MAiD
Canadian psychiatrist sounds alarm over Trudeau gov’t plan to expand euthanasia to the mentally ill
From LifeSiteNews
” someone not dying because of their condition, such as a mental disorder alone, seeking death is, by definition, suicidal. “
Dr. Harvey Chochinov, the well known professor of psychiatrisy from the University of Manitoba and the developer of dignity therapy, wrote an article that was published in the National Post on December 30, 2023 titled: Intensive compassionate caring — not MAiD — is the most effective way to address mental illness.
Chochinov writes:
It’s time to put the brakes on Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) in Canada for those whose sole underlying medical condition is mental illness.
The federal government has tasked the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying to determine if Canada is ready to extend MAID eligibility, starting in March 2024, to patients with mental illness alone. Despite those convinced it is time, and safe, to launch what amounts to ‘psychiatric euthanasia,’ the special committee must pay attention to a murmur of protest that has grown to a roar: Ottawa, we’ve got a problem.
Current MAID eligibility requires a person have a grievous and irremediable medical condition. Unlike some cancers, and many neurodegenerative disorders, no mental disorder can be described as irremediable. To be sure, there are individuals whose mental affliction won’t improve, despite myriad treatments or psychosocial interventions. But there is currently no way to predict which patients won’t get better.
Studies of prognostic accuracy show psychiatrists are wrong half the time. I have cared for patients struggling with chronic suicidality; patients I worried might one day take their lives. I recall a woman with mind-numbing depression, who teetered precariously between life and death. One day, after years of countless drug trials, hospitalizations, electroconvulsive therapy, and various psychosocial interventions, she arrived for her appointment — three weeks into starting a new antidepressant — with a grin on her face.
‘The door is purple,’ she declared. I told her the door had always been purple, to which she replied, ‘I know, but now I care.’
Before that moment, no one — not me, not her friends or family and not anyone on The Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying, nor any MAID assessor — could have predicted her recovery.
Chochinov then states that intensive, unwavering, compassionate care and caring — not MAID — offers the most effective way to address this kind of suffering.
The other reason not to launch psychiatric euthanasia is our inability to determine suicidality from those requesting MAID whose sole underlying medical condition is mental illness. According to the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention, someone not dying because of their condition, such as a mental disorder alone, seeking death is, by definition, suicidal.
Similarly, the first item listed by the American Association of Suicidology differentiating physician hastened death and suicide is the patient must be dying. That certainly does not characterize patients who are mentally ill.
The euthanasia expansionists told the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying that “suicidality and having a reason to want to die are not at all the same.” Chochinov responds by stating:
We can say ‘six’ and ‘half-dozen’ are not the same as many times as we like. If we repeat it frequently, consistently and without equivocation, it might even sound convincing, but that doesn’t make it true.
Patients struggling with suicidality often have a reason to want to die, based on, for example, self-loathing, feeling like a burden or becoming worn down pursuing care and support that could sustain them. In those instances, the line between MAID and suicide simply vanishes.
Avoiding discrimination does not mean everyone is treated the same, but rather, that everyone gets equal access to what they need to thrive.
Time and again, committee members have asked witnesses when Canada’s psychiatric euthanasia program can be launched. I would suggest they behave like NASA. When a potentially catastrophic problem is identified before blast-off, space engineers don’t set an arbitrary new launch date, no more so than Health Canada announces a random release date of a new drug discovered to have unacceptable side-effects.
Ottawa, we have a problem.
The federal government would be well advised to scrap this mission. But if it insists on moving forward, launch should proceed only when the problems are solved, and not a moment sooner.
Reprinted with permission from Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.
From LifeSiteNews
Karly Vavra, the little girl’s mother, told People that she chose to share the video in order to honor her grandfather—but also to normalize euthanasia.
A video of a 7-year-old girl sharing a “final cuddle” with her great-grandfather before he is euthanized has gone viral on TikTok, racking up millions of views.
@karlsbergggg Sobbing 😭 #MAID #medicallyassisteddeath #grandpasgirl #greatgrandpa #greatgrandparents
The video shows the child curled up next to an elderly man, sitting straight on the couch, their final moments together captured. “This is my 96 year old grandpa with my 7 year old,” the caption reads. “He’s doing MAID soon. I tried explaining gently to my daughter that this was the last visit she’d have with him. This is what she did the second she walked in. He’s so happy.”
Karly Vavra, the little girl’s mother, told People that she chose to share the video in order to honor her grandfather—but also to normalize euthanasia. “The feeling is very bittersweet,” she said. “I look back with smiles and tears.” She admitted that she knows “my daughter didn’t fully understand these were her last moments with him.”
Her grandfather, who had chosen euthanasia, did understand the gravity of the moment. “My grandpa knew those were his last moments with her,” Vavra said. “Him looking down in that short moment, I believe, was his way of trying to hide emotions as he was a very proud man.” Her grandfather was scheduled to be killed by lethal injection just days later.
READ: Glenn Beck offers to fund life-saving surgery for Canadian woman approved for euthanasia
Vavra says her grandfather was always a favorite of neighborhood children, who were drawn to him. “I am so grateful both my kids got to know him, though, as not many children get [much] time, if any, with a great grandparent,” she said. “My grandpa was honestly the sweetest man. He loved children, gardening, golf, music and was VERY opinionated… Him and my kids were always laughing with each other, and he loved how loud and proud my daughter was! I hope she is strong like he was and always laughs and sees the brighter side.”
Vavra posted the video because she wanted to celebrate her grandfather’s euthanasia. “I posted this because I truly believe MAID can be a wonderful thing,” she told People. “Letting people go the way they want, with dignity, and not suffering… A lot of religions don’t believe in MAID and some comments were more aggressive than others. Seeing how negative some of the responses were made me really want to advocate for the MAID program.”
“Her connection to MAID began long before her own grandparents made their decisions, as she previously worked on a case in British Columbia after she says many of her coworkers opted not to participate,” People reported.
“I am a very open, understanding person and believe in ‘your body your choice’ which is why I volunteered,” she says...This year alone brought unimaginable loss for her family. “My parents and aunt have had a harder time because both their mom and dad decided to do MAID this year, so it’s definitely been a rough year, but we are sticking together as a family and really trying to cherish all our moments together,” Karly shares.
There are over 10,000 comments on Vavra’s TikTok video, many of them expressing horror at the normalization of putting elderly people to sleep like sick household pets.
“I always try to be honest with my children,” Vavra said. “I explained that Big Papa (what my kids called him) was in a lot of pain and that he would be going to meet Big Grandma on Saturday (my grandma also did MAID this year). I explained that a very nice doctor and nurses were coming and they were going to give him some medicine and he would fall into the best sleep ever but forever, and that he wouldn’t be in pain anymore.”
It is notable that despite the irreligious basis of euthanasia, spiritual language is often incorporated into euthanasia conversations in order to soften the reality of what is taking place.
This is a new Canadian reality: Children losing their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents not to natural death, but to lethal injections. Their goodbyes are defined by moments that do not have to be the last but have been chosen. There could have been more conversations. More cuddles. More love. But there was not—and that was a decision. “Seeing her link arms with him was very touching but of course very painful,” Vavra said. “Both loving each other so much. I wish we could have had him forever.”
They could have had him longer.
From LifeSiteNews
Jolene Van Alstine, approved for state-sanctioned euthanasia after enduring long wait times to receive care for a rare parathyroid disease, is in need of a passport to enter the U.S.
Well-known American media personality Glenn Beck says he has been in touch with the U.S. State Department to help a Canadian woman in Saskatchewan reconsider euthanasia after she sought assisted suicide due to long medical wait times to address her health problems.
As reported by LifeSiteNews on Tuesday, Canadian woman Jolene Van Alstine was approved to die by state-sanctioned euthanasia because she has had to endure long wait times to get what she considers to be proper care for a rare parathyroid disease.
Van Alstine’s condition, normocalcemic primary hyperparathyroidism (nPHPT), causes her to experience vomiting, nausea, and bone pain.
Her cause caught the attention of Beck and many other prominent Americans and Canadians on X.
In an update today on X, Beck said, “Jolene does not have a passport to gain legal entry into the U.S., but my team has been in touch with President (Donald) Trump’s State Department.”
“All I can say for now is they are aware of the urgent life-saving need, and we had a very positive call,” he added.
Beck had said before that he was in “contact with Jolene and her husband” and that he had “surgeons who emailed us standing by to help her.”
As of press time, neither the State Department nor other officials have not yet confirmed Beck’s claim that he has been in touch with them.
As a result of Van Alstine’s frustrations with the healthcare system, she applied for Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) and was approved for January 7.
As reported by LifeSiteNews, over 23,000 Canadians have died while on wait lists for medical care as Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal government is focused on euthanasia expansions.
A new Euthanasia Prevention Coalition report revealed that Canada has euthanized 90,000 people since 2016, the year it was legalized.
As reported by LifeSiteNews recently, a Conservative MP’s private member’s bill that, if passed, would ban euthanasia for people with mental illness received the full support of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.
The Recall Trap: 21 Alberta MLA’s face recall petitions
Taxpayers Federation calls on politicians to reject funding for new Ottawa Senators arena
Canada’s free speech record is cracking under pressure
Albertans give most on average but Canadian generosity hits lowest point in 20 years
100 Catholic schoolchildren rescued, Nigeria promises release of remaining hostages
Canada considers creating national ID system using digital passports for domestic use
Carney Hears A Who: Here Comes The Grinch
-
Daily Caller1 day agoParis Climate Deal Now Decade-Old Disaster
-
armed forces1 day agoOttawa’s Newly Released Defence Plan Crosses a Dangerous Line
-
Business17 hours agoOttawa Pretends To Pivot But Keeps Spending Like Trudeau
-
Energy17 hours agoLiberals Twisted Themselves Into Pretzels Over Their Own Pipeline MOU
-
Censorship Industrial Complex15 hours agoHow Wikipedia Got Captured: Leftist Editors & Foreign Influence On Internet’s Biggest Source of Info
-
Alberta1 day agoAlberta’s huge oil sands reserves dwarf U.S. shale
-
International1 day agoFBI didn’t think it had cause to raid Trump but DOJ did it anyway
-
Community2 days agoCharitable giving on the decline in Canada