MAiD
Conservative MP warns Canada to stop ‘wrong’ and ‘dangerous’ euthanasia expansion to mentally ill
MP Michael Cooper
From LifeSiteNews
On March 9, 2024, Medical Assistance in Dying is set to include those suffering solely from mental illness and MP Michael Cooper said Canadians ought to be ‘offered hope and help’ and ‘not death.’
Canada is set to go down a “very dangerous road in March of 2024” should it proceed with expanding euthanasia to the mentally ill, warned Conservative MP Michael Cooper, who urged the Liberal federal government to immediately “scrap” its “radical” assisted-suicide program and instead offer “hope” for the suffering.
“Unless the Liberals reverse course, Canada is set to go down a very dangerous road in March of 2024, when MAiD for mental illness becomes available,” Cooper said in a video posted to X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday.
“There is something they (the federal government) can do. Canada doesn’t need to go ahead with this, what the Liberals need to do is follow the evidence, stop the madness, and introduce legislation to permanently scrap this radical expansion.”
Cooper then said Canadians who are “suffering from mental health issues” ought to be “offered hope and help” and “not death.”
On March 9, 2024, euthanasia in Canada, or Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) as it is known, is set to expand to include those suffering solely from mental illness. This is a result of the 2021 passage of Bill C-7, which also allowed the chronically ill – not just the terminally ill – to qualify for so-called doctor-assisted death.
The expansion comes despite warnings from top Canadian psychiatrists who said the country is “not ready” for the coming expansion of euthanasia to those who are mentally ill, adding that the procedure is not something “society should be doing” as it could lead to deaths under a “false pretense.”
Cooper noted that the law itself is ambiguous in that it leaves open the door to anyone being approved for the grim procedure.
“It is impossible to accurately predict your immediate reality under the law,” said Cooper, adding, “The leading medical professionals said that Canada isn’t ready for two fundamental reasons.”
“The first is that in order to qualify for MAiD, someone must suffer from an irremediable disease or illness, and afterwards one must suffer from a disease or illness in which they are not going to get better, and they are in an irreversible state of decline,” he noted.
Cooper observed how medical professionals have said that suffering from mental illness can’t “accurately be predicted, and so, therefore, persons who could get better, who could go on to lead healthy and happy lives, will have their lives prematurely ended.”
He then noted that a second “fundamental problem” with expanding MAiD to those with mental illness is the difficulty to “distinguish in the case of mental illness between a rational request for aid and one motivated by suicidal ideation.”
“This is underscored by the fact that the vast majority of persons who commit suicide suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder. And you might be wondering who would qualify for MAiD in mental illness? What constitutes a mental disorder for the purpose of the law?”
As it stands now, according to a task group appointed by the Liberals that was struck to establish MAiD practice “standards,” anyone would qualify “if they suffer from a mental disorder listed in” the standards guide, which includes those who are depressed, autistic, or having addictions issues.
Cooper said that the standards as written are “radical” as well as “dangerous” and “wrong.”
The mental illness expansion was originally set to take effect in March 2023. However, after massive pushback from pro-life groups, conservative politicians and others, the Liberals under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delayed the introduction of the full effect of Bill C-7 until 2024 via Bill C-39, which becomes law next year.
The delay in expanding MAiD until 2024 also came after numerous public scandals, including the surfacing of reports that Canadian veterans were being offered the fatal procedure by workers at Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC).
When it comes to MAiD, more Canadians are dying from the procedure every year. Indeed, a recent Statistics Canada update admitted to excluding euthanasia from deaths totals despite being the sixth highest cause of mortality in the nation.
The number of Canadians killed by lethal injection since 2016 now stands at 44,958.
Stopping euthanasia expansion still possible, says pro-life advocate
Recently, LifeSiteNews reported on how pro-euthanasia lobbyists want Canada’s assisted suicide via lethal injection laws to be extended to drug addicts, which critics warn could lead the nation down a dangerous path nearing “eugenics.”
Recent attempts by the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) to stop the expansion of MAiD have failed.
MPs in the House of Commons voted down a private members’ bill introduced by CPC MP Ed Fast that would have repealed the expansion of euthanasia laws to those suffering from mental illness.
However, according to LifeSiteNews contributor and pro-life advocate Jonathon Van Maren, Canadian Justice Minister Arif Virani noted that the “Trudeau government is considering delaying the expansion once again.”
Virani recently told The Canadian Press that the Liberal government is “weighing our options” about expanding MAiD in March while currently assessing what the joint parliamentary committee and medical experts are telling them.
“We’ll evaluate all of that comprehensively to make a decision whether we move ahead on March 17 or whether we pause,” he noted.
For respectful communication with Justice Minister Arif Virani:
Email: [email protected]
Constituency Office phone: 416-769-5072
Parliamentary Office phone: 613-992-2936
From LifeSiteNews
The family of an elderly man is speaking out about the terrible hospital conditions that led their father to request euthanasia before he died of natural causes.
The family of Cleo Gratton, an 84-year-old retired diamond driller who died earlier this month in Chelmsford, Ontario, of natural causes after being approved for assisted suicide, is speaking publicly about their appalling experience in the Canadian healthcare system.
According to the CBC, the elderly man “told his family he would rather die than go back to Health Sciences North in Sudbury,” and that a recent stay there found Gratton, who was suffering from heart disease and kidney failure, spending one night in the emergency room and then being transferred to a bed sitting in the hallway on the seventh floor.
“There were no lights, all the bulbs in that hallway had been completely removed,” his daughter, Lynn, told the CBC. “The only light we had was almost like a desk lamp that had been bolted to the wall. Patients are passing by, nurses are going by, no privacy, no compassion, no dignity.” The visit took place in mid-October, after which Gratton decided to apply for “medical aid in dying,” or assisted suicide.
Lynn said that nurses had to use headlamps to inspect her father’s feet, and that the experience was “just one thing after another and it really opened our eyes to what’s going on in our hospitals. My dad said, ‘Push, push, push for change. Make people aware of what’s gong on. Open the discussion, bring it to your MP, your MPP, keep going straight up.”
His family is now honoring his wishes to speak out about his experience. The doctors and nurses, Lynn emphasized, were “amazing,” but she noted that they seem overworked. “Why are they still taking in patients if we have an overcrowding issue and they have no place to put these people?” she said.
Cleo Gratton, who died of natural causes surrounded by his family before he could go through with assisted suicide, is just the most recent of many examples of Canadians opting for assisted suicide because they could not access the care that they actually desired.
In Quebec last year, Norman Meunier, a quadriplegic man, developed bedsores after four days left on an ER stretcher without a good mattress. That experience combined with lack of available homecare pushed him to request, and receive, assisted suicide.
An unnamed woman in her 80s, referred to in a MAID report as “Mrs. B,” received MAID earlier this year after requesting but being denied palliative or hospice care. Instead, with her spouse burning out as the result of her care, a rushed MAID assessment was completed, and she died by lethal injection.
In 2022, 44-year-old Winnipeg woman Sathya Dhara Khovac died by euthanasia after failing to receive the homecare resources she had desperately sought. In her posthumous obituary, she said she could have had more time if she’d had more help.
In 2019, 41-year-old Sean Tagert was euthanized after spending years attempting to find and fund the homecare and resources he needed to stay in the community where his son lived. He did not want to die but felt that he had no other choice.
And, among other stories, at least four Canadian veterans were offered assisted suicide in lieu of the unavailable mental health supports they were requesting.
Stories of Canadians seeking palliative care, mental health resources, homecare, and other medical support finding that the only option available to them is assisted suicide have become routine over the past several years. Euthanasia has become a pressure valve for an overworked and under-funded healthcare system serving an aging population increasingly need of complex care — and if assisted suicide for mental illness is legalize, things will get much, much worse.
armed forces
Canadian veteran says she knows at least 20 service members who were offered euthanasia
From LifeSiteNews
Canadian Armed Forces veteran Kelsi Sheren told members of the House of Commons that he has proof of veterans being offered assisted suicide.
Canada’s liberal euthanasia laws have made the practice so commonplace that a Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) veteran has said she knows and has “proof” that no less than 20 of her colleagues were offered unsolicited state-sponsored euthanasia.
Kelsi Sheren, who is a CAF veteran, recently told MPs in the House of Commons veterans affairs committee that “over 20 veterans have confirmed being offered MAID.”
“I have the proof, and I have proof of more,” Sheren told the committee during an October 28 meeting.
Conservative MP Blake Richards asked Sheren if she was willing to provide them with evidence to affirm her allegations.
Sheren noted how the 20 veterans have given written testimonies, or actual audio recordings, of when they were offered what in Canada is known as Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD).
“We also have other individuals who are too afraid to come forward because Veterans Affairs has threatened their benefits,” she told MPs, adding that some other veterans were even offered non-disclosure agreements along with “payouts if they were to take it.”
Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) has told the media its “employees have no role or mandate to recommend or raise (MAid). ”
As reported by LifeSiteNews, this is not the first time reports of CAF veterans saying they were offered MAiD.
Indeed, as reported by LifeSiteNews, it was revealed last year that the federal department in charge of helping Canadian veterans appears to have purposefully prevented the existence of a paper after scandalous reports surfaced alleging that caseworkers had recommended euthanasia to suffering service members.
LifeSiteNews recently published a report noting how a Canadian combat veteran and artillery gunner revealed, while speaking on a podcast with Dr. Jordan Peterson, that the drugs used in MAiD essentially waterboard a person to death. Assisted suicide was legalized by the Liberal government of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2016.
A new EPC report has revealed that Canada has euthanized 90,000 people since 2016.
As reported by LifeSiteNews last week, 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 (EPC).
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