The John-Henry Westen Show - Killing the Homeless -- Canada's New Form of Mercy

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,

00:00:05.240 it's okay to kill for this reason. 0.99

00:00:06.800 If it's okay to kill the infant, 0.99

00:00:08.800 then why wouldn't it be okay to kill the 87-year-old with dementia? 0.97

00:00:11.680 You've eliminated the reasons why it's not okay. 0.97

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,

00:00:24.320 well, then the question is, well, why not?

00:00:25.580 Euthanasia is a topic that's been in the news lately.

00:00:30.900 Do you know, in Canada,

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

00:00:42.040 because he was poor.

00:00:43.520 There was a GoFundMe set up for him,

00:00:45.820 and the head of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition,

00:00:48.700 a fellow by the name of Alex Schadenberg,

00:00:51.980 he actually assisted with that GoFundMe.

00:00:54.580 The guy's got $60,000 now,

00:00:56.860 and he's not going to kill himself.

00:00:58.120 He's found a place to live.

00:00:59.720 So how can we have euthanasia for poverty?

00:01:03.080 We actually don't only have that.

00:01:04.240 We have euthanasia for little babies.

00:01:07.200 I'm not talking about abortion,

00:01:08.440 which we've always had since the 60s.

00:01:10.320 Well, I'm talking actually about euthanasia after birth.

00:01:13.680 We used to call it infanticide,

00:01:15.500 but no, no, that's too mean a term.

00:01:17.800 Euthanasia or assisted dying after birth.

00:01:19.620 Isn't that wonderful?

00:01:20.760 It's insane.

00:01:21.700 That's what it is.

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,

00:01:27.700 Alex Schadenberg.

00:01:28.780 This is the John Henry Weston Show.

00:01:30.520 Stay tuned.

00:01:30.960 Alex Schadenberg, welcome to the program.

00:01:59.260 Hey, John Henry.

00:01:59.880 It's great to be with you.

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.

00:02:10.520 Amen.

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.

00:02:37.240 It's only for the most extreme case.

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.

00:02:47.340 You're always called an extremist.

00:02:49.360 But here we are.

00:02:50.420 Yeah.

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.

00:02:57.120 It's a nicer term than euthanasia, I guess.

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.

00:03:05.020 The law was worded to be 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.

00:03:12.660 But you asked me about euthanasia for poverty.

00:03:14.600 So, what happened in Canada in 2021, in March of 2021,

00:03:18.440 the government passed this Bill C-7.

00:03:21.620 And Bill C-7 expanded euthanasia in Canada for the reasons of you didn't have to be terminally ill.

00:03:27.300 That's the first thing.

00:03:28.000 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.

00:03:32.140 So, you could die the same day.

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,

00:03:45.380 you could die by euthanasia. 0.99

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,

00:03:53.540 how it was already worded without definition,

00:03:56.440 therefore, the disability community were right when they said, 1.00

00:03:58.840 and I agreed with them completely,

00:04:00.020 that this would mean that pretty much anybody with a disability

00:04:03.360 would then qualify for euthanasia made.

00:04:07.100 They would just qualify for it.

00:04:08.340 So, under that, what it means is there's a lot of people with disabilities

00:04:11.780 who they're fine with their disability.

00:04:14.360 They have a quality of life.

00:04:15.940 They're happy to be alive.

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,

00:04:30.280 and that's why they're asking for it.

00:04:31.740 So, they're not saying I want to die because I'm poor.

00:04:35.580 I mean, because I have a disability.

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. 1.00

00:04:50.040 And, you know, she can't live that way. 1.00

00:04:52.200 It's just not possible.

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.

00:05:12.440 You remember, oh, it was about six months ago,

00:05:14.900 the woman who was 51 years old who had multiple chemical sensitivities, MCS. 0.91

00:05:19.780 And she lived in Toronto and she ended up dying by euthanasia.

00:05:24.080 And her only condition was is MCS.

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. 0.99

00:05:50.040 Her multiple chemical sensitivity reaction constantly breaking out.

00:05:53.500 So, she died by euthanasia.

00:05:55.540 Now, remember, what is the treatment for MCS?

00:05:59.460 It's a clean house.

00:06:00.680 She needed a clean place to live. 0.57

00:06:02.020 She needed to live in a single home without, you know, being connected to 30 other homes. 0.98

00:06:08.320 And she needed to be able to be capable of keeping her place clean without, you know, 0.51

00:06:13.660 things that she would be reacting to.

00:06:15.200 That's what she needed.

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. 0.98

00:06:24.120 And it's absolutely ridiculous. 0.86

00:06:26.300 Now, you said something very interesting there. 0.96

00:06:27.700 You said that even without a terminal illness,

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.

00:06:41.980 What is the age limit on that?

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.

00:07:28.420 So, we have 18.

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,

00:07:44.300 it's based on an assessment.

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.

00:08:14.340 It's based on an assessment.

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.

00:08:47.420 So, let's put this in perspective.

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.

00:08:59.900 And that might very well come.

00:09:01.360 It's already in discussion.

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.

00:09:14.420 Yes.

00:09:15.420 After birth.

00:09:16.140 So, they're moving the abortion needle beyond, you know, the nine months, which they've always had in Canada,

00:09:23.720 all at taxpayer-funded expense, by the way.

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.

00:09:36.780 Well, it does.

00:09:37.560 And they're coming to that now.

00:09:39.100 How far off do you think we are from that?

00:09:40.620 Well, that's very hard to predict.

00:09:42.300 Right.

00:09:42.440 But the Quebec College of Physicians are talking about euthanasia for infants.

00:09:47.100 And once again, the concept is very scary.

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.

00:10:01.060 Yeah, it's not that common.

00:10:02.300 That's correct.

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.

00:10:22.460 And this is the reality.

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?

00:10:39.120 I don't know.

00:10:39.860 The other thing is legalizing euthanasia for newborns totally changes the landscape of the issue of killing.

00:10:46.980 Now, why do I say that?

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. 0.97

00:10:54.240 It's my choice.

00:10:55.420 It's my autonomy, my body, my choice, my freedom.

00:10:59.140 Okay?

00:10:59.540 I decide.

00:11:00.940 Now, of course, it's euthanasia. 0.92

00:11:02.220 Somebody else is killing you.

00:11:03.320 That's correct. 0.72

00:11:04.440 Right?

00:11:04.680 It's not about me killing myself.

00:11:06.280 Someone else is actually injecting me. 0.94

00:11:07.660 They're killing me.

00:11:08.640 Nonetheless, and I think also we should call it what it is. 0.87

00:11:11.120 It's killing.

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.

00:11:17.340 Nonetheless, the newborn can't ask for it.

00:11:21.140 The newborn has no autonomy per se.

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. 0.73

00:11:42.800 And eugenics predates the Second World War. 0.59

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. 0.76

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.

00:12:04.420 And this is, it's a pretty dark thing to do.

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?

00:12:24.620 They can't request it.

00:12:25.600 They might have never, ever indicated in their life that they had any interest in being killed. 0.99

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? 0.95

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.

00:12:50.540 It's okay to kill. 0.57

00:12:51.240 It's okay to kill for that reason. 0.97

00:12:52.520 It's okay to kill for this reason. 0.99

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? 0.90

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.

00:13:08.760 What are those numbers like right now?

00:13:10.260 And what do you see happening in the future?

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.

00:13:34.100 So we have no idea.

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.

00:13:42.140 But the numbers keep increasing.

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.

00:13:51.580 But Ontario does.

00:13:53.020 And the numbers, I just keep going up, up, up, up, up.

00:13:55.900 So in 2021, there was 10,064.

00:13:59.080 I predict there will be over 13,000 then in 2022.

00:14:03.480 And the numbers will continue to rise.

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.

00:14:14.400 We already have that level of sad acceptance.

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.

00:14:38.080 So you start thinking about this.

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.

00:14:51.080 And they need time.

00:14:51.880 They need support.

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.

00:15:04.780 And that seems to be what's going on.

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.

00:15:29.840 Is that the case?

00:15:31.100 Yes and no.

00:15:31.680 But they are required not to do it.

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.

00:15:55.940 So that's what you call a direct referral.

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.

00:17:14.660 They're normalizing this, you see?

00:17:16.200 So this is the whole thing.

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.

00:17:53.160 The last breaths are sacred.

00:17:59.440 When I imagine my final days, I see bubbles.

00:18:04.640 I see the ocean.

00:18:07.000 I see music.

00:18:09.900 Even now, as I seek help to end my life, there is still so much beauty.

00:18:16.220 You just have to be brave enough to see it.

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.

00:19:07.300 What am I supposed to do?

00:19:08.360 I said, well, if you didn't know, Father, there's nothing you could do about that, obviously speaking.

00:19:11.580 The problem is some of them do know about it.

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.

00:19:32.780 That's what it is.

00:19:34.220 And one of the reasons it's so popular, because guess what? 0.77

00:19:37.080 It's easier to have someone kill you than for you to kill yourself, right?

00:19:42.980 It's easier.

00:19:43.960 And some people say, oh, well, you know.

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.

00:20:07.960 Bill C-7 was passed in March of 2021.

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.

00:20:17.260 All that's true.

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.

00:20:47.680 Now, let's start thinking about this.

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.

00:21:24.180 Just a quick note before we return.

00:21:25.900 And if you would like to stay up to date on LifeSite's coverage of the latest life, family, and culture news,

00:21:31.160 subscribe to one of our many newsletters by going to lifesitenews.com slash subscribe.

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00:21:41.120 please consider making a one-time or monthly donation at give.lifesitenews.com.

00:21:46.580 And now, back to the video.

00:21:50.040 What is the answer?

00:21:51.540 Because I think, you know, with the abortion argument, everybody comes to the same question.

00:21:57.220 It's what about raven incest?

00:21:59.220 With the question of euthanasia, it's a similar thing, but it's the question of, well, you know,

00:22:06.020 what am I going to be like when I get old?

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.

00:22:13.560 And these are, you know, the good people.

00:22:16.980 What do you answer to that?

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

00:22:35.740 is it's a human reality.

00:22:36.920 As a human being, there's not very many of us who are interested in suffering.

00:22:40.820 And so they have a lot of fear around that.

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

00:23:10.360 to deny people who were not dying euthanasia.

00:23:14.160 That was discrimination, John Henry.

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

00:23:36.960 has to be a 10-day waiting period at first.

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

00:23:44.440 suffering?

00:23:45.620 How can you make them suffer for 10 days?

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

00:23:55.920 under what rules?

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 0.83

00:24:09.500 infant, we go on and on, people with mental illness, and all of it has gone totally crazy.

00:24:15.840 Now, how do we respond to this?

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

00:24:30.940 a terrible idea.

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

00:25:01.340 about freedom.

00:25:02.280 They call it, you know, autonomy.

00:25:04.420 When was it autonomy?

00:25:05.560 When was it about choice when somebody else lethally injected you?

00:25:08.260 Like, think about it.

00:25:08.960 Like, that doesn't really fly.

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

00:25:29.980 us will.

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

00:25:39.000 will react to it in a very difficult manner.

00:25:41.540 Many people feel alone.

00:25:42.960 They're very alone.

00:25:43.800 They don't have family anymore or they don't have family near them anymore.

00:25:47.500 Or maybe they were a little bit difficult.

00:25:49.240 Nobody wants to visit them.

00:25:50.640 I shouldn't laugh.

00:25:51.240 But there's truth to all these things.

00:25:52.760 You know what I'm saying?

00:25:53.480 The fact of it is as a human being, they're now on the slate of death because of being

00:25:59.920 a human 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.

00:26:09.740 And what are we seeing?

00:26:10.880 We're seeing people asking to be killed because they say, I can't live this way anymore. 0.97

00:26:14.820 And they feel pressured to die, to be killed.

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,

00:26:35.100 the big lie.

00:26:35.640 And before we legalized it, I always said, if you repeat the lie enough, people will

00:26:40.040 believe the lie.

00:26:41.200 So you have a culture that's swallowed it right up.

00:26:43.720 They think it's all true, but it's not true.

00:26:46.020 This is about, as I say, abandonment.

00:26:48.820 They call it freedom.

00:26:50.000 I call it abandonment.

00:26:51.200 It's abandoning people at the time of need.

00:26:52.780 And we're talking about real human beings who are going through a difficult, difficult time

00:26:57.580 of their life.

00:26:58.200 And what are we doing?

00:26:59.260 We're giving them deaths of despair.

00:27:01.220 We're taking their life rather than providing them what they truly need, which is the other 0.82

00:27:05.700 person.

00:27:06.260 They need interdependence.

00:27:08.580 They need people who care about them.

00:27:10.380 They need an opportunity to, you know, seek a faith perspective at that time rather than

00:27:17.080 someone saying, well, you can have death.

00:27:19.160 We'll give you death. 0.96

00:27:19.800 You know, death becomes pretty easy at times, you know, especially with some of these people. 0.71

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

00:27:32.220 dying, but I can't get medical treatment.

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.

00:27:42.420 He says, I can't get medical treatment.

00:27:43.980 I've been trying.

00:27:44.900 I have had no luck getting medical treatment, but they approved me for medical aiding dying. 0.82

00:27:49.300 Like, it's really ridiculous.

00:27:51.560 It's sinister more than ridiculous, because a long time ago, you had discussed the concept 0.89

00:27:58.300 of the quote unquote need for euthanasia because of economic reasons, because they will see

00:28:07.620 it as a cheaper alternative.

00:28:10.060 We've already devalued life through abortion. 1.00

00:28:12.720 Life means nothing.

00:28:13.720 So we can snuff it out if we so choose, just to do it legally, whatever that means.

00:28:18.700 But it's a cheaper way of dealing with people.

00:28:21.720 Totally disregards the dignity of the human being, of course.

00:28:25.300 But you also proved that in another way.

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

00:28:41.340 it work.

00:28:41.680 Yeah, I'm glad you remember that, because in fact, the puffer fish is being used in China

00:28:45.640 as a painkiller very effectively.

00:28:47.720 But yeah, they were doing research here in Canada to get it approved.

00:28:52.860 And that was a long time ago, actually.

00:28:54.060 It's more than eight years ago.

00:28:55.140 But what happened is that they found that it was very effective for people who have drug

00:29:01.520 addictions.

00:29:02.640 So it's a channel blocker, right?

00:29:05.380 So if you use the venom from the puffer fish in very small amounts, it works as an effective

00:29:09.400 channel blocker.

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.

00:29:25.160 And it helps them get off of their drugs.

00:29:27.320 So they've been using it for that.

00:29:28.760 It's been approved for that.

00:29:30.480 But they're not using it for pain in North America that I know of in any way.

00:29:34.600 So these are the kind of things that exist.

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

00:29:46.200 reverses on us.

00:29:48.060 So as I say, when you when you legalize killing, and then you normalize it, everything turns

00:29:51.980 upside down, everything is upside down.

00:29:54.140 So now it becomes a situation that if you or I were in the hospital, we're saying, excuse

00:29:58.600 me, but I'm not interested in euthanasia.

00:30:01.700 Someone might look at you, depending on your medical condition, of course, and they'd be

00:30:04.700 thinking, well, what do you mean?

00:30:06.600 You know, you have this condition.

00:30:08.920 You might suffer for a while.

00:30:10.240 Like, why wouldn't you want that?

00:30:11.900 And then, of course, it goes to the further step, the more and more that there is a demand

00:30:16.420 in our medical system for the resources, etc.

00:30:19.380 You're actually wasting the resources.

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.

00:30:28.740 It is not a good thing then to live.

00:30:31.700 This is the kind of thing we get.

00:30:33.020 It goes upside down.

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. 0.96

00:30:40.420 Canada is worse.

00:30:42.300 Now, we don't yet have child euthanasia yet.

00:30:45.000 Now, we're getting there, sadly.

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.

00:31:08.920 And we don't have that in Canada.

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.

00:31:39.000 And you have to try effective treatments.

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 0.89

00:31:48.500 treatment. We're not going to be doing that in Canada. 0.96

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 1.00

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 0.73

00:34:28.980 medically vulnerable, but it's an abandonment to death, an abandonment to death. And this is 0.97

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.

00:38:03.820 Thank you, John Henry.

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,

00:38:15.240 be sure to hit the subscribe button below to get all the latest content from LifeSite News.

00:38:20.080 So check out our links in the description to read more, sign up for our newsletter,

00:38:24.760 and connect with us on social media so that you can stay up to date with all of the latest life,

00:38:30.440 family, and culture news. Thanks for watching, and may God bless you.

The John-Henry Westen Show - December 08, 2022

Killing the Homeless -- Canada's New Form of Mercy

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