Paul Tuns On Nov. 24, Dan Quayle (not the former U.S. vice president) opted to be medically killed after he was unable to access timely chemotherapy for an aggressive form of esophageal cancer. On Oct. 7, he had been told that chemotherapy might prolong his life by a year. He was kept waiting for chemotherapy for ten weeks in Victoria General Hospital. [...]
10. Women facing biological men in competition After the trans-identified Lia Thomas, a biological male, competed and won the 500-yard collegiate freestyle swimming competition in 2022, governing bodies of various sports have been forced to consider their policies of permitting biological males to compete against girls and women. World Athletics, formerly the International Amateur Athletic Federation, which governs track and field, began [...]
Paul Tuns: An Angus Reid Institute poll released on Oct. 17, shows 58 per cent of Canadians believe religiously affiliated healthcare centres should not be required to provide euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide compared to just 24 per cent who said such healthcare centres should be forced to provide Medical Assistance in Dying. Nearly one in five (18 per cent) were unsure. In June, a Vancouver [...]
Interim Staff: The American Medical Association (AMA) upheld their opposition to assisted suicide and euthanasia at the organization’s House of Delegates interim meeting in Maryland, Nov. 10-14. Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, called the AMA’s decision to maintain its opposition to euthanasia “a huge win” and bioethics expert Wesley Smith said, “the death agenda can be stopped.” Delegates [...]
Paul Tuns: Health Canada released the Fourth Annual Report on Medical Assistance in Dying (2022), with data showing that there were 13,241 assisted deaths in Canada, the seventh consecutive year of increased euthanasia deaths, representing 3.3 per cent of all deaths in the country. Amanda Achtman, an anti-euthanasia activist, tweeted, “An average of 36 people are now being euthanized every single day [...]
Rory Leishman: Nothing can better illustrate the theological degradation of the mainline Protestant churches than their pathetic twists and turnings in their conceptions of murder and assisted suicide. As originally enacted, Section 14 of the Criminal Code provided that anyone who unlawfully kills another person can be found guilty of murder, even if the victim begged to be killed. However, under the [...]
Interim Staff: On Oct. 13, the Society of Canadian Psychiatry (SocPysch) issued a 13-page brief on Medical Assistance in Dying and mental illness calling for an indefinite pause on expanding eligibility for euthanasia and assisted-suicide to patients suffering solely from mental illness. The organization’s board of directors said the expansion for eligibility which takes effect next March was rushed into and failed [...]
Paul Tuns: Prior to the House of Commons debate on C-314, the Mental Health Protection Act, the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition held a press conference on Oct. 3 featuring three speakers supporting the bill. Anike Morrison spoke in favour of Bill C-314, saying that if euthanasia for mental illness was available when she suffered her worst depression, she might not be here [...]
Paul Tuns: The unanimous support of all Conservatives, Green, and NDP MPs, joined by a handful of Liberals, was not enough to save Bill C-314, the Mental Health Protection Act, from being defeated in the House of Commons, on Oct. 18, in a vote of 167-150. The private member’s bill was introduced by Conservative MP Ed Fast (Abbottsford) in March to turn [...]
Interim Staff: The B.C.-based Delta Hospice Society has launched a national program called Guardian Angels to provide vulnerable patients with a personal advocate in order to help them avoid being ensnared by the euthanasia trap. The Society says its new initiative is a “national health care advocacy program that partners our compassionate, trained volunteer health advocates, with people navigating the increasingly challenging health care [...]
Josie Luetke: Interim writer, Josie Luetke, Talk Turkey Imagine that you’re mentally ill, convinced that you’re worthless, and waging an internal war with yourself over whether you ought to keep on living or not. You weigh the pros and cons. You consider who might be sad over your death, and so you attempt to keep lists of things to look [...]
Joanna Alphonso: Lucy Letby, Elizabeth Wettlaufer, and Charles Edmund Cullen all had something in common: they were all registered nurses who killed their patients. Lucy Letby, Registered Nurse, Chester, U.K. Lucy Letby, a 33-year-old registered nurse in the United Kingdom, was convicted in August for her murder spree of seven babies over the span of two years at the Countess of Chester [...]
Rory Leishman: Time and again, the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has pledged that as of March 17, 2024, physicians and nurse practitioners in Canada will be authorized to kill suicidal patients who are suffering solely from a mental illness. What can account for this appalling prospect? The Criminal Code of Canada clearly and unambiguously states in sections 14 and [...]
Alex Schadenberg: Kelsi Sheren, a Canadian military veteran, witnessed the horrific death of a comrade in Afghanistan. Sheren who lives with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) told the Daily Mail in July 2023, “It's disgusting and it's unacceptable,” that authorities would rather euthanize a soldier than foot the bill for their recovery. The story of Veterans Affairs employees who advocated euthanasia for veterans [...]
Warren McArthur: British Columbia Catholic hospitals have and continue to stand in opposition to the tides of euthanasia in Canada as bastions of palliative care and reverence for the sanctity of life. As euthanasia becomes more accepted legally and in practice, it is in conscientiously objecting institutions that many patients trust. The government gives a great deal of funding to Catholic hospitals [...]