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N u m b e r 162 May 2015

On February 6, the Supreme Court struck down Canada’s assisted suicide law and gave parliament 12 months to bring in a new law to protect Canadians.

Those who have read the Supreme Court’s assisted dying decision are concerned by the irresponsible and dangerous language in the decision.

EPC first responded by establishing a letter writing/post card campaign. We are now offering five ways to protect yourself from euthanasia and assisted suicide:

1. The new - Do Not Kill Me - wallet card is available from EPC upon request or by sending EPC a donation. Please sign the back of the card. Contact EPC to order the Do Not Kill Me wallet card.

2. Give us time - www.giveustime.ca

EPC is promoting the Give us time! postcard campaign to urge the federal government to hold a Royal Commission on assisted suicide and to use the Notwith-standing Clause to give us time. The Give us time! postcards are available in English and French for free by contacting EPC.

EPC have currently distributed 80,000 postcards.

3. The Life-Protecting Power of Attorney for Personal Care has been updated to ensure that it will protect you when you cannot make decisions for yourself.

This is a legal document that enables you to appoint some-one that you trust to be your Power of Attorney for Personal Care. This document also makes clear statements concern-ing the medical treatment options that you need, when you are unable to make decisions for yourself. The document clearly states that you want to receive food and water, un-less you are actually nearing death, and that you oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide.

EPC sells the Life-Protecting Power of Attorney for $25.

4. Protecting People Pamphlet

The Protecting People from Eutha-nasia and Assisted Suicide pamphlet is updated based on the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision and references new studies on the abuses of euthanasia and assisted suicide in jurisdictions where they are legal.

The Protecting People pamphlet is designed to counter the false ideas and the intentional confusion that surround the issues of euthanasia and assisted suicide.

The Protecting People pamphlet can be ordered for $25 for 100 copies or $100 for 500 copies (plus postage).

5. EPC is working with Compassionate Community Care (CCC), a service that offers practical advice and information to people when they or a loved one:

• Is denied medical treatment or basic personal care, such as food and water;

• Has questions related to life-support measures; or

• Is concerned that a loved one is being euthanized.

CCC plans to develop a community-based model of support for people who are possibly being coerced into euthanasia or assisted suicide. Contact CCC at: 1-855-675-8749 or visit CCC website at www.compassionatecommunitycare.com

Do Not Kill MeI oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide

EPC National Symposium Save the date on October 31, 2015, mark your calendar and make plans to attend Euthanasia Prevention Coalition’s National Symposium in Montreal, Quebec.

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, Living with Dignity (Quebec) and the Physicians’ Alliance Against Euthanasia are combining efforts to organize an historic conference.

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Newsletter – 162 – may 20152

As assisted suicide failed to pass in state legislatures across the country this year, a new Marist Poll sponsored by the Knights of Columbus found that a majority of Americans do not support assisted suicide and that strong majorities harbor deep concerns over such proposals.

Assisted suicide proposals have stalled since the start of the year in a number of states, including Connecticut, Mary-land, Colorado and Nevada.

More than 6 in 10 Americans (61%) do not support a doctor prescribing or administering a lethal drug dose, saying that a doctor should instead only manage an illness or remove life support.

Additionally, 57% of Americans say they are less likely to trust a doctor who engages in assisted suicide.

A strong majority of Americans also have deep concerns about assisted suicide, including:

• 67% are concerned that fewer life-saving options will be given at end of life.

• 65% are concerned that the elderly will be at risk in nursing homes.

• 64% are concerned that the depressed will be more likely to take their lives.

• 59% are concerned about a wrong diagnosis.

• 55% are concerned that the doctor could misjudge a patient’s state of mind.

• 55% are concerned that it will become a cost-saving measure for health care decisions.

• 54% are concerned that patients will be pressured to take their life so as not to be a burden.

Between 4 in 10 and 6 in 10 of those who support assisted suicide also share each of these concerns.

When asked only if they support allowing a doctor to pre-scribe a lethal drug dose, a majority still do not say yes. About 4 in 10 (43%) support the practice, while 57% either oppose it (36%) or do not have a position (21%).

The poll found that Americans also do not consider assist-ed suicide a priority. While almost 8 in 10 (78%) see the economy as a top priority, and nearly two-thirds (64%) say

the same about af-fordable health care, only about 2 in 10 (22%) consider as-sisted suicide a top priority — the low-est of the five issues covered in the poll.

Consistent with that low priority, only 7 % say they would definitely ask a doc-tor for assisted sui-cide while 51% said they definitely would not make such a request.

“The American people are deeply concerned about the possible tragic consequences of this sort of legislation, and want doctors to heal and relieve pain rather than to be agents of death,” said Knights of Columbus CEO Carl Anderson. “It is not surprising that this legisla-tion has failed so widely since it would sow distrust in the doctor-patient relationship. The most vulnerable — those with an incorrect diagnosis, as well as the men-tally ill and depressed, and those with lower quality health insurance — would be particularly at risk.”

Anderson added, “There are many issues that are actually pressing mat-ters for the United States, but the poll makes clear that this is not one of them.”

The survey of 2,079 adults was conducted Jan. 7-13, 2015. Results are statistically significant within ±2.1 percentage points.

Some questions on the issue of end of life decisions were asked of half the sample. Survey respondents were random-ly selected to complete one of two survey forms. For this report, questions from survey form B are reported. There are 1,323 national adults. Results are statistically signifi-cant within ±2.7 percentage points.

Some questions were fielded February 25 through March 5, 2015 as part of a national omnibus study. There are 1,169 national adults. Results are statistically significant within ±2.9 percentage points.

The Marist Poll was founded in 1978 and has a long and distinguished track record of public opinion surveys, in-cluding as the 2012 battleground states election campaign pollster for NBC and The Wall Street Journal.

Poll Shows Little Support for Assisted Suicide

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Newsletter – 162 – may 2015 3

By Jean Echlin RN, BScN, MScN

After 35 years of many fearing and rejecting hospice palliative care programs that provide life and death with dignity, we now have Canadians enamored with doctor provided death. The Su-preme Court of Canada has abol-ished a portion of our Criminal Code that prohibits euthanasia and assisted suicide. They have desig-nated physicians as the group in our society to carry out the act of putting patients to death upon request. The patient must be suffering in a manner that is intolerable to them including both psychological and physical issues.

It must be remembered that nurses work closely with doc-tors following their orders and monitoring patients for any positive or adverse effects to treatment. Therefore nurses will automatically be assistants and collaborators in any type of inflicted death. In addition social workers, chaplains and other members of the inter-professional team will be affected.

Inflicting death on another human being is considered the ul-timate act of violence so I ask: “How dare we ask our doctors and nurses to kill us?” But this is exactly what is proposed.

In my opinion, those who opt to carry out euthanasia and assisted suicide will no longer be trusted. As well I believe that acute and long term care institutions that enable pa-tients to be put to death will not be trusted. Persons afraid of being euthanized will avoid admission on the basis of fearing an untimely death.

Other valid questions are: “How will those who inflict death deal with the emotional/psychological aftermath? Will they develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) with its’ inherent anxiety, nightmares, depression and sui-cidal ideation? Will they have some type of devastating spiritual/existential struggle following the process of put-ting patients to death?”

There are many health care professionals who have an eth-ical framework that will not support participation and this must be honoured. To have any leaders or directors in our professional associations dictate to those in the trenches of front-line care on the necessity to provide euthanasia or refer to another source is unconscionable and intolerable. The last time I looked, we still live in a democratic society with freedom of belief and religion sanctioned and guarded by our Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Do patients have a “right” to die?

I suggest there is no choice, we all die. However we can demand from our provincial and federal politicians support for hospice palliative care that will ensure excellence in the management of pain and other noxious symptoms that cause suffering. We can call for and support quality end-of-life care for every Canadian. We can support those at highest risk in

this new social disorder: the elderly, persons with physical and/or emotional disabilities, patients with chronic and life-altering or life-threatening diseases.

We can teach medical and nursing students how to support and care for those who are labeled terminally ill; continue to educate current care providers on the best practice guide-lines to meet the gold standard in palliative care; support and come along side those amazing professionals and vol-unteers who are currently involved in providing pain and symptom management; support the development of hos-pice palliative care in all facilities and in our communities.

The Hospice of Windsor & Essex County is regarded as an exemplary model across Canada. The successful develop-ment of our Hospice here speaks to the outstanding citizens who have given so much to help so many. I am proud to be part of this heritage.

Supreme Court Assisted Dying Decision: A New Social Disorder

EPC’s new presidentThe Euthanasia Prevention Coalition is proud to announce that Jean Echlin RN, MScN has accepted the position of President. Jean was the founding Vice President of EPC.

Jean had a successful career as a Nurse Consultant in Pal-liative Care and Gerontology. She is the Past Director of the Hospice of Windsor and she is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor - Faculty of Nursing at the University of Windsor, Ontario.

Jean was awarded the Dorothy Lea award for excellence in Palliative Care (2004) by Hospice Palliative Care On-tario. In 2014, the deVeber Institute created the Jean Echlin Award for Ethics in Palliative Care.

Jean has written many articles on euthanasia and assisted suicide. She is the author of the booklet: Palliative Care Not Euthanasia. Order the booklet from the Euthanasia Pre-vention Coalition for $5.

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Alabama bill clarifies protections in law from assisted suicide

In 2015, twenty-six US states are debating bills to legalize assisted suicide.

Nearly every US state has laws that specific-ally protect people from assisted suicide. A few states do not have specific statutes protecting people from assisted suicide, but rather prohibit assisted suicide based on common law.

In Alabama, Rep Arnold Mooney is planning to introduce a bill to clarify protections in law from assisted suicide.

The Alabama media reported that:“The Assisted Suicide Ban Act would prohibit a physi-cian or other health care provider to help a person die by prescribing a drug or by other means,” he said.

Assisted suicide is prohibited under Alabama common law due to prior court decisions on the issue. Forty-three states have laws prohibiting physician-assisted suicide.

Rep Mooney stated:“The state has an interest in protecting vulnera-

ble groups, including the impoverished, the elderly, and disabled persons from abuse, neglect and mistakes, ... A ban on assisted suicide reflects and reinforces our belief that the lives of those in vulnerable groups are no less valued than the lives of the young and healthy.”

In the past few years, Georgia and Arizona passed bills to clarify protections in law from assisted suicide.

Luxembourg euthanasia reportThe Luxembourg euthanasia commission has released its semi-annual report, stating that 15 people died by eutha-nasia in 2013 - 2014, which was a slight increase from 14 people who died by euthanasia in 2011 - 2012.

Luxembourg is a small European country, with the latest statistics indicating a population of 537,000 and approxi-mately 3,850 people deaths each year.

The media article states that no abuse of euthanasia law occurred but the system of reporting euthanasia deaths in Luxembourg is not designed to uncover abuse.

In Luxembourg, euthanasia reports are sent to the commis-sion by the doctor who lethally injected the person, after the person has died. Since doctors do not self-report abuse, therefore it is impossible to determine whether or not abuse has occurred.

A recent death study from the Flanders region of Belgium, published in the NEJM on March 19, 2015, found that 1.7% of all deaths in 2013 were intentionally hastened without explicit request and almost half of the assisted deaths were unreported in 2013. A similar study from 2007 found that 1.8% of all deaths were hastened without explicit request and almost half of the assisted deaths went unreported.

The Belgian death study was done by sending question-naires to the doctors who certified the death certificates in 6,188 deaths in the first half of 2013. The researchers received 3,751 responses. Since the researchers are third-party researchers who investigated all deaths, they were able to uncover abuse of the Belgian euthanasia law.

In 2008, Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg refused to sign the euthanasia bill into law. The Luxembourg Chamber of Deputies reacted by removing his constitutional power.

Dublin, ireland, June 6, European conference

EPC is helping to organise a European conference in Dublin, Ireland. The event will take place on Saturday, June 6, 2015, in the Royal Society Dublin Building.

The conference theme is “Justice for every person.”

Speakers include: Dr. Kevin Fitzpatrick, OBE, EPC Inter-national; Paul Russell, Director, HOPE Australia; Henk Reitsma, member, EPC International; Amy Hasbrouck, Director, Toujours Vivant - Not Dead Yet; Tom Mortier, PhD., whose mother died by euthanasia in Belgium (2012); Alex Schadenberg, Chair, EPC - International, and more.