Euthanasia Symposium was a great success · 2013-11-28 · euthanasia bill in Quebec, ......

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1 Number 146 dec 2013 See EPC Launch page 3.... The Euthanasia Symposium accomplished two import- ant goals this year. 1. It was an effective conference in educating our sup- porters on what is being done to oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada and world-wide. 2. The leaders’ meeting, that was held on Nov 8, cre- ated a stronger national and international coalition while uncovering new directions. The people who attended the symposium had the op- portunity to learn what we are doing to defeat Bill 52, the euthanasia bill in Quebec, and to understand what we can do in the event that Bill 52 passes in the Quebec National Assembly. We also learned how the disability rights’ community continues to become greater leaders in the battle to stop the extension of euthanasia. Conferences are very important for enabling our sup- porters to learn how to oppose euthanasia, but the Eutha- nasia Symposium has also become an important way to strengthen and build our leadership team. Alex Schadenberg was honoured at the Euthanasia Symposium with a gift from the American group, Phys- icians for Compassionate Care. This gift was in apprecia- tion for Alex’s international leadership. The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition plans to organize provincial or regional affiliates throughout Canada. One role of an affiliate group would be to help promote and organize a local one-day symposium. Euthanasia Symposium was a great success The Euthanasia Pre- vention Coalition (EPC) Europe was launched on November 13 with a press conference at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium and a debate, promoted as the “Great Debatebetween euthanasia researcher and promoter, Jan Bernheim, and EPC International Chair Alex Schadenberg. The press conference featured Dr Kevin Fitzpatrick, the Director of EPC – Europe, Sari Essayah, Euro- pean Parliament Representative from Finland, David Fieldsend, CARE for Europe and Alex Schadenberg, EPC International Chair. The press conference received sig- nificant attention, partly due to the coincidence that it was held the day before a bill to decriminalize assisted suicide was introduced in Scotland. Dr. Fitzpatrick, who is also a leader of the disability rights’ group Not Dead Yet stated: ‘EPC-Europe brings people from a wide variety of backgrounds together to oppose the legalisation of euthanasia and as- sisted suicide, to promote the best care and support for vulnerable people and to help people to find meaning, purpose and hope in the face of suffering and despair. We in- vite others who share our concerns to join us and work alongside us.’ EPC – Europe launched on November 13

Transcript of Euthanasia Symposium was a great success · 2013-11-28 · euthanasia bill in Quebec, ......

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N u m b e r 146 d e c 2013

See EPC Launch page 3....

The Euthanasia Symposium accomplished two import-ant goals this year.

1. It was an effective conference in educating our sup-porters on what is being done to oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada and world-wide.

2. The leaders’ meeting, that was held on Nov 8, cre-ated a stronger national and international coalition while uncovering new directions.

The people who attended the symposium had the op-portunity to learn what we are doing to defeat Bill 52, the euthanasia bill in Quebec, and to understand what we can do in the event that Bill 52 passes in the Quebec National Assembly.

We also learned how the disability rights’ community continues to become greater leaders in the battle to stop the extension of euthanasia.

Conferences are very important for enabling our sup-porters to learn how to oppose euthanasia, but the Eutha-nasia Symposium has also become an important way to strengthen and build our leadership team.

Alex Schadenberg was honoured at the Euthanasia Symposium with a gift from the American group, Phys-icians for Compassionate Care. This gift was in apprecia-tion for Alex’s international leadership.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition plans to organize provincial or regional affiliates throughout Canada. One role of an affiliate group would be to help promote and organize a local one-day symposium.

Euthanasia Symposium was a great success

The Euthanasia Pre-vention Coalition (EPC) Europe was launched on November 13 with a press conference at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium and a debate, promoted as the “Great Debate” between euthanasia researcher and promoter, Jan Bernheim, and EPC International Chair Alex Schadenberg.

The press conference featured Dr Kevin Fitzpatrick, the Director of EPC – Europe, Sari Essayah, Euro-pean Parliament Representative from Finland, David Fieldsend, CARE for

Europe and Alex Schadenberg, EPC International Chair.

The press conference received sig-nificant attention, partly due to the coincidence that it was held the day before a bill to decriminalize assisted suicide was introduced in Scotland.

Dr. Fitzpatrick, who is also a leader of the disability rights’ group Not Dead Yet stated:

‘EPC-Europe brings people from a wide variety of backgrounds together to oppose the

legalisation of euthanasia and as-sisted suicide, to promote the best care and support for vulnerable people and to help people to find meaning, purpose and hope in the face of suffering and despair. We in-vite others who share our concerns to join us and work alongside us.’

EPC – Europe launched on November 13

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Newsletter – 146 – DEC 20132

1-inch EPC “Caring Not Killing” Pins with our logo are now available for $3.00 each or 2 pins for $5.00. Bulk orders available on request.

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By Alex SchadenbergInternational Chair - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

A Belgian Senate Committee voted on a bill to extend euthanasia to children with disabilities on November 27. The bill will now go to the Senate and then the House of Representatives for a final vote, likely in May 2014 in Belgium. Earlier reports suggested that the bill might be delayed until after the next election. Insiders recently learned of a political trade-off with the Flanders N-VA party which enabled the Socialist party to bring this bill to a vote sooner.

Currently, the Belgian euthanasia law limits euthanasia to people who are at least 18 years old. This unprecedented bill would extend euthanasia to children with disabilities and people with dementia.

The Belgian government is adamant that the euthanasia law needs to extend to minors and people with dementia even though there are significant examples of how the current law is being abused and the bracket creep of acceptable reasons for euthanasia continues to grow. The current practice of euthanasia in Belgium appears to have become an easy way to cover-up medical errors.

The number of euthanasia deaths in Belgium is skyrocketing with an increase of 25% in 2012. Recent studies indi-cate that up to 47% of all assisted deaths are not being reported, 32% of all assisted deaths are being done without request and nurses are killing their patients, even though the law restricts euthanasia to doctors.

Some Belgian experts are supporting the extension of euthanasia to children with disabilities because they say that it is being done already. The same medical experts suggest that the extension of euthanasia will result in an increase of 10 to 100 euthanasia deaths each year.

The Belgian euthanasia law appears out-of-control. The Belgian Euthanasia Control and Evaluation Commission appears to be in a conflict of interest. The Commission supported the euthanasia deaths of: Nathan Verhelst (44) who was born as Nancy, Ann G who had Anorexia Nervosa and was sexually exploited by her psychiatrist, Mark & Eddy Verbessem, and at least one depressed woman. These are only the cases that we know about.

Dr Wim Distelmans, who is the leading euthanasia doctor in Belgium, has also been the chairman of the Belgian euthanasia commission for more than 10 years, and the commission has been stacked with supporters of the eutha-nasia lobby.

The experience with euthanasia in Belgium proves that once euthanasia is legalized, it will be extended.

Belgium votes on extending euthanasia to children with

disabilities

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

CARING NOT KILLING

Save the date!

The First National Symposium (USA) on Assisted Suicide will be held May 2 - 3, 2014 at the Ramada Plaza Hotel in Minneapolis.

The symposium features national and international experts on euthanasia and assisted suicide. The symposium will provide up-to-date information and training for people to effectively oppose assisted suicide in your state.

More information will be available soon.Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

CARING NOT KILLING

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Newsletter – 146 – DEC 2013 3

The evening debate was well attended by people from all points of view.

I focused on the cases of Belgian people who died by eutha-nasia, who were not terminally ill but rather people who were depressed or experiencing treatable mental conditions. I also focused on how euthanasia has grown out-of-control in Bel-gium. Belgium is currently debating the extension of eutha-nasia to children with disabilities and people with dementia.

During the question and answer session, Professor Jan Bernheim admitted that there were problems with the Bel-gian euthanasia law. This admission is significant considering that Quebec’s euthanasia bill (Bill 52) is based on the Belgian euthanasia law.

EPC – Europe has representatives from 12 European coun-tries. It intends to become an effective shield from the further

extension of euthanasia in Europe while working to repeal the current euthanasia laws that give doctors the right to kill their patients.

Aims of EPC – Europe:

1. We oppose the legalisation of euthanasia and assisted suicide and will work to repeal existing laws allowing it.

2. We promote the best care and support for vulnerable people who are sick, elderly, or disabled.

3. We affirm life through helping people to find meaning, purpose and hope in the face of suffering and despair.

... EPC Launch from page 1

USA pollThe latest Pew Research Center

survey found that the majority of Americans oppose assisted suicide. The survey also questioned Amer-icans on their attitudes toward med-ical treatment decisions and found that a growing number of Americans want medical treatment, even when their prognosis is poor.

The Pew Research survey was conducted by telephone from March 21 to April 8, 2013 among a nation-ally representative sample of 1994 adults with a 2.9% margin of error.

The survey asked if they: approve or disapprove of laws that allow doc-tor assisted suicide for terminally ill patients. 49% stated that they disap-proved while 47% stated that they approved.

Pew research stated that the response was very similar to its 2005 survey re-sults and the results were nearly identi-cal to a Gallup poll in March 2013 that found that 49% stated that assisted suicide was morally wrong while 45% stated that it was morally acceptable.

Americans have been inundated with propaganda from groups that support assisted suicide. The fact that Americans remain opposed to assisted suicide speaks to the innate belief in the value of human life.

New JerseyNew Jersey is the next state to debate

assisted suicide.

Bill A3328 and Bill S2259, bills that would legalize assisted suicide in New Jersey, were passed in committee and are headed to the floor for debate.

These bills would allow doctors to write a lethal prescription to kill their patients.

We are concerned that bills to legalize assisted suicide will be introduced in sev-eral US states, including California, next year. The California Against Assisted Sui-cide is preparing for the possible threat in its state.

Coalitions against assisted suicide need to be formed in every US state, before an attempt to legalize assisted suicide is launched in the state.

Contact EPC for help in founding a Coalition Against Assisted Suicide in your state. Email: [email protected]

Scotland On November 14, the day after

the launch of EPC - Europe, Margo MacDonald introduced a new bill to legalize assisted suicide in Scotland.

MacDonald’s previous attempt to legalize assisted suicide in 2010 was defeated by 85 to 16.

Dr Peter Saunders, the Chair of EPC Europe stated:

“The right to die can so easily be-come the duty to die and vulnerable people who are sick, elderly or dis-abled will inevitably feel pressure, whether real or imagined, to end their lives so as not to be a burden on others. The stories of incremen-tal extension presently coming out of Belgium and the Netherlands give a stark warning about the dangers of going down this road.”

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Bentley Spoon Feeding CaseThe Bentley case will be heard by

the BC Court on December 17 - 19. The Court has decided to first hear the intervention application from EPC on December 17.

This case concerns the question of whether spoon feeding is medical treatment.

The Bentley family asked the nurs-ing home to stop feeding Margaret by spoon because she has dementia. The nursing home stated that they are legally obligated to feed Margaret by spoon, because she is willingly being fed and she continues to effectively swallow. This is an issue of normal care and not medical treatment.

The Bentley family asked the court to define spoon feeding as being medical treatment in order to enable them to have feeding withdrawn.

If the BC Court defines medical treatment as including spoon feed-ing, this will lead to other families

withdrawing normal feeding from family members to cause them to die by dehydration.

Spoon feeding is defined as nor-mal care everywhere in the world.

Carter CaseOn November 25, EPC submitted its

intervention application to the Supreme Court of Canada in the Carter case.

On October 10, the BC Court of Appeal, in a 2-to-1 decision, over-turned the decision by Justice Smith in Carter. The Court of Appeal de-cided that Justice Smith did not have the right to strike down Canada’s as-sisted suicide law since the issue was previously decided by the Supreme Court in Rodriguez (1993).

The BC Civil Liberties Associa-tion (BCCLA), who represent the Carter family, appealed the decision to the Supreme Court. At the same time, the BCCLA asked the Supreme Court to expedite the hearing.

EPC has asked the Supreme Court not to hear the Carter case. EPC is arguing that the record from the trial is insufficient for a proper legal decision.

Court cases in Canada

Quebec Bill 52 The Quebec government continues

to push to decriminalize euthanasia through Bill 52, which is a very dan-gerous bill. Bill 52 allows doctors to kill their patients if they have an in-curable serious illness and if they are experiencing physical or psychologic-al suffering.

Sadly, Bill 52 defines euthanasia as part of palliative care.

Bill 52 uses the same definitions as the Belgian euthanasia law. Recent articles about the Belgian euthanasia law prove that the definitions are wide open enough to include nearly

every case. Recent cases of depressed people, people who are going blind and a person with psychological pain after being sexually abused, prove how far the Belgian euthanasia law has gone.

Bill 52 is also unconstitutional be-cause it redefines euthanasia, which is an act of killing, as medical treatment.

If passed, EPC will be part of a co-alition of groups that would oppose Bill 52 through court action.

Please continue to support our legal efforts.

Write a letter!Write to the Honorable Peter

MacKay Justice Minister to ask him to equally protect all Canadians by upholding the Criminal Code pro-tections from assisted suicide and euthanasia.

284 Wellington St., Ottawa ON, K1A 0H8

[email protected]