428 cases of doctors breaching assisted suicide guidelines in the Canadian province of Ontario have been recorded since 2018. SPUC says that “these cases show that the idea of so-called ‘safeguards’ for vulnerable people is illusory and must be recognised as such before it is too late”.
Dirk Huyer, Ontario’s chief coroner, has registered 428 instances of Canadian doctors and nurses breaching Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) guidelines since 2018, The Telegraph reports.
In many cases, the minimum waiting period for administering drugs was not adhered to. Doctors did not always list assisted suicide as the cause of death either. In one “horrible” case, a patient was given the wrong drug, causing them to “suffer tremendously”.
178 cases were identified in 2023 alone, meaning that medical staff ignored safeguarding protocol every two days.
Some patients were not terminally ill, and doctors admitted that they didn’t have expertise in their illness, yet they didn’t consult with relevant experts.
Such instances of non-compliance, part of a “pattern of not following legislation”, were made by a quarter of all assisted suicide providers in Ontario. None of the doctors and nurses involved have been charged.
Tomorrow, on 29 November, Westminster MPs will vote on Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide bill for terminally ill adults. SPUC opposes the Bill and is campaigning against it as it warns that it is “inherently unsafe”.
“The slippery slope is real”
Daniel Frampton, SPUC’s Editorial Officer, said: “These cases show that the idea of so-called ‘safeguards’ for vulnerable people is illusory and must be recognised as such before it is too late in the UK.
“MAiD – and now the Leadbeater Bill – is framed as being safe, but no safeguard can protect vulnerable people from the deadly ethic that assisted suicide promotes, which is to kill patients rather than care for them. This isn’t kind or progressive. It tells people that they are better off dead, and doctors are all too happy to oblige.
“The slippery slope is real, in Canada and elsewhere, and it will soon be coming to the UK unless MPs reject the Leadbeater Bill. No doctor or nurse should have the power to take away a life, and no patient should be burdened with such a decision, which is no choice at all.”
TAKE ACTION: Lobby your MP NOW
SPUC is urging supporters and all people opposed to assisted suicide to lobby their MP now, asking them to oppose Leadbeater’s assisted suicide bill. A tool is available on SPUC's website to help you do this.
For a terrifying insight into the threat that assisted suicide poses to people with disability, watch Liz Carr’s documentary Better Off Dead? – available to watch on the BBC’s iPlayer.
SPUC has also compiled stories of ordinary people opposed to assisted suicide, which you can access here for free online.
Please do all you can to oppose this bill.
SPUC cannot emphasise enough how serious this threat is. It is being debated with frightening speed, so if we do not act immediately, we will soon find ourselves living in a country where the state can help someone kill themselves.
ACT NOW