September 3, 2025

Dear Friends:

Thank you to everyone who donated to the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC) during the summer. Monthly donors are especially appreciated during that time when donations are lower. 

We were very active this summer as EPC promoted Bill C-218, sponsored by Tamara Jansen MP (Cloverdale–Langley City, British Columbia). The bill will receive its first hour of debate later this fall. EPC established a petition campaign to support C-218 at www.nomaidformentalillness.ca I will be meeting with Members of Parliament in Ottawa on September 18 to discuss support for Bill C-218. To be successful, we will need the support of at least 22 Liberal MPs.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) examined a study concerning 351 organ donation approvals. The study found problems in 103 of the donations. In 28 the person was not dead, and 73 people had neurological signs that were incompatible with organ donation. The HHS media release stated that there was evidence of poor neurological assessments, questionable consent practices, and misclassification of the cause of death. The EPC wants the dead donor rule to be upheld and not abused.

EPC launched a campaign opposing Bill 4, sponsored by France Gélinas (MLA), that will change Ontario’s organ donation rules from voluntary to presumed consent. Some people have said, “What does it matter when someone is dead?” The state does not own your body and because euthanasia is legal, I cannot trust that death will occur before the organs are removed. You can sign the petition opposing Bill 4 here.

EPC has been actively helping Roger Foley. Roger continues to live at the London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) where he has been pressured on several occasions to ask to die by euthanasia. In May, a dispute started between Roger and the hospital concerning his feeding. Roger has an extreme sensitivity to light and the hospital decided that they could not feed him without bright lights. EPC ran a petition to the hospital stating that Roger needs to be fed. He is now being fed.

My annual half-marathon charity fundraiser for Compassionate Community Care (CCC) is on September 28. Once again, I am running with my friend Marcel Lemmen. Donate online at www.beingwith.org

The Ontario coroner’s office recently released another report from the MAiD Death Review Committee (MDRC). The report examined issues related to euthanasia approvals for patients who refused treatment, approvals based on disability (irreversible decline in capability) and approvals based on psychological suffering. The report outlined several stories of people who died by euthanasia under questionable circumstances. One case was a woman who had declined every offer of treatment for her obesity. She stopped taking her medication; she refused surgery for obesity and died by euthanasia.

[…read more]

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director