Wesley Smith writes for National Review Online about a disturbing development north of the American border.
Euthanasia has become a way of life in Canada (he wrote ironically). More than 100,000 people have been killed by doctors and nurse practitioners. At least one hospice lost funding for refusing to kill patients. Doctors with religious and moral objections were told by Ontario’s highest court to either kill qualified patients wanting to die, procure a doctor who will (“effective referral”), or get out of medicine. Euthanasia has been described in the media as a splendid source of organs.
And there are horror stories aplenty. Here’s the latest. If the reporting is accurate, an elderly woman with stomach cancer was euthanized after being coaxed by medical personnel and while mentally incapable. From the Daily Mail story:
Two days before her Christian grandmother’s assisted dying procedure in Ontario, Canada, Brigitte Kranendonk sat her down to make sure she knew exactly what was going to happen.
‘I used very frank terms. I said: “Do you know that you’re going to die on Friday?”’
The 83-year-old was in visible disbelief and began crying for 45 minutes. ‘I’ve made a mistake,’ Brigitte Stegemann, known affectionately to her family as ‘GG’ or ‘Oma’, wailed. …
… Well, why worry about infection when you are killing someone, right?
The granddaughter believes the medical personnel were ideologically motivated:
‘She was a vulnerable human being, and they saw an opportunity,’ Kranendonk says, her rage and sadness visible.
She suspects the MAiD practitioners were inappropriately ideologically motivated, and believes the chain of events leading up to the procedure should be investigated. …
… I believe that it becomes an ideological cause for some who abandon Hippocratic medicine. One doctor in Canada has killed hundreds of patients. MDs raise the issue with eligible patients. Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition says that “MAID teams” may visit patients in hospitals to tell them they can apply for death.
