Canada extends euthanasia programme to cancer patients on waiting list

Canada’s euthanasia programme offers the MAiD “treatment” to cancer patients waiting on long lists to see an oncologist

“When a country or a state legalises assisted suicide or euthanasia, it can no longer call itself anti-suicide, because it specifically approves some suicides … It’s a very dangerous movement that is normalising this kind of approach to dying as opposed to natural death,”  Welsey J. Smith said.

In Tuesday’s episode of American Though Leaders, Jan Jekielek sat down with Wesley J. Smith, a lawyer, public speaker, award-winning author and chair of the Discovery Institute Centre on Human Exceptionalism.  In this episode on American Thought Leaders, they dived into his work on bioethics and euthanasia, better known today as “medically-assisted suicide.”

“We’re seeing in Canada also the beginning of a situation where patients who have a tough time getting an oncologist because of such a long waiting list, ask to be killed because they can’t get quality medical care,” Smith said.

“Assisted suicide and euthanasia is a symptom, not a cause, and there’s a deep nihilism that seems to have infected society on many levels,” he said.

Below is a trailer for Epoch TV’s interview with Smith.  You can watch the full interview on Epoch TV HERE.  Epoch TV is a subscriber-based service but you can read or watch a limited number of articles and videos for free by creating an account.  All that’s required is to enter your email address and a password.

A transcript of the video above can be found on Epoch TV.  We have uploaded a copy of the transcript for our readers who for whatever reason are unable to access Epoch TV.

Death on Demand_ Wesley J. Smith Explains the Assisted Suicide Movement _ EpochTVDownload

Wesley J. Smith is also a contributor to ‘The Corner‘ on National Review.  Last month, he published an article in the National Review which we have reproduced below.

Canada’s Euthanasia Horrors Are Accelerating

By Wesley J. Smith, 24 October 2024

The horrors unleashed by Canada’s legalising euthanasia are growing increasingly clear. Case after case of vulnerable people being killed instead of cared for has now been reported. More than 15,000 Canadians are euthanised annually. Some are even asking to die because they can’t access proper care in Canada’s socialised system, or out of loneliness as much as illness. One Canadian death doctor admitted to killing more than 400 people.

A medical association has even urged doctors to suggest euthanasia to their qualified patients! Indeed, the push for euthanasia can apparently become quite aggressive at times, including just before cancer surgeries. From the National Post story:

The Nova Scotia woman was steeling herself for major surgery, a mastectomy for breast cancer, when an unfamiliar doctor ran through a series of pre-operative questions: What was her medical history? What medications does she regularly take? Any allergies? Was she aware of medical assistance in dying?

Fifteen months later, before a second mastectomy, “it happened again,” the woman said. Different doctor, same inquiry. “In the list of questions about your life and your past and how are you treating these things was, ‘Hey, (MAiD) is a thing that exists,’” she said.

“It was upsetting. Not because I thought they were trying to kill me. I was shocked that it happens. I was like, ‘Again? This happened again ?’”

The woman, 51, requested anonymity because she lives in a small area with a limited number of doctors. She believes euthanasia was raised as “I was literally on my way into surgery” not because of breast cancer but because of her long history with autoimmune and other disorders that, theoretically, would make her eligible for MAiD.

And yet, the beat goes on.

It isn’t as if the truth isn’t coming out. A recent official report by the Office of the Chief Coroner for Ontario contains many disturbing conclusions that should – but won’t – derail the euthanasia train. For example, a mentally disturbed, suicidal man was euthanised because doctors decided he had a bad reaction to covid vaccines. From the Vancouver Sun story (my emphasis):

Identified as “Mr. A,” the man experienced “suffering and functional decline” following three vaccinations for SARS-CoV-2. He also suffered from depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and personality disorders, and, “while navigating his physical symptoms,” was twice admitted to hospital, once involuntarily, with thoughts of suicide.

“Amongst his multiple specialists, no unifying diagnosis was confirmed,” according to the report. However, his MAiD assessors “opined that the most reasonable diagnosis for Mr. A’s clinical presentation (severe functional decline) was a post-vaccine syndrome, in keeping with chronic fatigue syndrome.”

There were no“ pathological findings” at a post-mortem that could identify any underlying physiological diagnosis, though people’s experiences can’t be discounted just because medicine can’t find what’s wrong with them.

In other words, there is a good chance that the poor man was mentally ill and not physically sick.

The report also highlights that some poor people were euthanised because of social isolation or for fear of becoming homeless. From the AP report:

AP’s investigation found doctors and nurses privately struggling with euthanasia requests from vulnerable people whose suffering might be addressed by money, social connections or adequate housing. Providers expressed deep discomfort with ending the lives of vulnerable people whose deaths were avoidable, even if they met the criteria in Canada’s euthanasia system, known nationally as MAiD, for medical assistance in dying.

Here is one of the examples:

Another case detailed Ms. B, a woman in her 50s suffering from multiple chemical sensitivity syndrome, with a history of mental illness including suicidality and post-traumatic stress disorder. She was socially isolated and asked to die largely because she could not get proper housing, according to the report.

Committee members couldn’t agree whether her death was justified; some said that because her inadequate housing was the main reason for her suffering, she should have been disqualified from euthanasia. Others argued that “social needs may be considered irremediable” if other options have been explored.

At this point, it is worth recalling that euthanasia legalisation changes the general morality of society and its respect for life in very disturbing ways. For example, a poll taken last year in Canada found that 27 per cent of Canadians strongly or moderately agree that euthanasia is acceptable for suffering caused by “poverty” and 28 per cent strongly or moderately agree that killing by doctors is acceptable for suffering caused by homelessness. Good grief!

But good on corporate media for finally covering these abuses. Perhaps that is why the Welsh parliament just rejected the legalisation of assisted suicide and Delaware’s Democratic governor recently vetoed a legalisation bill.

Americans may shrug and note that our assisted suicide states have not gone that far, to which I would add the word “yet.” Several states have already liberalised their suicide-facilitation criteria. And, I would argue, the pace of the expansion has been slower here only because Americans have not fully swallowed the hemlock.

If we ever get to the point that the masses support turning homicide into a medical “treatment,” as have our northern neighbours, we will go down the same dark death road. After all, Canadians are our closest cultural cousins.