Dr Ellen Wiebe, who works for “Dying With Dignity Canada”, told a seminar in 2020 that she killed a patient who had previously been rejected by an assisted suicide assessment, in part because he did not have the “capacity to make informed decisions about his own personal health”.
But another assessor was later found to assent to the patient’s death. And so, “I picked him up at the airport, brought him to my clinic and provided for him”, stated Dr Wiebe.
Following the man’s death, Dr Wiebe appeared to attempt to justify her actions by claiming that some patients have “unmet needs”, including “loneliness and poverty”, and that because “Canadians have rights to an assisted death, people who are lonely or poor also have those rights”.
She also claimed to have helped kill 400 people as part of her work.
Assisted suicide in Canada: “deeply disturbing”
Canada is currently preparing for the extension of its medical assistance in dying scheme (known as MIAD) to the mentally ill. In 2021, MAID was expanded to include persons suffering from chronic conditions that are not considered terminal.
Over 30,000 Canadians have been killed through MAID since it was first introduced in 2016. 10,000 of those deaths occurred in 2021 alone, with the number of assisted deaths rising every year, as over 10,000 Canadians were killed by assisted suicide by SPUC.
The Lancet, the noted medical journal, recently underscored the “worryingly high number” of assisted suicides in Canada.
SPUC has also reported on several disturbing cases of healthy Canadians choosing or being recommended assisted suicide for reasons of PTSD, lack of adequate medical care and even poverty.
One woman, known as Denise, aged only 31, was conditionally approved for assisted suicide after failing to secure suitable accommodation example of Canada.
In another “shocking” case, an ex-soldier suffering from PTSD was offered assisted suicide when consulting a hotline for struggling veterans. The soldier and his family were left feeling veteran who was offered assisted suicide.
“Revelling in death”
SPUC’s Michael Robinson, Executive Director (Public Affairs and Legal Services), said: “The stories coming out of Canada are indeed disturbing and a sobering example of just where assisted suicide legislation ultimately leads – even being used to justify the killing of people who are lonely or poor.
“The case of Dr Wiebe is especially chilling, given her apparent disregard for the lives of those she ushered into evidently needless early graves – and she is clearly proud of having put them there.
“This is not caring and compassion but a revelling in death that we see at work in Canada. Rather than treating the patient, Dr Wiebe and her like have chosen to cure the disease by killing the patient. This is an appalling dereliction of duty.”
Please sign our petition against assisted suicide
Canada’s approach to assisted suicide shows how laws of this nature are inherently unsafe, unpredictable and unethical. We cannot allow this to happen in the UK.
Please consider signing our online petition, https://citizengo.org/en-gb/209912-reject-any-move-legalise-assisted-suicide.
We must send a strong message to our political leaders that assisted suicide is a dangerous and unethical practice that must never be legalised in any part of the UK. Please sign the petition now.
https://citizengo.org/en-gb/209912-reject-any-move-legalise-assisted-suicide
