Grisly suicide pod tale blows up lies of 'dignity' around assisted dying - "The news broke last week that an American woman became the first-ever victim of the Sarco pod — a ghastly device that suffocates the user with nitrogen at the push of a button. The “assisted suicide” occurred in Switzerland, reportedly under the auspices of the Last Resort, a local affiliate of pro-suicide group Exit International, whose founder and head, Philip Nitschke, developed the device. The American — pseudonymously called Jessica Campbell — leveled a number of ugly charges against members of the Last Resort before her death, accusing them of bilking her out of money and trying to use her death to juice their press profile. The group has denied these charges and, per the Swiss media, has presented evidence suggesting they’re untrue. Which means one of two things happened. Either the group is guilty of what Campbell claimed, or it oversaw the death of a woman beset with paranoid fantasies — undercutting any claim she was compos mentis enough to assent to being killed via suffocation. No shock there: The pod’s inventor, Nitchske, is an Australian doctor who was once suspended from practice; he named one of his earlier suicide devices “the Deliverance Machine” — as though he were God himself dispensing mercy from on high. Indeed, somehow the terms under which people qualify for euthanasia (a misnomer if ever there was one) are always mysteriously expanding. Look at Canada’s MAiD (Medical Assistance in Dying) program: Since it went operative in 2017, its use has increased to the point that in some provinces it accounts for as much as 5% of deaths. And data suggests that people are increasingly using it because they’re poor. Or consider Holland and the case of Zoraya ter Beek, a healthy young woman whose suicide the Dutch state gave its blessing to. The reason for her desire to die? Mental illness. One Dutch former “death doctor” has explained in an interview with the Free Press about ter Beek’s case that he resigned from his duties in signing off on these “procedures” after seeing “the Dutch euthanasia practice evolve from death being a last resort to death being a default option.” That is, it morphed into the state and its servants encouraging, even pushing, people to agree to death. To be clear: It can be perfectly reasonable for those who are nearing death’s door to go for a “Do not resuscitate” order, or simply to refuse more “life saving” care, such as chemotherapy that might give you another month or two at the cost of making life unbearable. But euthanasia, especially under government auspices, operates on an inherently slippery slope, especially when the “volunteer” is vulnerable in any of a host of ways. That is the central problem with the doctrine of “assisted suicide,” and it’s not going away."
National eating disorder awareness group slams the term ‘terminal anorexia’, warns it could be used to justify MAID - "A leading nonprofit organization dedicated to helping treat eating disorders is condemning recent diagnoses of anorexia nervosa as “terminal,” and warning that the term could be used to justify offering Medical Aid in Dying (MAID), or assisted suicide, to patients who suffer from it. Responding to the classification dispute, the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD) issued “an urgent call to action to stop the loss of lives due to eating disorders.”"
Man survives 'sip' of assisted suicide drugs cocktail - "At the North American Clinical Congress on Toxicology annual conference in Montreal over the weekend, a case study was presented involving a 37-year-old man from Denver who survived after swallowing a “sip” of a cocktail of assisted suicide drugs during an end-of-life celebration for a friend dying of pancreatic cancer... “After the patient’s friend consumed part of the preparation and described it as bitter, this patient ingested an unknown-sized ‘sip’ of the preparation,” which included lethal doses of drugs to cause the person ending their life to lose consciousness and stop the heart. According to those attending the discussion on the management of medical emergencies, the 37-year-old man, who had a history of anxiety, attention deficit disorder and chronic pain, made a full recovery over a few days, from what was reported at the toxicology conference... it had uncanny similarities with a case published last year involving a 35-year-old Colorado man who survived after taking a sip of a MAID cocktail. His older friend had invited loved ones to be present while he consumed the MAID preparation, according to the report. “After his first swallow, he remarked, ‘Man that burns!’ The younger man, said, ‘Let me see,’ and then also took a swallow,” the report said. “The attending paramedic directs rescuers to begin ventilating the younger man while requesting evidence of advance directives for the older man,” the report continued."
What's behind Canada's strikingly high assisted death rate? - "a new study suggests MAID deaths in Canada could continue to expand for another decade, until one in 10 deaths involve a doctor-administered lethal injection... Both Canada and California granted access to medical assistance in dying, or MAID, in 2016. Both have similarly sized populations, similar, though not identical, demographics, and no real differences in the leading causes of death or overall death rates. However, 853 Californians died by MAID in 2022, compared to 13,241 in Canada. In 2022, MAID accounted for 4.1 per cent of all deaths in Canada, compared to 0.27 per cent of all deaths in California. In the Netherlands and Belgium, which legalized assisted dying 22 years ago, 5.1 per cent of Dutch citizens and 2.5 per cent of Belgians die by MAID. While Canada’s overall rate remains lower than those two nations, British Columbia and Quebec have rates, respectively, of 5.5 per cent and 6.6 per cent, outpacing the assisted-suicide pioneers... researchers tested 10 hypotheses that might explain the 15-fold difference in MAID deaths between Canada and California — what factors might be driving Canada’s strikingly higher MAID uptake, “or, conversely, preventing Californians from taking advantage of a legal route towards relieving unnecessary suffering,” said co-author Peter Reiner, professor emeritus of neuroscience and neuroethics at the University of British Columbia... Trudo Lemmens, a University of Toronto professor of law and ethics, has argued that MAID is being promoted as a form of therapy, “even for only remotely disease-related suffering.”... If Canada’s MAID deaths grow to one in 10 deaths, Canada will have “failed miserably to protect the vulnerable,” said Daryl Pullman, a professor of bioethics at Memorial University. “Death is now ‘therapy’ in Canada and the MAID regime is the most efficient part of the Canadian healthcare system,” Pullman said. “Far from celebrating this, as these authors appear to do, we should be revisiting how we got things so terribly wrong in this space and what needs to be done to fix it.” Trudeau told a CBC interviewer last week that he had met with the premiers over the carbon tax in 2016.
'I remember this ‘16 meeting. He promised Premiers that he’d not unilaterally implement a consumer carbon tax on Cdns until our Ministers of Env could meet to canvass prov priorities and objections. He then announced the unilateral carbon tax while our Env ministers were meeting.'"
Clearly, it's the fault of conservative governments for underfunding healthcare
Quadriplegic Quebec man chooses assisted dying after 4-day ER stay leaves horrific bedsore - "On a Thursday in January, Normand Meunier arrived at the hospital in Saint-Jérôme, Que., with a respiratory virus. Weeks later, he would emerge with a severe bedsore that would eventually lead him to seek medical assistance in dying (MAID). Meunier, 66, had been a truck driver before a spinal cord injury in 2022 left his arms and legs paralyzed. Before being admitted to an intensive care bed for his third respiratory virus in three months this winter, Meunier was stuck on a stretcher in the emergency room for four days. His partner, Sylvie Brosseau, says without having access to a special mattress, Meunier developed a major pressure sore on his buttocks that eventually worsened to the point where bone and muscle were exposed and visible — making his recovery and prognosis bleak... "I don't want to be a burden. At any rate, the medical opinions say I won't be a burden for long; as the old folks say, it's better to kick the can"... "That whole story is a crying shame," said Steven Laperrière, the director general of the Regroupement des activistes pour l'inclusion au Québec (RAPLIQ), which supports people with disabilities. "It's really a case of disbelief … What are we doing in order to help disabled persons or sick people to live in dignity prior to dying in dignity?" He says the health-care institution was "negligent to say the least" and that getting a proper mattress is not like "trying to get a space shuttle into orbit."... The health authority confirmed it has 450 therapeutic mattresses, including 145 with alternating pressure, in its facilities (including hospitals and long-term care facilities) and that equipment is available if staff request it... Trudo Lemmens says this case is "an illustration of problems in our health-care system." The Scholl Chair in Health Law and Policy at the University of Toronto says people who are already vulnerable are left feeling like more of a burden in the system. "Then the system responds by saying: 'well, you have access to medical assistance and dying,'" said Lemmens. "Medical assistance in dying is more easily available and on a more regular basis than some of the most basic care." He says he is increasingly hearing stories of people who are struggling in the system and turn to MAID. "It's deeply troubling," he says. Along with Brosseau, Moelle épinière et motricité Québec (MÉMO-Qc), an advocacy group for people with disabilities, is now demanding the Quebec government launch an independent inquest into Meunier's death. They believe the health authority's internal investigation is insufficient."
Somehow, Richard Hanania thinks this shows euthanasia is good
‘I’m 28. And I’m Scheduled to Die in May.’ - "Zoraya ter Beek, 28, expects to be euthanized in early May. Her plan, she said, is to be cremated. “I did not want to burden my partner with having to keep the grave tidy,” ter Beek texted me. “We have not picked an urn yet, but that will be my new house!” She added an urn emoji after “house!” Ter Beek, who lives in a little Dutch town near the German border, once had ambitions to become a psychiatrist, but she was never able to muster the will to finish school or start a career. She said she was hobbled by her depression and autism and borderline personality disorder. Now she was tired of living—despite, she said, being in love with her boyfriend, a 40-year-old IT programmer, and living in a nice house with their two cats... Ter Beek is one of a growing number of people across the West choosing to end their lives rather than live in pain. Pain that, in many cases, can be treated. Typically, when we think of people who are considering assisted suicide, we think of people facing terminal illness. But this new group is suffering from other syndromes—depression or anxiety exacerbated, they say, by economic uncertainty, the climate, social media, and a seemingly limitless array of fears and disappointments. “I’m seeing euthanasia as some sort of acceptable option brought to the table by physicians, by psychiatrists, when previously it was the ultimate last resort,” Stef Groenewoud, a healthcare ethicist at Theological University Kampen, in the Netherlands, told me. “I see the phenomenon especially in people with psychiatric diseases, and especially young people with psychiatric disorders, where the healthcare professional seems to give up on them more easily than before.” Theo Boer, a healthcare ethics professor at Protestant Theological University in Groningen, served for a decade on a euthanasia review board in the Netherlands. “I entered the review committee in 2005, and I was there until 2014,” Boer told me. “In those years, I saw the Dutch euthanasia practice evolve from death being a last resort to death being a default option.” He ultimately resigned. Boer had in mind people like Zoraya ter Beek—who, critics argue, have been tacitly encouraged to kill themselves by laws that destigmatize suicide, a social media culture that glamorizes it, and radical right-to-die activists who insist we should be free to kill ourselves whenever our lives are “complete.” They have fallen victim, in critics’ eyes, to a kind of suicide contagion. Statistics suggest these critics have a point. In 2001, the Netherlands became the first country in the world to make euthanasia legal. Since then, the number of people who increasingly choose to die is startling."
The "myth" of the slippery slope strikes again
Wesley Yang on X - "There was no deliberative process, no national debate in Canada over whether state medical personnel should be administering doses of lethal drugs to a 27-year old otherwise healthy autistic women who expressed a wish to die. As with the sterilization and cutting off of healthy body parts of confused children, it was imposed from above suddenly when the authorities in charge decided it should be done at an unprecedented scale."
Alberta judge greenlights euthanasia for 27-year-old autistic woman DESPITE objections from her dad, who says she's healthy - just 'vulnerable' due to mental health problems - "Her only known diagnoses described at a previous hearing earlier were autism and hyperactivity disorder. The dad's lawyers had asked for a judicial review to examine how the daughter got MAID approval... The father-daughter row is the latest controversy to spotlight one of the world's most permissive assisted-dying programs. Alex Schadenberg, who leads the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition campaign group, said it showcased the problems with MAiD. 'Canada's euthanasia law was not designed to protect vulnerable people,' Schadenberg said. 'The law is designed to protect the doctors who are willing to kill.'... Rights groups say the country's regulations lack necessary safeguards, devalue the lives of disabled people, and prompt doctors and health workers to suggest the procedure to those who might not otherwise consider it... Officials in February delayed plans to expand MAiD access to those with mental illnesses, kicking a decision back to 2027. There are also efforts to make euthanasia available to 'mature minors.'"
Weird. We keep being told there won't be any abuse and that euthanasia is only for terminally ill patients. Of course, with the equation of mental and physical illness (thanks, campaigns to remove "stigma"), presumably now autism and hyperactivity disorder can be grounds to die too
Chris Selley: Proof of oversight needed on MAID - "WV argues MV has been misdiagnosed with physical ailments that are really psychological problems — and therefore, under current law, not justifiable grounds on their own to receive MAID... MV’s medical record wasn’t before the court, but Feasby did note a specialist’s report to MV’s family physician finding nothing resembling an intolerable or terminal illness. There was “a propensity for tripping and falling,” “numbness and tingling in her hands and feet,” “neck pain,” and “difficulty going up stairs for the last five years.”... WV alleges misconduct on the part of Alberta Health Services (AHS) and the “MAID Navigator” assigned to MV’s case. MV’s first application for MAID was denied on grounds the second of two doctors consulted refused to sign off. She had the same problem on her second application. She and her navigator solved the problem by going back to the supportive doctor from the first application. (This is known in the business as “doctor shopping.”)... The AHS policy states that a doctor assessing a patient for MAID eligibility must be “independent,” he notes, meaning they are not “connected to … the patient making the request.” “Allowing a MAiD assessor who had previously, to the knowledge of both MV and AHS, formed an opinion on MV’s eligibility for MAiD to act as a tie-breaker may plausibly be argued to be negligent or wrongful as it is arguably contrary to the independence provisions of the AHS MAiD Policy and the Criminal Code”... “Parliament’s intention (was) that physicians and nurse practitioners were exclusively responsible for deciding whether the Criminal Code’s criteria (have) been met,” he writes, citing precedent from 2017. The judge in that case “also concluded that the court could not pre-empt the medical practitioners and make a decision for them. In his words, ‘(this) court is a legal practitioner not a medical practitioner’.” “The only accountability mechanisms to ensure that MAiD administrative processes are being adhered to are criminal prosecutions, wrongful death suits, and complaints to professional governing bodies,” Feasby continues. “While these accountability mechanisms are important, they can take many years to be litigated to completion.” At least one of those accountability mechanisms would require a euthanized corpse to get underway. Not great... “The Court has no expertise and no place in reviewing MAiD assessments in some sort of ad hoc system of pre-authorization,” Feasby writes, and that makes good sense. The question is, can we trust that anyone else is keeping close track of those assessments? Remember: This is all happening before we legalize MAID solely for mental illness."
The tragedy of Archie Battersbee - "The courts are no doubt right that Archie’s brain has been largely destroyed, leaving an empty shell of his body, and that he cannot therefore be considered disabled... the court judgements have largely sidestepped this consideration. Instead, the various judgements use specious arguments about Archie’s ‘best interests’ as per the Mental Capacity Act 2005. Justice Hayden noted in the High Court back in July that ‘there is a professional consensus here that Archie is most likely beyond pain. The corollary to this is that he is also beyond pleasure.’ He then concluded his judgement by saying that further treatment ‘compromises Archie’s dignity, deprives him of his autonomy, and becomes wholly inimical to his welfare. It serves only to protract his death, while being unable to prolong his life.’ The Supreme Court this week agreed with the High Court, deciding ‘it was not in Archie’s best interests or in accordance with his welfare that he continues to receive life-sustaining treatment. According to the law of England and Wales, Archie’s best interests and welfare are the paramount consideration.’ These judgements are striking. Here the courts seem to be imposing beliefs about life and death on to Archie’s case that are no more rooted in rationality than the views of the Christian Legal Centre. Surely, there cannot be, by definition, such a thing as a ‘protracted death’. Either someone is alive or dead. The controversy at the heart of Archie’s case is that doctors cannot say with absolute certainty that Archie is brain dead, though they strongly suspect that he is. To speak of a ‘protracted death’ is to redefine a period where someone is alive as part of their death. Can someone’s welfare ever be served by causing their death? Conceivably, yes. But Archie is not in pain. If the medics are right, Archie’s existence or non-existence has no meaning to him whatsoever and so the question of his welfare is moot. His existence means something to his parents, however. So perhaps there is an argument to keep him ‘going’, only so that they achieve their wishes of a ‘natural’ death in accordance with their Christian beliefs. Again, it is reasonable to argue that resources currently being devoted to sustaining Archie could be deployed to far better use. But the courts are arguing something different. They are saying that ending someone’s life might actually be good for them, or at least in their ‘best interests’. This is a dangerous line of argument. The idea that continued treatment compromises someone’s dignity and deprives them of autonomy might easily be used, for example, to argue for withdrawing treatment from a severely disabled child whose existence is seen by judges or medical staff as lacking dignity and autonomy... while the decision to withdraw Archie’s care is probably the right one, the fact that the courts have suggested there can be more dignity in death than in life could have worrying implications."
Of course, clueless Americans claim that this is because of socialised healthcare
Toronto woman with long COVID applies for MAID due to financial strain - "“My quality of life with this illness is almost nonexistent, it’s not a good life,” Tracey Thompson, 55, told DailyMail. “I don’t do anything. It is painfully boring. It’s profoundly isolating.”... Thompson told CTV News last year she decided to apply for MAID because she is running out of money, not out of any wish to die. “I’m very happy to be alive. I still enjoy life. Birds chirping, small things that make up a day are still pleasant to me, they’re still enjoyable. I still enjoy my friends,” she said."
Weird. The left keep telling us this never happens
Given that long covid is questionable, this is yet another cost of covid hysteria
Medical Staff Offers Assisted Suicide To Canadian Woman Paralyzed From COVID Shots - "Kayla Pollock was one of millions coerced and deceived into getting the deadly COVID shots when they were mandated in 2021... The second diagnosis, a doctor came to me and whispered in my ear and he said, I think there’s something seriously wrong with you. I do not think you’re faking. He said, I have a neurologist or a radiologist who’s willing to read your report at home. If you go into the scanner right now, I can get that done. They found a massive lesion on her spine and the doctor told her it was most likely caused by the vaccine and that he’s seen many cases like hers. Kayla spent several months in the hospital’s rehabilitation center, where the staff offered her medical assisted suicide on two occasions. Which is the only assistance the medical system seems to offer."
The Canadian Independent on X - "EXCLUSIVE: Young Ontario woman's life becomes a living hell after Moderna booster shot leaves her paralyzed. Doctors confirm vaccine connection and offer Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID). Kayla Pollock is a 37-year-old mother from Ontario whose life took a drastic turn after…"
Of course, long covid is real, but covid vaccine injury is fake
Netherlands doctors are euthanizing people with autism - "Several Dutch citizens who had autism or other intellectual disabilities have died by physician-assisted suicide in recent years after doctors determined their afflictions were untreatable obstacles to a normal life, researchers found. Nearly 40 people who identified as autistic or intellectually disabled were legally euthanized in the Netherlands between 2012 and 2021, according to a Kingston University investigation of Dutch euthanasia cases... With those cases, experts have questioned whether the law allowing doctors to kill suicidal patients via lethal injections has strayed too far from its initial intentions when passed in 2002. Kasper Raus, an ethicist and public health professor at Belgium’s Ghent University, said the types of patients seeking out physician-assisted suicide have changed greatly over the past two decades in both the Netherlands and Belgium, where it is also legal... One of the eight people cited in the study was an autistic man in his 20s. He reported feeling unhappy since childhood and was regularly bullied, according to his case notes. The man “longed for social contacts but was unable to connect with others” and eventually decided he wanted to die because “having to live on this way for years was an abomination.”... The director of Cambridge University’s Autism Research Centre, Simon Baron-Cohen, worried that people with such disabilities may not fully grasp the decision to end their lives. He called it “abhorrent” that they were not offered more support and were instead euthanized." The "myth" of the slippery slope strikes again
Meme - "The worst gore websites and liveleak videos are less disturbing than the front page of reddit"
elias @lsraeliFilmClub: "Wholesome and made me smile"
r/MadeMeSmile: "Assisted suicide pod approved for use in Switzerland. At the push of a button, the pod becomes filled with nitrogen gas, which rapidly lowers oxygen levels, causing its user to die"
Sex abuse victim in her 20s allowed by doctors to choose euthanasia due to 'incurable' PTSD - "A sex abuse victim in the Netherlands has been been allowed to undergo euthanasia via lethal injection."
The humanist case against euthanasia - "For me, one of the great mysteries of modern times is how the ‘right to die’ came to be seen as an important progressive cause. It has now reached a level where if you tell someone that you have liberal instincts, humanist tendencies, and you don’t follow any religious faith, they will automatically assume that you are in favour of legalising assisted suicide. There is almost an unspoken, nudge-nudge agreement amongst a certain section of society that this is a just and righteous campaign: you read the Guardian, you shop at Waitrose, you go to the National Theatre, you support assisted dying. As a result, when I tell people that I am deeply uncomfortable with the campaign for the ‘right to die’, and I am not convinced that assisted dying should be legalised, they give me funny looks. They instantly assume that I must be one of ‘Them’ – one of those religious people, one of those strange individuals who thinks human life is so sacred that no one should ever be allowed to die until God wants them to. But I’m not. I’m an atheist. And I consider myself a radical humanist. However, I am also very worried about the drive to legalise assisted dying. I think we need to start making the humanist case against this fashion for voluntary euthanasia. There are two reasons why, as someone driven by a human-centred morality, I am uncomfortable with legalising assisted dying. Firstly, because it will be bad for the people it is supposed to help: terminally ill people who want to die. And secondly, because it will also be bad for those people who want to live, people who might be sick or disabled or old but who want to continue living... The drive to formalise what for centuries has been an informal, humane practice is already making the end of life more difficult for terminally ill people. The idea that we must myopically regulate this area of life to ensure there is no exploitation of sick people by doctors and families is making doctors more cautious about what they might have done naturally in the past: help people die, under the radar... It seems pretty irrefutable to me that the campaign to legalise assisted suicide has become bound up with society’s broader inability to value and celebrate human life today. It is clear that society finds it increasingly difficult to say that human existence is a good thing – you can see this in everything from the environmentalist discussion of newborn babies as ‘future polluters’ to the widespread scaremongering about the ‘ageing timebomb’. And you can see it in the fact that some in the pro-assisted dying campaign want to go beyond having ‘mercy killings’ for people close to death to having ‘assisted dying’ for the very disabled, the ill and even, in the case of Dignitas in Switzerland, the depressed. This effectively sanctions suicide as a response to personal hardship, and gives a green light to hopelessness. The campaign for the right to die has both been heavily influenced by and also influences today’s broader anti-life culture. It expresses a broader social pessimism, a shift away from improving human life towards focusing a great deal of our moral and political energies on bringing to an end damaged or impaired human lives. Quite often today the campaign for the right to die goes hand-in-hand with the idea that there are too many people – especially old people – and that society can’t cope with them. When Terry Pratchett, who suffers from early-onset Alzheimer’s, suggested creating assisted suicide tribunals he was championed by commentators who basically said: ‘Yes, we need to do something about all these old, mentally-ill people.’ One sympathetic commentator said the rising number of old people is a ‘social catastrophe’ and pointed out that a patient with dementia costs the economy eight times as much as a patient with heart disease. This is increasingly how we judge human life today: not by its internal worth or moral meaning, but by its financial implications or environmental implications. It is not a coincidence that at a time when society is so down on the worth of human life, there is also a very vocal campaign for the ‘right to die’: these two phenomena are linked in subtle but important ways. The fact remains, however, that only a minority of people in pain choose to end their lives; the majority think life is worth living. But the views of the very active minority of pro-euthanasia campaigners are likely impacting on the way the majority of people experience their lives, possibly making them feel like a burden – a social, financial and environmental burden – if they choose to continue living. And as a humanist, I am also opposed to any undermining of the majority’s quality of life by a tiny minority of campaigners."
From 2010. Given the relentless expansion of euthanasia since, his point is more cogent than ever.
This assumes that if euthanasia is not legal, there is no problem with off-the-book euthanasia.