July 30, 2024

Dear Friends:

The downturn in donations happens every summer but this year, due to our activities, the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC) has a significant need due to our activities in Canada and internationally. For instance, we intervened in the Calgary court case on behalf of the father of a 27-year-old autistic woman, who successfully prevented the euthanasia death of his daughter. We are preparing an intervention in the case that was launched by the euthanasia lobby to force St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, and subsequently all medical facilities, to provide euthanasia. Our needs are great.

I recently sent an email to our supporters concerning our financial need. We thank the many people who responded and yet our financial need continues.

In June, EPC hosted two webinars. The first was with Roger Foley, the man who was pressured by London Health Sciences to “choose” euthanasia. The second webinar provided an update on euthanasia and assisted suicide (watch it online here). One of the participants, Heather Hancock, a woman who lives with spastic cerebral palsy, contacted us to tell her story about how she was pressured to “choose” euthanasia. Heather is an excellent writer. After publishing her story, Heather received multiple requests for interviews. Her story has now been shared by many Canadian and international publications.

Kelsi Sheren, a Canadian veteran who served in Afghanistan, got involved with opposing euthanasia (”MAiD”) during Canada’s debate around euthanasia for mental illness alone. In June, Sheren produced a podcast interview with Jordan Peterson titled, “The Horrifying Truth Behind MAiD They Aren’t Telling You”. The podcast has more than one million views.

It is interesting how the debate changes. Several years ago, I wrote about the research by Dr. Joel Zivot, an anesthesiologist, who indicated that the assisted suicide drugs cause a death that is similar to drowning. I reported on his research again when Zivot told Canada’s Parliamentary hearings that the euthanasia drugs stop the lungs from breathing. Recently, Sheren came upon the same research and explained it on a podcast with Jordan Peterson.

EPC is now working with Kelsi Sheren to get the message out to a wider audience. Last week, Kelsi and I recorded a podcast on how Canada’s euthanasia law actually works, how many people are dying by euthanasia, and some of the horrific stories of people who have died by euthanasia.

We recently obtained the 2023 Saskatchewan euthanasia data, which indicated a 25% increase in euthanasia deaths. The federal government has not released the euthanasia data, but we have obtained the 2023 data from Ontario, Québec, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia. Based on the data from these provinces, I predict that there were around 15,280 euthanasia deaths in Canada in 2023.

I was speaking at a conference in Cornwall Ontario where I met Roderick and Louise McDonald, whose daughter died by euthanasia. Roderick was present at the death while Louise left the room. They shared with me the poems they wrote to deal with their pain after the death of their daughter. EPC has published their poems in a booklet titled, “The Execution”. You can purchase the booklet from us online for $12 each (+ shipping and taxes in Canada).

As you are aware, EPC is also involved with opposing assisted suicide laws in America through EPC-USA. This year EPC-USA successfully worked on preventing the New York assisted suicide bill from going to a vote and they were actively involved with stopping the assisted suicide bill in New Hampshire. EPC-USA has actively opposed the Delaware assisted suicide Bill HB 140. HB 140 passed in the lower house; it was then defeated by a tie vote in the Senate on June 20. The Senate accepted a motion to reconsider and on June 25, HB 140 passed by a vote of 11 to ten. EPC-USA has been leading the lobby of Delaware Governor John Carney. Currently Governor Carney has not signed HB 140. We remain vigilant.

We are very concerned about the pressure to legalize assisted suicide in Great Britain. The Labour Party won the UK election and their leader, Keir Starmer, a long-time supporter of assisted suicide, has promised to introduce assisted suicide legislation. At the same time, Lord Falconer has introduced a bill in the House of Lords to legalize assisted suicide. There are also bills to legalize assisted suicide in Scotland and Ireland.

I have been booked to speak in London England at the end of September and in Scotland in early October. I will be meeting elected representatives in both places to share Canada’s experience with euthanasia.

It is essential that the stories of people with disabilities, and others, who have felt pressured or have been killed by euthanasia in a questionable manner be shared in Canada and worldwide. We consider all assisted deaths to be wrong since they involve the deliberate killing of a person. Canadian euthanasia stories help us convince people that euthanasia is wrong and in other jurisdictions to not legalize it. EPC has been instrumental in finding and sharing stories. We have a significant blog readership with more than 100,000 readers every month. The EPC blog at www.epcblog.org is the largest source of information on these topics in the world. We have further readership since many of our articles are re-published by other news websites.

We need your financial support. Donations are always weak in the summer, but our activity level has created a greater financial need. We must intervene in these important court cases, we must continue our work with other leaders to stop the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide in other jurisdictions, and we must pay our staff and expenses. You have always made things possible in the past. We need your help now. (Click here to donate online.)

My fall travel schedule is filling up. I still have some availability to speak at events.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director