From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

Most Canadians fear the nation’s euthanasia regime unfairly targets those who are financially and socially vulnerable

A senior aged Canadian couple has said that a hospice care center presented euthanasia to one of them as an option as they were facing increased care costs they could not afford on their fixed income.

71-year-old Fred Sandeski from Saskatchewan, who suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) along with a host of other ailments such as diabetes and epilepsy, and his wife Teresa, who also has failing health, say death via Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying euthanasia program was suggested to them when they realized they would not be able to cover the costs associated with increased care at a hospice center.

According to the Epoch Times, when Fred started with palliative care, “they were just listing us the availability of what options they had for us,” and MAiD was presented as “one option.”

Thankfully, Sandeski refused MAiD, saying, “I really, really believe that the Lord has put me on this earth for a reason, and he’s not going to let me go until I’m done.” 

Sandeski’s plight was brought to the attention of the provincial government of Saskatchewan by the opposition New Democratic Party’s shadow minister for seniors, Keith Jorgenson, who encouraged Saskatchewan Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill to help the couple.

In response, Cockrill said that he had reached out to the Sandeskis and would “find a solution that’s going to work for Fred and Theresa this week.” 

He added that when it comes to the care home having offered them MAiD as a solution to their plight, he would “hope that any health care professional in this province, having those discussions with a patient has a strong understanding of the patient’s health and familial context.” 

Instances of people being offered MAiD as a solution to their health issues have become commonplace in Canada, as reported by LifeSiteNews.  

Indeed, most Canadians fear the nation’s euthanasia regime unfairly targets those who are financially and socially vulnerable while still supporting the immoral practice in general.   

However, some provincial governments are looking at fighting back against Trudeau’s expansion of legal assisted suicide.  

Recently, the United Conservative government of Alberta said it would push back against the Canadian federal government’s continued desire to expand euthanasia in the nation, announcing it will be launching a review of the legislation and policies surrounding the grim practice, which will include a period of public engagement.  

Under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose government legalized MAiD in 2016, the deadly program has continued to relax who is eligible for death.

In 2021, the program expanded from killing only terminally ill patients to allowing the chronically ill to qualify, as since then the government has sought to include those suffering solely from mental illness.

The number of Canadians killed by lethal injection under the nation’s MAiD program since 2016 stands at close to 65,000, with an estimated 16,000 deaths in 2023 alone. Many fear that because the official statistics are manipulated the number may be even higher.   

Canada had approximately 15,280 euthanasia deaths in 2023. 

From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Katelynn Richardson

Oxford ethicist Dr. Calum Miller wrote on X the vote was a “huge step towards state-assisted and doctor-assisted murder of old and sick people” in the UK.

The British parliament backed a bill Friday that would legalize assisted suicide.

Following hours of debate, the United Kingdom’s House of Commons voted 330 to 275 in favor of a law that allows citizens with less than six months to live to end their own lives, according to several reports.

The “Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life)” bill must still pass through parliamentary committees and the UK’s House of Lords to become law, according to CNN. Kim Leadbeater, the lawmaker who introduced the bill, expects this to take an additional six months, according to Reuters.

Oxford ethicist Dr. Calum Miller wrote on X the vote was a “huge step towards state-assisted and doctor-assisted murder of old and sick people” in the UK.

“A truly dark day,” he wrote.

Currently, assisted suicide is illegal in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Friday’s vote puts the UK on track to join the handful of other countries that legalize assisted suicide, including Canada, Austrailia and New Zealand. Ten U.S. states, along with Washington, D.C., also permit assisted suicide.

Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) program is now the fifth leading cause of death in the country, with 13,241 people choosing assisted suicide in 2022 alone.

“Almost no MAiD requests are denied by clinicians, and the median time between written request and death from MAiD in 2022 was merely eleven days,” Ethics and Public Policy Center visiting fellow Alexander Raikin wrote in an August report.

In October, a committee reviewing MAiD deaths in Canada found multiple instances of patients seeking assisted suicide for reasons like fears of homelessness or isolation, according to the Associated Press.

During debate Friday, British lawmaker Robert Jenrick said the bill would create “imperceptible changes in behaviors.”

“There will be the grandmother who worries about her grandchildren’s’ inheritance if she does not end her life,” said Jenrick. “There will be the widow who relies on the kindness of strangers, who worries; it preys on her conscience. There will be people who are (and we all know them in our lives) shy, who have low self-esteem, who have demons within them.”

Another parliament member Danny Kruger pointed out that the definition of terminal illness in the bill does not provide safeguards.

“In the case of eating disorders, you just need to refuse food, and the evidence is in jurisdictions around the world… that that would be enough to qualify you for an assisted death,” he said.

Kruger said he has met assisted death specialists in Canada who “personally kill hundreds of patients a year.”