A Canadian healthcare provider sparked outrage after emailing out a slideshow to a group of healthy patients offering advice on medically assisted suicide.
A disturbing PowerPoint presentation obtained by DailyMail.com saw Fraser Health Care, one of the largest in British Columbia, allegedly promoting assisted suicide programs to those simply receiving information on their pension packages.
The slideshow includes advice on ‘expressions of wanting to die’, noting that it can be used to ‘promote a sense of control’. Terminally ill patients are also seemingly offered the chance to die within ‘a day’.
It was sent amid criticism that the country’s escalation of the practice was ‘reckless’ and ‘disgusting’. Last month Canadian officials moved forward with plans to broaden its euthanasia program to include children.
The slideshow opened with advice on ‘expressions of wanting to die’, including noting that it can be used to ‘promote a sense of control’
Canada legalized euthanasia, also known as Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD), in 2016. It has since been aggressively expanded, and the nation saw over 10,000 assisted suicides in 2021.
In British Columbia, where the slideshow was sent out, an alarming 24 percent rise in euthanasia deaths last year raised further concerns, with over 500 people choosing to end their lives under the program in the province than the year before.
The nation’s healthcare system has since come under fire for the practice, in particular following the March 2021 decision to amend the law to permit euthanasia in circumstances where it is not medically necessary.
This was detailed in the slideshow allegedly sent by Fraser last week, which revealed its ‘track system’ included two options for when death is either ‘reasonably foreseeable’ or ‘not reasonably foreeable’.
For those whose death is ‘not reasonably foreseeable’, the healthcare provider said patients go through just 90 days of assessments. While the symptoms that fall under the option were named as chronic pain and fibromyalgia, the Canadian government has announced plans to allow people to die under the practice solely due to mental illness by March 2024.
Terminally-ill patients are also apparently offered the means to die in as little as one day, once they have filed a request and are undergoing two assessments.
For terminal patients, it claims there is no waiting period, and a separate slide indicates the process of suicide ‘can be a day’.
Patients were allegedly sent the slideshow offering assisted suicide services as part of receiving their pension packages in the region of British Columbia.
Fraser Health has been contacted for comment by DailyMail.com.
Canada’s healthcare system offers the service even to people whose death is ‘not reasonably foreseeable’. Pictured: The two track system allegedly used by Fraser, as noted in the slideshow
Some 2,515 people received Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) in BC last year, Ministry of Health figures show
One slide shockingly notes that the process of providing MAiD can take ‘a day’
The disturbing slideshow was sent out as Canadian officials have opened the door to including children in their assisted dying services.
Last month, the Canadian Government’s Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying released a highly critical report recommending that ‘mature minors’ whose deaths were ‘reasonably foreseeable’ could access assisted suicide, even without parental consent.
The report and its 23 recommendations will be discussed in the House of Commons in the coming months and could prompt revisions of Canada’s assisted dying laws as soon as this year.
The move was slammed by campaigners who said the program disrespects sick patients under the assumption their lives aren’t worth living.
‘I think it’s horrible,’ said Amy Hasbrouck, who campaigns against MAiD for the group Not Dead Yet.
‘Teenagers are not in a good position to judge whether to commit suicide or not. Any teenagers with a disability, who’s constantly told their life is useless and pitiful, will be depressed, and of course they’re going to want to die.’
The practice also sparked a police investigation last year in Abbotsford, British Columbia, after the daughters of Donna Duncan, 61, claimed she was mistakenly approved for assisted suicide because of her mental health problems.
Duncan’s daughters Alicia and Christie requested the probe, saying their mother was suffering from linked depression to a sustained concussion in a car crash when she applied for MAiD.
Doctors should have focused on treating her pain and mental health problems rather than greenlighting her euthanasia request, they said. The procedure was carried out in October 2021.
Police last year launched an investigation into the euthanasia death of Donna Duncan, 61, a nurse and mom
Duncan’s daughters Christie and Alicia Duncan say doctors should have treated their mum’s mental health and pain problems rather than greenlighting her for an assisted suicide
There were more than 10,000 deaths by euthanasia in 2021, an increase of about a third from the previous year
Gauthier competed in the 2016 Paralympic Games and Prince Harry’s 2016 Invictus Games (above) where she took gold in indoor rowing and heavyweight powerlifting
The practice of medically assisted dying has also particularly come under scrutiny after it was offered to combat veterans in Canada.
In December, this was thrust into the spotlight when retired Army Corporal Christine Gauthier, a former Paralympian, was offered euthanasia by the Canadian government when she complained about delays to having a wheelchair lift installed in her home.
After years of frustrating delays in getting the home lift, Gauthier says a case worker told her: ‘Madam, if you are really so desperate, we can give you medical assistance in dying now.’
The worker who made the offer hasn’t been named, but they are feared to have offered three other veterans who contacted VAC with the same ‘solution’ problems, Global News reported.
Kelsi Sheren, a former combat veteran and MAiD activist, criticized the practice as ‘beyond disrespectful’ in an interview with DailyMail.com.
‘When you take people who were willing to put their lives on the line for you, for your safety, then you have the audacity to tell them it’s better if you just die… it is one of the most disgusting things,’ she said.
‘It’s unacceptable, and it is one of the most infuriating things to come down from the Canadian administration in the last decade.’