VAD). This webinar will enable mental health professionals to respond appropriately and within legislative requirements when the topic of VAD is raised in clinical practice.

The Fraser Healthcare Authority in British Columbi, Canada is sending a slideshow promoting euthanasia to pensioners. Will Potter reported for the Daily Mail on July 1 that the slideshow was sent to people in the Fraser Health region as part of a pension package.

Psychiatrists, Do We Offer Hope or Do We Offer Death?

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Dr. Dinah Miller

An excellent commentary by Dr Dinah Miller, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, that was published by Medscape on July 7 examining the issue of assisted suicide for psychiatric conditions. 

Miller asks: Psychiatrists, Do we offer hope or do we offer death? 

Miller writes:

To offer the option of a death facilitated by the very person who is trying to get them better seems so counter to everything I have learned and contradicts our role as psychiatrists who work so hard to prevent suicide.

Miller makes reference to Canada's legislation that will permit euthanasia for mental illness. She states:

Physician-assisted suicide for psychiatric conditions creates a conundrum for psychiatrists. As mental health professionals, we work to prevent suicide and view it as an act that is frequently fueled by depression. Those who are determined to die by their own hand often do. Depression distorts cognition and leads many patients to believe that they would be better off dead and that their loved ones would be better off without them.

These cognitive distortions are part of their illness. So, how do we, as psychiatrists, move from a stance of preventing suicide — using measures such as involuntary treatment when necessary — to being the people who offer and facilitate death for our patients? I'll leave this for my Canadian colleagues to contemplate, as I live in a state where assisted suicide for any condition remains illegal.

Miller asks some serious questions about who will receive treatment and who will receive death:

As Canada moves toward facilitating death for serious mental illness, we have to wonder whether racial or socioeconomic factors will play a role. Might those who are poor, who have less access to expensive treatment options and social support, be more likely to request facilitated death? And how do we determine whether patients with serious mental illness are competent to make such a decision or whether it is mental illness that is driving their perception of a future without hope?

Miller asks if Canadian psychiatrists will offer death when a patient refuses effective treatment?

Miller comments that Dr Susan Kalish, a geriatric and palliative care physician who supports assisted suicide also recognized that allowing the laws to become too permissive is a problem. Nonetheless, Miller ends her article by stating:

As psychiatrists, do we offer hope to our most vulnerable patients, or do we offer death? Do we rail against suicide, or do we facilitate it? Do we risk facilitating a patient's demise when other options are unavailable because of a lack of access to treatment or when social and financial struggles exacerbate a person's hopelessness? Should we worry that psychiatric euthanasia will turn into a form of eugenics where those who can't contribute are made to feel that they should bow out? If we, as psychiatrists, aren't the emissaries of hope, who exactly are we?

Similar articles on this topic:

• The majority of Canadian oppose euthanasia for mental health (Link).
•  Canada's euthanasia law is the most permissive in the world (Link).
• Canada to delay implementing euthanasia for mental illness (Link).
• Toronto Star: Canada is going too far with euthanasia (Link).
• Globe and Mail Editorial: No to euthanasia for mental disorders (Link).
• Euthanasia panel member quit: Proposals don't adequately protect Canadians with mental illness (Link).
• Offering euthanasia to a suicidal person leads to premature deaths (Link).
• Euthanizing the mentally ill without providing proper supports is reprehensible (Link).
• Euthanasia for mental illness. Killing people with an uncertain prognosis (Link).
• Profound social change with euthanasia for mental illness (Link).
• Euthanasia for mental illness. Myth and Facts (Link).

New Zealand doctor offers euthanasia to a suicidal patient

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The New Zealand Herald reported on July 11 that New Zealand's Ministry of Health stated that there were 328 euthanasia deaths and 807 euthanasia applications from April 1, 2022 and March 31, 2023 representing approximately 1% of all deaths in New Zealand.

Isaac Davison, reporting for the New Zealand Herald indicated that an investigation was launched into a New Zealand health practitioner who allegedly raised assisted dying with a suicidal patient. 

Davison reported:

The report said a complainant had raised concerns about “a health practitioner initiating a conversation about assisted dying with a suicidal young person”.  

Under New Zealand’s assisted dying law, a doctor or other health professional cannot initiate discussion about assisted dying. It must be initiated by the patient.

There were 8 complaints made to the Disability Commission about assisted dying in the time-frame of the report.

On July 20, 2022, Davison reported in the New Zealand Herald that there were 143 New Zealanders who died by euthanasia in the first five months of their law. According to Davison there were 4 complaints made at that time.

According to the data, there were 471 euthanasia deaths and 12 complaints filed between legalization and March 31, 2023 (17 months).

Good Old News: In Early 2023, Suicidology Group Withdrew Statement on Assisted Suicide

This article was published by Not Dead Yet on July 10, 2023.

In October 2017, the American Association of Suicidology (AAS) issued a Statement announcing that physician assisted suicide is not “suicide”. The Executive Summary states:

“The American Association of Suicidology recognizes that the practice of physician aid in dying, also called physician assisted suicide, Death with Dignity, and medical aid in dying, is distinct from the behavior that has been traditionally and ordinarily described as ‘suicide,’ the tragic event our organization works so hard to prevent. Although there may be overlap between the two categories, legal physician assisted deaths should not be considered cases of suicide and are therefore a matter outside the central focus of AAS.”

At their annual conference held seven months later, disability activists protested the Statement and distributed a leaflet to conference attendees, many of whom were previously unaware of the Statement.

In early 2023, according to an online AAS posting, the Statement was “retired.” Disability activist Meghan Schrader discussed the original Statement and its retirement in her recent article published in the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition blog, which criticizes Thaddeus Pope and others who favor expanding eligibility for assisted suicide to include disabled people without a “terminal” prognosis. The following is the relevant excerpt from her article:

The disabled community is reaping the consequences of a society that is so apathetic toward disabled people’s basic needs that it can’t even be bothered to provide us with suicide prevention. We are dirt.

…All self-respecting suicide prevention advocates and organizations really need to do some honest and humble reflection on their silence regarding assisted suicide. Not saying anything while people like [Thaddeus] Pope shamelessly sell suicide to the disabled community communicates that suicide prevention is for ablebodied, neurotypical people. The Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention strongly opposed extending assisted suicide to the disabled community in 2021, but their opposition came too late to prevent the law change.

Indeed, the American Association of Suicidology’s 2017 statement about “medical aid in dying” being different from suicide had tragic consequences for the disabled community. Regrettably the board had somehow fallen under the influence of assisted suicide advocate, academic Margaret Battin, and its statement about PAS has repeatedly been used to justify PAS in all sorts of different contexts. The 2019 Truchon court decision in Québec which extended euthanasia to people with disabilities, cited the AAS’s statement to support its judgment that “MAiD” for disabled people was not suicide.

The AAS had made that statement in the context of physician assisted suicide for people with terminal illnesses, but in the end, the organization’s intentions did not matter. Its statement that some suicides weren’t suicides was used to cause multiple disabled Canadian’s suicides.

To its credit, the AAS became apprised of the genie it had let out of the bottle, and it retracted its statement about PAS not being suicide in 2023. Now the assisted suicide movement has no scientific basis for its assertions that PAS is not suicide. (Link to article)

What should good suicide prevention look like?

Meghan is an autistic person who is an instructor at E4 Texas at the University of Texas (Austin) and an EPC-USA board member. This is a follow-up article to: Suicide prevention is love not paternalism.

Meghan Schrader

By Meghan Schrader


In regard to my earlier posts about a bioethicist suggesting that disabled people kill ourselves, I thought that maybe I should do a follow up article about what good suicide prevention looks like. I've made the case that suicide prevention is love, however, it is true that people with suicidal ideation have been subjected to oppressive, dangerous, and traumatic measures in the interest of preventing suicide. I am not asserting that it's loving to strap someone to a chair and leave them alone in a room.

In order to understand what good suicide prevention should look like, we need to understand what good mental health care should look like. The best mental health care I ever received was when I was empowered to choose how that will happen. For instance, I once admitted myself to an inpatient program. When I did that, I was able to go to the building where the program was housed and talk to a counselor, where I was given a choice about whether I wanted to be admitted that day or whether I wanted to come back in a week, after I had more time to think the choice over. I chose to be admitted. No one wants to spend their time in an inpatient psychiatric unit, but the fact that I was able to admit myself in a calm, autonomous manner made the experience less traumatic. Inside the facility, doctors took a multi-pronged approach to treating my refractory mood disorder, including multiple kinds of cognitive therapy, art and music therapy, checking for vitamin deficiencies, and even doing a genetic test to see if my genes could tell them what medication might be better for me. There was decent quality food, and the patients were allowed to do things like use the computers and our phones. There was a general sense of camaraderie among the patients, and the program evidenced a non-judgmental attitude towards people. I felt cared for and respected. That’s the kind of intervention that I mean when I say that “suicide prevention is love.”

That’s what mental health care should look like, but sometimes it doesn’t. Although I strongly oppose the assisted suicide movement’s concept of “autonomy at all costs,” it is true that disabled people often find ourselves fighting extreme paternalism and dysfunction that doesn’t need to exist. I’ve heard stories of people who were subjected to wrist restraints and full body cavity searches because they walked into an emergency room crying and saying, “I need counseling, I just wish that I could get hit by a bus or something.” Some mental health facilities can be microcosms of Hell, with unsympathetic staff and warehousing of patients who, because of their situation, do nothing but scream 24/7. If one was fighting suicidal ideation before walking into such a place, one could leave that environment thinking that suicide was actually a good idea. That’s certainly not love.

Suicide prevention that is rooted in love needs to be culturally appropriate. People of color, people with disabilities, and members of the LGBT community may have specific mental health and peer counseling needs that need to be integrated into suicide prevention. Some people with suicidal ideation will recover much faster if they have access to pastoral counseling. Some people who are culturally or linguistically diverse need a psychiatric team that speaks their native language. That is love.

Loving suicide prevention needs to be preemptive. Our society wastefully has decided that it would rather stick mentally ill people with disabilities in psychiatric institutions then provide accommodations and resources that might have prevented mental health problems from developing in the first place. I’ve literally been advised to admit myself to a group home and live on welfare for the rest of my life because the powers that be have decided not to make simple accommodations for my learning disability. That’s very selfish, and is of course linked to the calculating utilitarian perspective that many right to die leaders espouse. Things do not have to be that way, though, we can have a society where we dedicate resources and evidence based practices to ensuring that disabled people’s suicidal ideation isn’t caused or exacerbated by our environment. That’s love.

In short, there’s a right way to provide suicide prevention, and a wrong way to provide suicide prevention. We need to find a better balance between an ethic of, “Oh, you want lethal drugs because you can no longer stand the constant fear that you’re possessed? Well, your body, your choice,” and, “Oh, you’re having suicidal thoughts? We should strap you to your bed, and feed you nothing but Ensure for two weeks.” Suicide prevention based on love needs to be a balance between a patient’s instinct about their own needs and what their physicians are observing, where people come up with collaborative solutions about how to address the situation. By doing that, we can have suicide prevention based on love, justice and equality, instead of extreme paternalism and abuse.

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).

German Bundestag rejects assisted suicide bills

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Protesters at the German Bundestag

DW.com reported on July 6 that the German Bundestag rejected two proposals to legislate assisted suicide. According to the DW.com report:

Two groups of parliamentarians put forward proposals on the issue, which were subject to a free vote.

For one group, Katrin Helling-Plahr of the business-focused Free Democratic Party (FDP) said there were many people who wanted to decide to die when the right time for them had come, and that they should be able to do so without fear of legal repercussions.

Center-left Social Democrat (SPD) politician Lars Castellucci, speaking for the other group, said it was important to make assisted suicide possible without encouraging it.

He said anyone providing organized possibilities for suicide without adhering to a fixed concept of protecting the vulnerable should be liable for penalties.

Both proposals shared the aim of creating a legal framework for giving those wanting to commit suicide access to the lethal drugs they need. They would also allow assisted suicide only in the case of those who have reached legal maturity.

In addition, the two groups proposed increasing suicide prevention aid services, including with a nationwide hotline for those having suicidal thoughts and their relatives.

In February 2020, Germany's high court overturned the assisted suicide law by creating a "right to a self-determined death" 

Section 217 of the German criminal code which prohibits assisted suicide was changed by the February 2020 German Supreme Court decision recognizing a right to self-determined death, which included the freedom to take one’s own life.

Section 216 of the German criminal code which prohibits euthanasia "killing on request" was not changed by the German Supreme Court decision.

In February, 2022 a German court in Münster upheld a restriction to assisted suicide by deciding that people do not have the right to purchase lethal drugs for suicide.

DW.com explained the current situation:

The two initiatives arose from a landmark ruling of Germany's Consitutional Court in 2020 that overturned a ban on organized assisted suicide as being a violation of the right of any individual to die on her or his own terms.

That ruling means that assisting someone to die at their own wish is legal in Germany, but that there are currently no laws regulating how this can be done.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition believes that passing an assisted suicide bill will create a framework for approving assisted suicide. The court struck down the German law prohibiting assisted suicide in February 2020, but there have been very few assisted suicide deaths. Creating a legal framework will lead to more deaths by assisted suicide and the law will inevitably be challenged in the courts by groups wanting to expand it.

Previous article: German Bundestag may debate three assisted suicide bills (Link).