Killing the Homeless -- Canada's New Form of Mercy
Summary
Euthanasia is a topic that has been in the news lately. If it's okay to kill an infant, then why not an 87-year-old with dementia? And if it's OK to kill someone with dementia, why not a person with a terminal condition who was about to be euthanized because they were poor? In this episode, we talk with the head of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, Alex Schadenberg, about this and more.
Transcript
00:00:00.360
Every step along the path, you create new precedent.
00:00:03.260
It's okay to kill, it's okay to kill for that reason,
00:00:08.800
then why wouldn't it be okay to kill the 87-year-old with dementia?
00:00:11.680
You've eliminated the reasons why it's not okay.
00:00:13.980
If you're going to say it's okay to kill somebody,
00:00:16.020
now the question is, well, who do we kill and under what rules?
00:00:19.440
But anytime you have any rules which would say,
00:00:21.800
well, you really can't do it in that circumstance,
00:00:25.580
Euthanasia is a topic that's been in the news lately.
00:00:32.540
there's actually a concept of euthanasia for poverty.
00:00:38.100
We had a man who was just about to get euthanized
00:00:45.820
and the head of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition,
00:01:10.320
Well, I'm talking actually about euthanasia after birth.
00:01:22.240
We're going to talk about all those things and more
00:01:24.800
with the head of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition,
00:02:00.680
This is an important opportunity to talk about these topics.
00:02:03.660
Let's begin as we always do with the sign of the cross.
00:02:06.080
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
00:02:12.220
So, Alex, you are not only the founder and head of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition,
00:02:18.240
you're also the chairperson of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition International.
00:02:22.200
So, you're seeing not only what's going on in North America, but across the world.
00:02:28.480
So, tell us about this concept of euthanasia for poverty.
00:02:32.540
That sounds insane because in the beginning, you know, euthanasia when it's brought in like abortion.
00:02:40.060
We'll never get, and when people like you would say, oh, we're starting down a slippery slope.
00:02:45.340
It's going to be for this, that, and the other thing.
00:02:50.600
So, I said in 2016 when we legalized euthanasia in Canada.
00:02:53.980
Now, of course, we call it MADE to make you feel better in medical aid and dying.
00:03:00.060
So, I said at that time that how the law was worded was not going to lead to a slippery slope.
00:03:07.220
That the language of the law was not defined, and it was going to allow expansion.
00:03:11.080
And that's exactly what happened from the beginning.
00:03:14.600
So, what happened in Canada in 2021, in March of 2021,
00:03:21.620
And Bill C-7 expanded euthanasia in Canada for the reasons of you didn't have to be terminally ill.
00:03:29.320
It also got rid of the waiting period if you were terminally ill.
00:03:33.760
You know, you could go to your doctor with your terminal condition
00:03:36.420
and die the same day if you were terminally ill.
00:03:38.200
But if you weren't terminally ill, you'd have a 90-day waiting period.
00:03:41.060
It also said that if you became incompetent, but you had already been approved,
00:03:46.460
So, this whole thing about killing incompetent people came in.
00:03:49.300
But by removing the terminal illness thing and our previous law,
00:03:56.440
therefore, the disability community were right when they said,
00:04:00.020
that this would mean that pretty much anybody with a disability
00:04:08.340
So, under that, what it means is there's a lot of people with disabilities
00:04:17.580
But because of the fact that they're on a situation where they're living in poverty,
00:04:22.900
they're now asking for euthanasia based on poverty or based on homelessness
00:04:27.240
or based on you start naming all these different reasons,
00:04:31.740
So, they're not saying I want to die because I'm poor.
00:04:38.100
They're saying I want to die because I can't live this way.
00:04:41.020
I'm just, you know, in too difficult a situation.
00:04:44.500
You know, the one lady was saying she only has $49 a month for food and other things in her life.
00:04:53.480
So, I'm not suggesting that this is a good reason to kill people.
00:04:56.360
But what I'm saying is the law is defined to allow that.
00:04:59.180
And there's lots of doctors now in Canada, not most of them actually,
00:05:03.100
but there is enough of them who are really pro-killing that these deaths are occurring.
00:05:09.640
You know, I'll just give you a quick info on this.
00:05:14.900
the woman who was 51 years old who had multiple chemical sensitivities, MCS.
00:05:19.780
And she lived in Toronto and she ended up dying by euthanasia.
00:05:26.400
So, MCS is a terrible thing because you react to, you know, chemicals around you, etc.
00:05:30.700
But because of her disability, she was living in social housing.
00:05:34.180
So, could you imagine having these extreme reactions where you break out and you can't breathe
00:05:38.260
and you just have all these reactions to these chemicals and things around you
00:05:42.040
and you're living in social housing with, you know, who knows how many people.
00:05:45.960
Obviously speaking, she couldn't escape in that housing situation.
00:05:50.040
Her multiple chemical sensitivity reaction constantly breaking out.
00:06:02.020
She needed to live in a single home without, you know, being connected to 30 other homes.
00:06:08.320
And she needed to be able to be capable of keeping her place clean without, you know,
00:06:16.140
So, she died because she didn't have a clean place to live.
00:06:20.440
That is the kind of thing that we have today in Canada.
00:06:26.300
Now, you said something very interesting there.
00:06:30.780
a person can request this euthanasia, medical-assisted aid in dying,
00:06:36.440
and they can get it, but there's a 90-day waiting period.
00:06:44.820
So, can like, you know, a teenager who just feels like rebellious
00:06:48.680
says to his parents, I'm going to go kill myself, whatever, whatever.
00:06:52.920
Can they, too, go and request and they have to wait 90 days?
00:06:57.280
Right now, the law says you have to be an 18-year-old or more.
00:07:00.140
You have to be an adult is how the law is currently defined.
00:07:03.080
Now, just to give you input, in the Netherlands, they have like a multi-tier law.
00:07:08.680
So, they have in their law that if you're between the ages of 12 and 16,
00:07:12.920
you could die by euthanasia with parental approval,
00:07:15.780
but their age of adult in the Netherlands is 16.
00:07:19.360
So, after the age of 16, someone can die by euthanasia without parental, you know, approval.
00:07:25.520
But between 12 and 16, you need parental approval in the Netherlands.
00:07:30.140
But, you know, the interesting thing about it is our current parliament is right now,
00:07:33.180
there's a parliamentary committee talking about further expansions of euthanasia.
00:07:37.360
And one of the issues they're talking about is this issue of mature minors.
00:07:40.860
Now, how mature minors defined in Canada is it's not based on an age,
00:07:45.460
So, someone who's 11 years old who seems clearly capable of understanding the outcome of the medical treatment or whatever it might be,
00:07:55.620
they would be considered a mature minor, whereas someone who's 17 who doesn't seem to be capable or aware of, you know, what's going on,
00:08:03.700
they would not then be considered a mature minor.
00:08:06.180
So, that's how it's how they're talking about this issue of mature minors.
00:08:09.420
Now, the problem with this whole concept of euthanasia or mature minors, first of all, you don't have a definition of what mature minor is.
00:08:15.780
But secondly, we already have precedent in Canada.
00:08:18.780
So, if you're deemed to be – so, for instance, if one of your children, John Henry, were to become sick,
00:08:23.420
and the child says, I don't want such and such, even though it might be of a great benefit to them,
00:08:28.660
and your child was deemed to be a mature minor, you would have no right as a parent to say,
00:08:34.360
excuse me, I disagree, this treatment is of great benefit to you, you must try this treatment.
00:08:40.260
No, if they're deemed a mature minor, they can make their own medical decisions and they don't need your permission.
00:08:45.000
And in fact, by law, they don't even have to talk to you.
00:08:48.720
You could have a 13-year-old who's at, let's say, Sick Children's Hospital in Toronto,
00:08:53.120
who decides they want to die by lethal injection.
00:08:55.540
The parents wouldn't even have to know about it until after they're dead.
00:09:02.920
And one of the weird parts is also, you've got this situation where they're already contemplating even allowing euthanasia of babies.
00:09:16.140
So, they're moving the abortion needle beyond, you know, the nine months, which they've always had in Canada,
00:09:26.940
But they talked for a long time about, you know, at least those who would use ResDirect and Satire said,
00:09:33.160
well, you know, they're going to just make it afterward because it just makes sense.
00:09:42.440
But the Quebec College of Physicians are talking about euthanasia for infants.
00:09:50.020
Now, they have that in the Netherlands under what they call the Groningen Protocol.
00:09:52.780
And the Groningen Protocol is misunderstood by many people because they would say, oh, well, you know, it's not that common.
00:09:58.520
And you're right, actually, John Henry and whoever says it.
00:10:02.840
But if you think about it, it's not that common because most babies who have severe congenital issues are not allowed to be born in the first place
00:10:11.820
because the parents will have had a test previous to the baby being born.
00:10:16.220
And if the child has significant disabilities, they'll often eliminate that child, as you know.
00:10:19.740
So, therefore, there aren't many being born in these conditions.
00:10:24.480
So, what they're talking about, then, is a child who's born with a significant disability.
00:10:29.520
But if you're to actually read the Groningen Protocol, what it says is that the person has to be experiencing possible future suffering.
00:10:35.820
Would they follow that same lead of the Netherlands here in Canada?
00:10:39.860
The other thing is legalizing euthanasia for newborns totally changes the landscape of the issue of killing.
00:10:48.020
They sold this concept of euthanasia to Canadians, and they sold it to people all over the world for the same reason.
00:10:55.420
It's my autonomy, my body, my choice, my freedom.
00:11:08.640
Nonetheless, and I think also we should call it what it is.
00:11:12.060
I don't think we should avoid that as much as other people get mad at us over it.
00:11:15.840
I think we should say it because that's what it is.
00:11:25.340
So you're now saying, oh, we're actually going to allow this based on killing someone because we consider their life not worth living.
00:11:34.260
I don't know where you've seen that before, you know, John Henry.
00:11:36.420
We're not supposed to talk about, you know, World War II and Nazis and things like that, but we don't actually have to because it's all about eugenics.
00:11:46.020
And I don't know if you've done any shows on eugenics, but the fact of it is, is just because the Nazis liked eugenics doesn't mean eugenics is Nazi.
00:11:53.200
It's actually eugenics came first and the Nazis liked the idea and they killed people off for those reasons.
00:11:58.840
And then we're talking about exactly the same thing in Canada, killing people because we say that that life is not worth living.
00:12:07.260
I'm not saying euthanasia is ever, you know, acceptable.
00:12:10.840
What I'm saying is it's getting pretty dark when you're doing that and go one step further.
00:12:15.740
If you're going to allow that, then you've changed everything because now it's okay to kill based on, oh, I think that life is not worth living.
00:12:22.420
But what about people with dementia and Alzheimer's?
00:12:25.600
They might have never, ever indicated in their life that they had any interest in being killed.
00:12:31.360
And now someone's looking at them saying, wouldn't it be better that we end their life?
00:12:35.420
Well, if you could do it to a newborn, why can't you do it to an 87-year-old who has dementia?
00:12:41.300
You know, because you've already set the precedent that it's okay to kill, right?
00:12:44.760
And this is the problem that with all of these things, every step along the path, you create new precedent.
00:12:53.700
If it's okay to kill the infant, then why wouldn't it be okay to kill the 87-year-old with dementia?
00:12:59.480
You know, you've eliminated the reasons why it's not okay.
00:13:02.840
Now, we've seen a pretty massive jump in the numbers of people being euthanized in Canada.
00:13:12.580
The data is always late because the Canadian government isn't interested in up-to-date data.
00:13:17.500
So the latest data we have is only from last year.
00:13:20.200
So we have the 2021 data and show that there was 10,064 lethal injection deaths that year.
00:13:27.880
Now, there might have been a whole bunch of deaths that were not reported.
00:13:31.100
But of course, the government has done no investigation to that.
00:13:35.700
But there is lots of signs that there's that problem of unreported deaths.
00:13:38.660
But that's a whole other story and a whole other show that we can go into.
00:13:43.560
So every month, I receive the numbers from Ontario.
00:13:46.740
So other states, other provinces, I mean, are not providing the data on a monthly basis.
00:13:53.020
And the numbers, I just keep going up, up, up, up, up.
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I predict there will be over 13,000 then in 2022.
00:14:05.460
We're already in a situation where if you live in Victoria, you know, in Vancouver Island, it's the highest rate of euthanasia in the world in Vancouver Island.
00:14:18.560
And we have further, a lot more promotion going on.
00:14:22.340
So you've got this whole situation now where doctors are being told that you're obligated to bring up the option of medical aid in dying.
00:14:29.560
They're obligated to bring up the option because people have the right to all options.
00:14:34.720
And as a physician, you have to provide all information.
00:14:39.880
Someone who's going through a terrible psychological time of their life because they're dealing with end-of-life issues.
00:14:45.420
They're dealing with the fact that their life is coming to an end.
00:14:48.480
And there's a lot of people who deal with that in a very difficult way.
00:14:52.840
They need – and you have someone saying, well, what about medical aid in dying?
00:14:56.340
Let's start thinking about what we're actually doing.
00:14:58.140
We're creating more and more push to kill and less and less ability for someone to live until they die.
00:15:06.820
And this is so extreme in Canada and in other places in the world that physicians are required to do this or find another job.
00:15:16.780
In fact, in – and I'd like you to give us more details on this.
00:15:19.760
But university students in medical school, it's a prerequisite for them to graduate in medicine to agree to do this.
00:15:33.740
The law says very clearly that they don't have to do it.
00:15:36.100
So if you were a physician who believes it's absolutely wrong to kill people and you have a patient who's asked you for euthanasia made and they've asked you for this, you have the obligation not just to refer them to another physician, but it's called – you have to refer them to someone who's willing to make the act happen.
00:15:59.260
It's a serious problem because if you're not willing to kill someone, it's the same moral latitude issue if now you're sending them to the killer.
00:16:09.080
So you didn't do it yourself, but you sent them to the killer.
00:16:11.740
So you've got a lot of doctors who are saying, no, I don't believe in killing and I'm not going to send you to the killer.
00:16:17.000
So they're finding themselves in a lot of difficulty.
00:16:19.700
Now, Manitoba is the exception to that in Canada.
00:16:21.840
And Manitoba – now, every province is a little different because these are provincial rules along the College of Physicians and Surgeons.
00:16:28.800
Manitoba does have conscience rights, whereas that's the only province in Canada that has conscience rights.
00:16:35.740
And as of this moment, Nova Scotia, Quebec and Ontario would be the worst offenders of this.
00:16:42.180
We talked about the children, but where do you think this is going?
00:16:45.780
Because they're already being taught in school about MAID and how it's a great thing.
00:16:49.880
Well, in school, they might be discussing it, but also there's now a whole booklet out now that's been produced for children.
00:16:56.100
So what happens is that, let's say your grandmother has asked for medical aid in dying.
00:17:03.200
The doctors are now providing these coloring books and everything to beautifully explain it to the grandchildren or to the children as to what's happening and to make it seem so normal.
00:17:17.340
It's the normalization of killing that's been going on.
00:17:19.820
Even the recent ad by Simons, Simons, Simons, Simons is a retail store in Canada, mainly in Quebec, but it does have stores in most major cities in Canada.
00:17:32.240
And they're designers of clothing, and they sell clothing and designs and other things.
00:17:37.580
They had a commercial recently promoting euthanasia.
00:17:40.880
So they, I guess, decided that euthanasia is an important social issue, and they, I guess, were gambling that more Canadians support euthanasia.
00:17:49.260
So therefore, we will associate Simons with euthanasia.
00:18:09.900
Even now, as I seek help to end my life, there is still so much beauty.
00:18:18.360
And this is the kind of thing you're getting in the normalization of killing.
00:18:29.460
The problem is that very few people are willing to talk about it.
00:18:32.940
So, you know, the normal type of groups who you would think would be willing to talk about it to say, well, wait a second here, you know, that's not happening a lot.
00:18:40.680
So you do have this pressure, this growing concept that euthanasia is a normal thing to do.
00:18:47.600
And so, you know, for instance, if you talk to priests or different people, they'll say to you, well, sadly, you know, I had parishioners who have died this way.
00:18:55.880
And they don't always know how to deal with that.
00:18:57.940
How are we going to deal with the fact that they had a parishioner, they did the funeral.
00:19:00.920
You know, I had a call from a priest saying, you know, I finished the funeral.
00:19:04.300
And after the funeral, I found out the person had died by euthanasia.
00:19:08.360
I said, well, if you didn't know, Father, there's nothing you could do about that, obviously speaking.
00:19:13.300
And they're too soft to say, well, how are we going to celebrate the death of somebody in a church manner when we know they died by murder?
00:19:24.460
A lot of people want to confuse this issue with suicide.
00:19:26.240
It's not the same as suicide when somebody else injects you.
00:19:29.000
When someone else comes up with a needle and injects you, that is killing you.
00:19:34.220
And one of the reasons it's so popular, because guess what?
00:19:37.080
It's easier to have someone kill you than for you to kill yourself, right?
00:19:46.500
I'm concerned about the next stage, John Henry, and this whole thing about mental illness.
00:19:51.060
So when I told you when we legalized Bill C-7 in Canada, they changed a lot of the rules.
00:19:56.160
One of them was to allow euthanasia for mental illness.
00:19:58.900
And at the time, the government put a two-year moratorium on it.
00:20:01.480
Now, here's the problem, and I don't know who's going to all be listening to this show, but technically, it's actually legal now.
00:20:11.060
And in that legislation, they legalized euthanasia for mental illness alone.
00:20:15.040
Now, the government announced it to your moratorium.
00:20:17.900
But the legislation passed allowing euthanasia for mental illness alone.
00:20:23.340
Therefore, if a euthanasia doctor who loves to kill people decides to do that, would they be prosecuted for it when it's technically legal?
00:20:34.300
Well, no, I shouldn't say that because I hate to have people go that way.
00:20:38.700
But right now, already, there's talking about that now happening starting in March of 2023.
00:20:43.680
I know it's happening already, sadly, but it'll become more common in March of 2023.
00:20:49.100
There's a lot of people who go through issues around mental illness, you know, psychiatric issues.
00:20:54.520
And a lot of them, because of their health condition, they are living in poverty or they're living in homeless situations.
00:21:00.300
They see people on the street, so they have issues with addiction and they have issues with lots of things.
00:21:05.980
And they need a lot of help, you know, especially in this culture where they seem to get into that situation and people don't really care anymore.
00:21:13.600
So they get stuck in there and it's hard to get them out of these situations.
00:21:17.360
But they'll be able to have euthanasia for mental illness alone with a 90-day waiting period.
00:21:25.900
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00:21:31.160
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00:21:36.340
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00:21:41.120
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00:21:51.540
Because I think, you know, with the abortion argument, everybody comes to the same question.
00:21:59.220
With the question of euthanasia, it's a similar thing, but it's the question of, well, you know,
00:22:08.080
I don't want to just suffer and suffer and suffer.
00:22:10.520
I might want to avail myself of something like that myself.
00:22:18.360
There is a lot of good people who would say that, you know, they recognize that there's
00:22:23.680
serious problems with euthanasia-assisted suicide because it is about killing people.
00:22:27.740
But there's a lot of people who are in fear of a bad death.
00:22:31.240
And, you know, we could talk about suffering all we want and everything, but the reality
00:22:36.920
As a human being, there's not very many of us who are interested in suffering.
00:22:42.660
And they would say that, you know, well, in certain circumstances, I can understand this.
00:22:47.220
Well, you know, the problem is, is you can't have a little bit of euthanasia.
00:22:51.580
It's not possible because it's the same thing that happened in Canada.
00:22:54.960
When we legalized it, they said, oh, we have safeguards.
00:22:57.080
Well, first of all, you know, the safeguards are really non-existent.
00:23:00.040
But nonetheless, the point of it is, is having rules around it, then that became discrimination.
00:23:06.400
So the reason they had to change the law in Canada was they said it was discrimination
00:23:16.020
People with disabilities, that's what the Quebec court case was about that actually led
00:23:20.420
to the striking down of the original law and expanding it, was there was two people with
00:23:26.220
disabilities who said that it wasn't right that they couldn't have euthanasia because
00:23:29.500
they weren't dying, but somebody who was dying could have it.
00:23:32.620
So, you know, the fact of it is, is the same thing with this concept of saying, well, there
00:23:39.020
Then they got rid of the 10-day waiting period.
00:23:40.400
They said, oh, that was discrimination because, you know, what if someone was actually really
00:23:48.180
You know, the problem at the beginning is if you're going to allow killing, if you're
00:23:51.740
going to say it's okay to kill somebody, now the question is, well, who do we kill and
00:23:57.000
But anytime you have any rules which would say, well, you really can't do it in that
00:24:01.020
circumstance, well, then the question is, well, why not?
00:24:03.340
If it's okay to kill, well, why not for that person?
00:24:05.340
And this is the whole thing now with mature minors, people with dementia, the newborn
00:24:09.500
infant, we go on and on, people with mental illness, and all of it has gone totally crazy.
00:24:17.300
Well, the fact of it is, is I'm really, really focusing on how we care for our own.
00:24:22.000
I recognize that I'm a human being and we're all human beings.
00:24:25.180
So I'm not under any illusion that people who would normally speaking think euthanasia is
00:24:31.780
I'm not under any illusion in their time of need when they're going through maybe
00:24:35.840
incredible psychological distress around the fact that they are having difficult life
00:24:41.120
conditions and they're approaching, they might be approaching death or certainly going
00:24:44.680
through, you know, difficult health conditions, that some of them might say, I need a way out
00:24:50.440
of this, you know, because a lot of these euthanasia deaths are what I call deaths of despair.
00:24:55.660
And people don't talk about it that way, but it's the truth.
00:24:57.940
They talk about it, the other side talks about it as freedom, you know, and it's never been
00:25:05.560
When was it about choice when somebody else lethally injected you?
00:25:10.980
Like, philosophically, it really starts falling down.
00:25:13.480
But on top of it, as a human being, I've been telling a lot of people, you got a real
00:25:18.060
problem with this because euthanasia is counter to the nature of the human person.
00:25:23.480
Because all of us will go through depression at times to different degrees, but all of
00:25:30.400
All of us will have significant psychological distress at our times of need.
00:25:35.260
You know, even if we're people of great faith, we will have difficult times and some of us
00:25:43.800
They don't have family anymore or they don't have family near them anymore.
00:25:53.480
The fact of it is as a human being, they're now on the slate of death because of being
00:26:01.020
When we think about why people actually ask to be killed, we were sold the concept that
00:26:05.840
people are asking to be killed because of pain and suffering.
00:26:10.880
We're seeing people asking to be killed because they say, I can't live this way anymore.
00:26:18.460
They do feel pressured, and they certainly feel psychologically pressured.
00:26:21.680
And many times they feel that there is no choice.
00:26:25.100
And I'm not suggesting that that's the way out in any way, shape, or form.
00:26:28.000
But I do recognize as a human being that that's how they feel.
00:26:31.260
And so the whole concept of how this was sold was all based on a lie from the beginning,
00:26:35.640
And before we legalized it, I always said, if you repeat the lie enough, people will
00:26:41.200
So you have a culture that's swallowed it right up.
00:26:52.780
And we're talking about real human beings who are going through a difficult, difficult time
00:27:01.220
We're taking their life rather than providing them what they truly need, which is the other
00:27:10.380
They need an opportunity to, you know, seek a faith perspective at that time rather than
00:27:19.800
You know, death becomes pretty easy at times, you know, especially with some of these people.
00:27:24.540
We've had, there's been quite a few cases of people, and when you start reading through
00:27:27.860
are people who said, I can't get medical treatment, but I've been approved for medical aiding
00:27:34.660
And you start thinking that through thinking, I mean, you're in severe back pain, like the
00:27:39.740
one guy in Niagara region, he's in severe back pain.
00:27:44.900
I have had no luck getting medical treatment, but they approved me for medical aiding dying.
00:27:51.560
It's sinister more than ridiculous, because a long time ago, you had discussed the concept
00:27:58.300
of the quote unquote need for euthanasia because of economic reasons, because they will see
00:28:13.720
So we can snuff it out if we so choose, just to do it legally, whatever that means.
00:28:21.720
Totally disregards the dignity of the human being, of course.
00:28:29.100
It was probably some eight years ago now that you wrote about the puffer fish and the new
00:28:36.080
availability of pain medications that we're not investing in, even though they would help
00:28:41.680
Yeah, I'm glad you remember that, because in fact, the puffer fish is being used in China
00:28:47.720
But yeah, they were doing research here in Canada to get it approved.
00:28:55.140
But what happened is that they found that it was very effective for people who have drug
00:29:05.380
So if you use the venom from the puffer fish in very small amounts, it works as an effective
00:29:10.160
So if you have this desire for the drugs, and then you are given a little bit of this
00:29:15.480
venom into your system, it actually is an excellent channel blocker, which means you
00:29:20.180
don't feel the same desire for those drugs that you're addicted to.
00:29:30.480
But they're not using it for pain in North America that I know of in any way.
00:29:35.880
But the fact of it is, is that at the same time is, you know, we've normalized killing.
00:29:41.400
And this is a serious thing when you've normalized killing, because now suddenly the concept
00:29:48.060
So as I say, when you when you legalize killing, and then you normalize it, everything turns
00:29:54.140
So now it becomes a situation that if you or I were in the hospital, we're saying, excuse
00:30:01.700
Someone might look at you, depending on your medical condition, of course, and they'd be
00:30:11.900
And then, of course, it goes to the further step, the more and more that there is a demand
00:30:21.360
You're using up the resources rather than dying.
00:30:24.620
So therefore, it becomes the hero thing to die by euthanasia.
00:30:34.500
Now, what I'm just going to quickly talk about something else that makes Canada worse than
00:30:37.680
the Netherlands and Belgium, as bad as the Netherlands and Belgium are.
00:30:46.900
I hope we don't go there, but it appears that's where we're going.
00:30:51.680
This is terrible because, you know, none of this is something I would ever think is any
00:30:55.600
good, and I'm talking about it, thinking, well, this is where we're going.
00:30:58.840
And yet, what's different about the Netherlands and Belgium is they have protocols which say,
00:31:03.500
if you want euthanasia and you're not dying, then you must try effective treatments.
00:31:11.040
Now, I'm not saying you can ever force someone to try effective treatments.
00:31:14.240
I understand that you can't force someone to try any treatment.
00:31:17.380
But their protocols say that if you want euthanasia and you're not dying, then you can
00:31:23.300
be approved, but you must attempt effective treatment.
00:31:27.840
So therefore, in the Netherlands, you have, first of all, people that are, for instance,
00:31:31.660
for psychiatric conditions, the protocol says they must wait a year, so they can't have
00:31:35.940
it for a year. Now, in Canada, we're talking about 90 days.
00:31:41.400
So they're not saying to you, we're going to force you to have treatment.
00:31:44.400
What they're saying is, if you want me to kill you, you must at least try effective
00:31:48.500
treatment. We're not going to be doing that in Canada.
00:31:50.520
There's nothing in our statutes, and there's no talk about saying to somebody, well, you
00:31:55.540
know, if we're going to kill you, we have to at least try effective treatment.
00:31:58.160
So what's happening is that it's going to become much wider because it'll be easy to get,
00:32:02.380
and you don't even have to try treatment. So the one doctor, Dr. John Mayer, who's a psychiatrist
00:32:07.260
who specifically deals with people in heart cases, he said several of his patients say to
00:32:11.820
him, I don't want treatment anymore because I want euthanasia, and I know it's going to
00:32:15.620
be available to me soon. So if I just say no to medical treatment of any sort, then I know
00:32:20.560
I'll be sick enough, psychiatrically that is, to have euthanasia.
00:32:25.780
This is all beyond. It's all beyond what anybody would say is normal or acceptable.
00:32:30.260
And yet in Canada, it's like, we have a great system.
00:32:34.500
No, we don't have a great system. We're killing people right, left, and center. We shouldn't
00:32:37.520
be killing anybody, first of all. There's no need to kill anybody. But once we're doing
00:32:41.300
it, obviously speaking in our system and how we've defined things, it's ridiculous.
00:32:45.700
I'm going to make one more comment too. I know I'm talking not too long. You're probably
00:32:48.880
saying, oh gosh, Alex. Anyway, the fact is, the fact is, is the Alan Nichols case really
00:32:54.260
jumps at me. So in August of 2019, Alan Nichols died by euthanasia. He was only
00:32:59.260
depressed. Okay. He was only depressed, but Alan Nichols had been depressed many times
00:33:04.760
in his life. When he was a teenager, he had a brain tumor and they did surgery on him and
00:33:09.660
the surgery was successful. But throughout his life, he was always emotionally up and
00:33:13.420
emotionally down. He did work during his life. So people might say, oh, you know, these disabled
00:33:17.360
people, people talk like that. They shouldn't, but they do. Anyway, no, no. Alan worked during
00:33:21.740
his life. He was, he was a janitor. He was, he was not a poor man. He was, he had been
00:33:26.000
gainfully employed all his life. Now he's 61 years old. He was brought into the hospital
00:33:31.140
by the police to protect himself because he was in a deep depression. His neighbor had
00:33:36.240
noticed that he had not gone out of his apartment for three days and not opened any or closed any
00:33:40.040
windows or shutters or anything. And so the police came, knocked down his door, brought
00:33:43.900
him to the Chilliwack hospital to protect him. He went into the psychiatric ward and he asked
00:33:48.600
for euthanasia. Somebody going through suicidal ideation, asking to have their life ended
00:33:53.880
is not uncommon. The difference is now that we had legalized euthanasia, the doctor said,
00:33:58.280
oh, okay, we've got a euthanasia request. He was approved for euthanasia and he died by
00:34:01.980
euthanasia. Now think about this. His family were distraught. They were distraught because
00:34:07.600
this was not the first time Alan had gone through deep depression. This was not the first time
00:34:13.200
Alan was suicidal. Alan needed help. He needed support. He needed a bit of time too. Instead,
00:34:19.080
he was killed. And then they say, this is all about freedom, choice, and autonomy.
00:34:24.040
It's all about a lie. Sorry. It's all about a lie. It's about killing somebody who is certainly
00:34:28.980
medically vulnerable, but it's an abandonment to death, an abandonment to death. And this is
00:34:35.240
what's going on. Alex, what's your advice on what people can do? And also, where can people find out
00:34:40.240
more information about you and all that you do? Well, euthanasia prevention coalition is easy to find.
00:34:44.420
You can Google us. I don't know if I should use the word Google, but you can find us very easy.
00:34:48.540
My blog is the world's largest source of information on euthanasia and assisted suicide
00:34:54.500
in the world. I've been maintaining this blog since 2007. And anything you want to know about
00:35:00.320
euthanasia or assisted suicide or anything you don't want to know about it, it's all there.
00:35:03.880
And on top of it, so how do we deal with this? I think we have to recognize that the culture has
00:35:09.020
gone very, very, very, very sick. We need to look at how I care for our own. If you know somebody in
00:35:15.660
your neighborhood, you know a family member, you have a friend, someone who goes to church and now
00:35:20.400
has got a significant illness, you know, suffering alone is a hard thing to do. It's a very hard thing
00:35:25.400
to do. We have to be caring people. We have to take it upon ourselves to do that and be involved
00:35:29.040
in people's lives. We have to go out of our way. We can form organizations to do visiting. We visit
00:35:34.620
the people. Then you visit your friends. You get to know these people. You help these people. This is
00:35:39.400
a, you know, a really a corporal work of mercy. You're recognizing as a human being, we need others.
00:35:45.960
We need to be with others. That's how we're made to be. We are normal in the sense that we need to
00:35:51.360
have others in our lives. When I say these are deaths to despair, how you reverse the concept of
00:35:56.820
deaths to despair is by caring for people and being there for them. So I can't necessarily save every
00:36:01.880
life. I might not be able to change the whole world, but I can change some lives and I can be there
00:36:06.380
for others. And we can make a big difference in this world. You don't have to be a doctor or a
00:36:11.080
nurse or a psychiatrist or a psychologist to make the difference in this world. You just need to be
00:36:14.960
a person who cares. And you need to be willing to go out of your way and do that. We also have a group
00:36:19.300
we work with called Compassion Community Care, and it does visitor training sessions and things like
00:36:23.200
that. And I think that's very important because we need to know, you know, the skills around visiting
00:36:28.180
because some people don't do a lot of visiting. They need to know these skills. The other thing is
00:36:31.520
advocacy. If you have a friend who's quite elderly, has multiple health issues, and they're visiting
00:36:37.480
their doctors on a regular basis, maybe you could say, can I go with you? You know, can I be there
00:36:41.940
with you? Why? Because you know your friend. And if you show up to the doctor's office with your friend,
00:36:48.900
who's maybe quite elderly, or maybe a person with a disability who has multiple health issues,
00:36:53.060
they see that that person is part of a community. They are important, right? They're important to
00:36:58.340
someone. They are then viewed differently. And if someone starts talking about euthanasia to them,
00:37:02.720
you could say, no, we're not interested in euthanasia. We're looking at basic care to make
00:37:07.260
sure he's got a good life. You know, we're trying to make sure that the care he needs is provided,
00:37:11.660
things that are of benefit to him are provided. This is what we're looking for, to stand up for
00:37:16.120
people, to help people. But I mean, we have to go out of our way. If you're believing in a culture of
00:37:20.840
life, the culture of life is built by how we care for others. And it's witnessed by what we do
00:37:26.160
by for others. And we need to be doing this. We need to go out of our way. I get phone calls
00:37:30.740
constantly. People say, well, how do you deal with that? Well, first of all, you listen. Sometimes
00:37:35.860
you do a lot of listening. And sometimes you can offer some really good advice. And sometimes you
00:37:41.640
can direct someone to somebody else who can actually help them. But you know, this is the
00:37:46.100
kind of thing. People are human. And we've really lost this concept of what it means to be human.
00:37:52.120
And the only way we can resurrect that is by building this culture of life and recognizing
00:37:56.900
the nature of the human person. We need to be with others in community.
00:38:00.960
Alex Schoenberg, thank you for being with us on the John Henry Weston Show.
00:38:04.780
God bless you and God bless all of you. And we'll see you next time.
00:38:09.900
Hi, everyone. This is John Henry Weston. We hope you enjoyed this video. And to see more like this,
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