Michael Kaplan wrote an investigative report that was published by the New York Post on July 25, 2024 on how Canadians with disabilities are feeling pressured to “choose” euthanasia (MAiD). Kaplan interviews Heather Hancock, Roger Foley and myself, as well as euthanasia lobby leaders.
Heather Hancock was urged to “choose” euthanasia while she was receiving medical treatment in Alberta a few years ago. Kaplan interviewed Hancock and reports:
Recalling a rough morning while being treated at a hospital in Alberta, Canada, Hancock told The Post, “I wasn’t moving very well and the nurse on my ward looked at me and said, ‘You really should consider MAID. You’re not living. You’re just existing.’”
Hancock remembers being in shock over what she interpreted as a suggestion she should opt for death, rather than wasting Canada’s publicly funded healthcare system by staying alive.
“I thought I misheard her; then the words settled into my being as she waited for an answer,” said Hancock. “I asked her, ‘Who gives you the right to judge what’s living and what’s existing?’”
According to Hancock, the nurse responded, “Now you’re just being selfish.”
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“God put me into this world and he’s the only one taking me out,”Hancock added, “I told the nurse that my life is no less valuable than any other life.
“She just laughed in a mocking way and walked out of the room. I had that nurse removed from my care. I did not want to be anywhere near her.”
The nurse’s attitude is consistent with others Hancock says she has encountered.
Hancock told Kaplan that
We require more healthcare dollars than able-bodied people and often do not get the same level of service; some doctors don’t even bother trying,” said Hancock, explaining that MAID frequently gets presented as “a good solution to your situation.”
“They make you feel like you are less than human … like you have nothing to offer the world. Doctors couch it as ending people’s suffering when really they are killing you,” she added.
Kaplan also interviewed me (Alex Schadenberg):
Opponents of MAID claim that those who advocate for the doctor-assisted suicide can be heavy handed to a damaging degree when suggesting it as an option.
“When you’re going through a difficult time and someone is telling you, ‘Oh, if I was in your situation, I would opt for MAID,’ well, that is not a helpful thing,” Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director of Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, told The Post.
“Nearly every major hospital in Canada has a MAID team. These teams are each comprised of a couple doctors and a couple nurses who go throughout the hospital, making sure MAID is offered and available to people who want it. But they’re not just providing access to euthanasia, they are selling it.”
Kaplan asked for an example of “selling” euthanasia:
Schadenberg recalled a situation in Ottawa:“I received a call from a man who was visiting his father there. The MAID team came in, asked the father, who was suffering from a deadly condition, if he would like MAID. The dad said no.”
But that was not the end of it. “When the family members went downstairs for coffees, the MAID team came back and asked the patient again. They thought he was saying no only because the family members were there.
“It’s not a point of suggestion when you continually harass people with this concept of MAID. The family was ticked off.”
Kaplan interviewed Roger Foley who lives with cerebral ataxia.
“I’ve been pressured to do an assisted suicide,” he had told The Post, alleging this happened with caretakers at Victoria Hospital, a primarily government-funded facility in London, Ontario.
“They asked if I wanted an assisted death. I don’t. I was told that I would be charged $1,800 per day [for hospital care]. Nurses here told me that I should end my life. That shocked me.”
That conversation took place two years ago, at which point Foley was $2m in debt. According to Schadenberg, “His current situation is unchanged.”
Kaplan ends the article by providing more information about Roger Foley:
In a recent video, conducted by Amanda Achtman of the Dying to Meet You Project, Foley recalled being offered euthanasia “multiple times.”
In terms of the impact of the suggestion, he said, “It’s completely traumatized me. It’s an overlying option. When I say I am suicidal, I am met with, ‘Well, the hospital has a program to help you with that if you want to end your life.’
“There is not going to be a second within the rest of my life when I will not have flashbacks to it, to the devaluing of me and all that I am … I don’t want to give up my life.”
LifeNews.com Note: Alex Schadenberg is the executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and you can read his blog here.
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