Euthanasia

Alex Schadenberg, Special to The Interim: When a jurisdiction is debating an assisted suicide bill, many organizations and individuals present information about the necessary safeguards that the jurisdiction must implement to “safely” legalize assisted suicide. The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition knows that it is not possible to “safely” legalize assisted suicide and once legal the law will inevitably expand. Great Britain is currently debating [...]

Paul Tuns: The Fifth Annual Report on Medical Assistance in Dying released in December, and updated and clarified last month, revealed that there were 15,343 reported euthanasia deaths representing 4.7% of all deaths in 2023. The report, which must be released annually by Health Canada, showed a steady increase in the number of euthanasia deaths each year, rising from 2838 in 2017, [...]

Interim Staff: The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC) launched a petition to British Columbia Health Minister Josie Osborne, Conservative Health Critic Anna Kindy, and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC demanding a review of Ellen Wiebe’s euthanasia practice. Wiebe, a former abortionist, was recently prevented by court order by euthanizing an Alberta woman after her common-law husband sued, saying that his [...]

Mary Zwicker: Arrests have been made and a criminal case opened following the use of a “suicide pod” to end the life of an American woman deep in the Swiss woods. Swiss authorities are considering the possibility of charging the perpetrator with “intentional homicide.”  The October Interim reported on the “Sarco” suicide pod and the death of Kate Connelly, a 64-year-old American [...]

Paul Tuns: Rita Marker, who Wesley Smith called “the great anti-euthanasia warrior,” died at the age of 83 on Oct. 30 after a long illness. Marker’s activism against euthanasia began in the mid-1980s after attending an international “right-to-die” convention in Europe. Smith said, “She was so alarmed by what she heard, she and her late husband and soulmate Mike Marker, formed the [...]

Paul Tuns: Diane Coleman, founder of the anti-euthanasia organization Not Dead Yet, died on Nov. 1 at the age of 71. Coleman, who was born with muscular spinal atrophy, a disorder that led her to use a wheelchair by the age of 11 and which doctors predicted would prevent her from reaching adulthood, founded Not Dead Yet in 1996 to show opposition [...]

Paul Tuns: Alexander Raikin published a report in The New Atlantis on Nov. 13, that reveals at least 428 Ontario patients who were killed by the country’s Medical Assistance in Dying regime that did not comply with federal law, or federal or provincial regulations. Raikin begins his report with the stark comment: “For years, there have been clear signals that euthanasia providers [...]

Meanwhile Dying with Dignity asks courts to extend law to mentally ill Paul Tuns: On Sept. 26, a coalition of disability rights organizations and two individuals filed a Charter challenge with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice opposing Track 2 of Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) law, which provides euthanasia to people with a disability who are not terminally ill. The [...]

Paul Tuns: On Sept. 7, the Quebec government announced that it would allow advanced directives for Medical Assistance in Dying, when Quebec Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette directed Crown prosecutors’ offices to not file charges against doctors and nurses who carry out the procedure. As of October 30, patients will be able to make advance requests for the procedure before their condition renders [...]