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Woman Considering Euthanasia Discovers She’s Been Misdiagnosed

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The story of a Canadian mother of three who was considering doctor-assisted suicide is shining a light on one of the fatal flaws of pro-euthanasia laws.

Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, wrote on his blog that Jennifer Monaghan had been suffering for 17 years with an undiagnosed chronic pain condition and was considering euthanasia under the country’s medical assistance in dying (MAiD) law. However, she changed her mind after finally being correctly diagnosed with a treatable medical condition. She shared her story with Citytv for an upcoming documentary called Veracity: MAiD in Canada. . .

She was in constant pain, but doctors could not figure out why. She began to believe it was in her head and after 17 years, she began to research MAiD to see if she qualified for doctor-assisted suicide. . .

But then, with some hope left, she had one more neurology appointment scheduled when her sleep doctor suggested she try a higher dose of the drug amitriptyline, which is often used to treat narcolepsy. Monaghan met with the neurologist, who saw that she was on this drug. She told him all about her symptoms and he said he knew exactly what was wrong with her.

“Small fiber sensory neuropathy,” said Monaghan. “Basically, my brain is sending signals to different areas of my body, like shocking pain or cold water. It’s my brain reading the signals wrong, [the] pain signals wrong. So my brain thinks there’s all this pain going on, but my brain technically is creating it.” (Read more from “Woman Considering Euthanasia Discovers She’s Been Misdiagnosed” HERE)

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Woman with Dementia Euthanized Against Her Will and the Doctor Isn’t Getting in Trouble

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Three years ago, a 74-year-old Dutch woman with dementia was euthanized by a doctor who drugged the patient’s coffee without her knowledge and then had family members physically restrain her for the final lethal injection.

The doctor, who has not been publicly named, was cleared of all wrongdoing by a court in the Netherlands on Wednesday, “clarifying” the country’s euthanasia law enacted in 2002 in relation to patients with “severe dementia,” according to MedicalXPress.

Patients with dementia can now be killed by their doctors even if they strongly object to euthanasia at the time, so long as they have previously given consent for the fatal procedure. In other words, if a patient were to change their mind about the assisted suicide, a doctor could still legally kill them against their will. “The court ruled that in rare cases of euthanasia that were being performed on patients with severe dementia — and who had earlier made a written request for euthanasia — the doctor ‘did not have to verify the current desire to die,'” MedicalXPress reported.

And in the case of this specific Dutch woman with dementia, she never once gave an express request to be euthanized. In her will, which was renewed about a year before her death, the woman said she would like to be euthanized “whenever I think the time is right.” And when she was asked if she wanted to be euthanized, she reiterated multiple times that her suffering was not bad enough to where she wanted to be killed:

“The 74-year-old woman had renewed her living will about a year before she died, writing that she wanted to be euthanized ‘whenever I think the time is right.’ Later, the patient said several times in response to being asked if she wanted to die: ‘But not just now, it’s not so bad yet!’ according to a report from the Dutch regional euthanasia review committee.”

(Read more from “Woman with Dementia Euthanized Against Her Will and the Doctor Isn’t Getting in Trouble” HERE)

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Another State to Legalize Assisted Suicide

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Starting next week, physician-assisted suicide will be legal in Maine. . .

Thursday night, the Maine CDC asked for input from doctors and other stake holders in end of life care.

Specifically, the agency wants to know what data they should collect from doctors.

“I always enjoy hearing from my fellow physicians, people who are in the hospice who are concerned about this and in the terminal phase of their life and what their feelings about the law are,” Rep. Patty Hymanson said. (Read more from “Another State to Legalize Assisted Suicide” HERE)

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State’s Assisted Suicide Law to Allow Terminally Ill Patients ‘Right to Die’

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New Jersey’s assisted suicide law goes into effect Thursday, allowing terminally ill patients to request a prescription from their doctors that would aid in ending their lives.

The law, which took eight years to pass in the state until Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy signed it in April, allows New Jersey residents with a terminal, incurable diagnosis that would end the person’s life in six months to request a prescription medication that would end their lives.

Patients would be required to ask their doctor twice in 15 days and submit a written request witnessed by two people stating that they are “fully informed” of alternatives, including palliative care and pain control. . .

The law is gaining momentum in several states— including Oregon, Washington, California, Vermont, Hawaii, and Colorado— and state health department records show that 3,478 people have died using assisted suicide methods since the law was passed. . .

“Physician-assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer, would be difficult or impossible to control, and would pose serious societal risks,” the American Medical Association (AMA) wrote in May. (Read more from “State’s Assisted Suicide Law to Allow Terminally Ill Patients ‘Right to Die’” HERE)

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State Legalizes Assisted Suicide

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Democratic Gov. Janet Mills signed the Maine Death with Dignity Act on Wednesday, making the state the 10th jurisdiction to legalize assisted suicide.

When she inked the legislation, Gov. Mills brought Maine into line with Oregon, which was the first state to legalize the practice of physicians prescribing lethal medicines for patients to use to kill themselves.

California, Colorado, Hawaii, Vermont, Washington, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia have passed similar laws in recent years. The Montana Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the practice, although there is no state law on the books explicitly allowing it.

Portland, Maine Bishop Robert Deeley said in a statement that the bill “legalizes a practice which has devastating effects on the common good. Suicide is always a tragedy.” Saying that it is a sad day for Maine, the bishop said that young people will now think “that people can and should be disposable.”

“The legislature and Governor Janet Mills failed the people of Maine. Assisted suicide is a dangerous public policy that puts the most vulnerable people in society at risk for abuse, coercion[,] and mistakes,” said Matt Valliere, Executive Director of Patients Rights Action Fund. “It also provides profit-driven insurance companies perverse incentives to offer a quick death, rather than costly continuing quality care. Mainers, especially the terminally ill, people with disabilities, and the poor, deserve better.” (Read more from “State Legalizes Assisted Suicide” HERE)

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Horror: Hospital Preps Assisted Suicide for Children, Might Not Inform Parents

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The oft-mocked “slippery slope” arguments from conservatives with regard to euthanasia are terrifyingly coming to fruition in Canada.

Last month, a group of medics from Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children outlined their plans for administering “medically assisted suicide” for patients under the age of 18 in the “near future.” The paper, published in the British Medical Journal, asserts their commitment to “patient confidentially” with such hypothetical children, stating that there will likely be cases where a “capable” child patient could undergo the “assisted suicide” without parents being informed first.

“This article explores the ethical challenges of providing Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) in a paediatric setting,” reads the paper’s abstract. “More specifically, we focus on the theoretical questions that came to light when we were asked to develop a policy for responding to MAID requests at our tertiary paediatric institution.”

“While MAID is currently available to capable patients in Canada who are 18 years or older—a small but important subsection of the population our hospital serves—we write our policy with an eye to the near future when capable young people may gain access to MAID,” the paper affirms, adding, “By providing a record of our in-progress thinking, we hope to stimulate wider discussion about the issues and questions encountered in this work.”

And parents might not be notified about their child’s “decision” to have doctors kill them. (Read more from “Horror: Hospital Preps Assisted Suicide for Children, Might Not Inform Parents” HERE)

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Report: Three Children Euthanized in Country

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According to an article in The Brussels Times, a report from the Federal Commission for Euthanasia Control and Evaluation has revealed that euthanasia in Belgium is up 13%.

More striking than the general uptick in numbers, however–most of that increase represents patients between the ages of 60 and 89 years old, the majority having cancer–is the fact that in the years 2016 and 2017, three children also opted in to legally assisted suicide.

While euthanasia in Belgium was legalized for adults in 2003, it wasn’t extended to minors until more recently, in 2014. The law allows children of any age to procure a death via lethal injection, provided they have parental consent and an agreement is reached with a doctor and psychologist.

CNN reported that shortly after the first child was killed under the expanded age laws (in 2016), Belgian senator and supporter of euthanasia Jean-Jacques De Gucht said, “I think it’s very important that we, as a society, have given the opportunity to those people to decide for themselves in what manner they cope with that situation.” . . .

Catholic News Agency reports that, back when assisted suicide was first expanded to minors in Belgium, John Haas (governing member of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life) declared the new development to be “dreadful.” (Read more from “Report: Three Children Euthanized in Country” HERE)

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Doctors Accused of Forcing Terminally Ill into Assisted Suicide

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A terminal ill man who needs around-the-clock care filed a lawsuit claiming doctors are pressuring him to go home or die in medically assisted death. . .

[Roger] Foley [of Canada] suffers from an incurable brain disorder called cerebellar ataxia, a condition which limits his ability to move his arms and legs and leaves him unable to perform mundane tasks such as feeding himself and lifting himself up. . .

According to the February 14 lawsuit, Foley was given two options on how to move forward with his medical care: ‘forced discharge’ from the hospital ‘to work with contracted agencies that have failed him’ or medically assisted death.

He said there were two instances in which he received horrible home care providers and even contemplated suicide after one provider allegedly left him so sick he needed to be hospitalized.

‘I have been given the wrong medication,’ he claimed. ‘I have been provided food where I got food poisoning, I’ve had workers fall asleep in my living room, burners and appliances constantly left on, a fire, and I have been injured during exercises and transfers. When I report(ed) these things to the agency, I would not get a response.’ (Read more from “Doctors Accused of Forcing Terminally Ill into Assisted Suicide” HERE)

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Doctor’s Final Fix for Mother’s Depression: Death

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An oncologist in Belgium delivered to a woman his final solution for depression over a lost relationship with a partner and distant relationships with her children: death.

And since the government approves, the European Court of Human Rights is being asked to review the facts of the case, which include a 2,500 euro donation from the woman to the doctor’s nonprofit Life End Information Forum the day before she was killed.

At issue is the euthanasia law in Belgium and whether the death of Godelieva De Troyer, who was not terminally ill, at the hands of oncologist Wim Distelmans was legal.

Distelmans facilitated De Troyer’s death under Belgium’s euthanasia law after determining she had “untreatable depression” in April 2012 . . .

Mortier argues the right to life and the right to family life are protected under the European Convention on Human Rights. Belgian law allows assisted suicide to be carried out if physicians have determined the person is experiencing “constant and unbearable physical or mental suffering that cannot be alleviated.” (Read more from “Doctor’s Final Fix for Mother’s Depression: Death” HERE)

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Doctor: Insurance Wouldn’t Pay for Patients’ Treatments, but Offered Assisted Suicide

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Dr. Brian Callister, a physician in Reno, Nevada, says two recent patients both needed life-saving treatments. “Not palliative care, not hospice, these would have been curative procedures,” Callister recalls.

One patient was from California and the other was from Oregon, both states that passed physician-assisted suicide laws. Instead of offering to pay for their treatments, Callister says, the insurance medical directors in both states offered to cover his patients’ assisted suicide.

Watch the video to hear more about these cases, and why Callister, who says he’s taken care of “somewhere in four figures worth of terminally ill patients,” now opposes assisted suicide. (For more from the author of “Doctor: Insurance Wouldn’t Pay for Patients’ Treatments, but Offered Assisted Suicide” please click HERE)

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