Great news: Slovenia rejects euthanasia law by passing referendum (53% to 47%).

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

I have incredible news to share.

The Slovenian referendum campaign to prevent the implementation of the Slovenian euthanasia law won by a vote of 53 to 47.  Lives will be saved and people will be protected from being poisoned to death in Slovenia.

Slovenia passed a euthanasia law in July. In response a citizens group organized a signature campaign and collected 46,000 signatures enabling them to challenge the euthanasia law through a referendum.

The 53% to 47% victory overturns the euthanasia law and once again protects Slovenians from being killed by poison. Bojan Kavcic reported for the Citizen Tribune that:

Ales Primc, the head of Voice for the Children and the Family, the NGO that organised the no vote campaign, reacted to the results saying "solidarity and justice" had won.

"Slovenia rejected the government's health, pension and social reforms based on death and poisoning," Primc was cited as saying by the Slovenian news agency STA.

The referendum required at least 20% of the 1.7 million eligible voters to support the referendum. Kavcic reported that the voter turnout was 40.9% meaning that the referendum validly rejected the Slovenian euthanasia law.

The euthanasia lobby has promised to bring forth another legalization bill but the referendum result means that the government cannot introduce another euthanasia bill for at least 12 months.

 

The campaign followed a straight forward set of talking points and didn't get into any other issues.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition congratulates everyone who successfully worked on the referendum campaign and we are thankful that we had the opportunity to be intimately involved by sharing articles, interviews and video footage with the campaign.

Slovenia showed us how an organized and focused campaign can be successful even when facing a massive campaign with incredible funding from pro-euthanasia groups.

Alex Schadenberg

In January 2024 I had the opportunity to speak in Slovenia and counter the pro-euthanasia rhetoric that they were facing. At that time I met with politicians, several media outlets, including television news interview shows and spoke to a large audience in Ljubljana, Slovenia's capital to oppose the Slovenian euthanasia bill, which was very similar to Canada's euthanasia law.

Thank you Ales, Nuno and the campaign team who enabled us to help make a difference and prevent a law giving Slovenian doctors the right to poison their citizens to death. You have shown us the way.

More articles on Slovenia

• Slovenian interview with Alex Schadenberg and Theo Boer (Link). 
• Bad news in Slovenia and Uruguay (Link). 
• Has Slovenia legalized assisted suicide (Link). 
• Slovenia debates assisted suicide. Doctors and medical groups oppose the bill (Link).

RCMP Veterans’ Association IS TARGETING RCMP VETERANS for MAiD.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Kelsi Sheren published a shocking substack article outlining an RCMP veterans scandal that she published on November 20, 2025.

The RCMP Veterans' Association Nova Scotia Division are promoting an upcoming (MAiD) euthanasia promoting seminar that is being specifically promoted for RCMP veterans. 

Are the RCMP trying to save money by pressuring veterans to die quicker?

Kelsi Sheren

Kelsi writes:

I just received an email from a retired member of the RCMP…

“I served for 32 years on the West Coast and retired in 2019. As a Christian and a retired member of the RCMP I wanted to share this with you. I’m trying to wrap my head around this shocking email. I’m shocked it’s come to this.” - L.K

Sheren also posts the letter from the RCMP Veterans' Association Nova Scotia Division promoting the euthanasia event that features Dr Gordon Gubitz, who is a member of the CAMAP (Canadian Association of MAiD Assessors and Providers) board of directors.

Gubitz was quoted in an article that was published in the Atlantic in August 2025 as stating:

He finds euthanasia to be “energizing”—the “most meaningful work” of his career. “It’s a happy sad, right?” he explained. “It’s really sad that you were in so much pain. It is sad that your family is racked with grief. But we’re so happy you got what you wanted.”

Canada has had military veterans who were coerced towards (MAiD) euthanasia while contacting Veterans Affairs for help.

First there was a Veterans Affairs Canada worker advocating euthanasia for a veteran with PTSD (Link). Then we learned that more than one veteran was offered euthanasia by Veterans Affairs (Link). Then we learned that Veterans Affairs offered euthanasia to a disabled veteran and paralympian (Link). It is likely that there were at least 20 veterans who were offered euthanasia (Link).

Now the RCMP is promoting (MAiD) euthanasia for RCMP Veterans.

Kelsi reports receiving the following message from a whistle-blower. She wrote:

On November 20th, an email quietly dropped into the inboxes of Nova Scotia RCMP veterans. Standard, polite and in true Canadian fashion formal and sanitized. This was no mistake, this wasn’t information. This was something different.

This is grooming. Yes I said it, coercion.

The “opportunity” was a “Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) Program in Nova Scotia”

This is a state-aligned institutions normalizing death as a service to the very people they already failed to support in life .This was a information session, to “educate” veterans who’s rates of PTSD and suicidality were already sky hight. How they can apply or use MAID.

The invited speaker?

Dr. Gordon Gubitz

Kelsi then explains who Dr Gubitz is. She then states:

Nova Scotia RCMP veterans invited a man whose job is to facilitate, provide and promote nothing but death, and whose organization teaches clinicians how to introduce MAID (assisted SUICIDE) to patients who didn’t ask for it, bring it up or want it in their life.

Let me explain something, If you’re a veteran dealing with PTSD, chronic pain, TBI, disability, or bureaucracy-induced despair, this isn’t “education.”

This is targeted psychological pressure.

Coercion, CAMAP and Dying with Dignity’s claim to fame.

No one will say the words out loud. No one will write “we think some of you should consider dying.”

They don’t need to, when just dangling the carrot is good enough to get the job done.

Coercion today is subtle, normalized in the community. It’s dressed up like Christmas cookies in a church call, framed as loving “support” being held by one of the most prolific death pushers in the game.

Simply funnelling veterans into the system one “information session” at a time. Like cattle through the gates of hell, with CAMAP waiting in the shadows. This time not with a bold gun. They would see that as “too humane”, but with a pen, check list, a needle and a paralytic.

Canada already proved it’s willing to dangle MAID (assisted suicide, murder, early death) in front of struggling veterans. I helped break these stories and bring our veterans stories to the masses. I’m interviewing more by the day, who’ve been offered death over life illegally.

VAC employees got caught offering MAID to veterans who never asked for it, including one trying to get a wheelchair ramp, my friend Christine.

So do me a favour spare us the “this is innocent” act.

Veterans have been coerced before, and it’s happening again right in front of your faces. Now the RCMP Veterans’ Association is rolling out the red carpet for the prevailers of death. The dark ones who feed on the souls of those who couldn’t bare to take another breath.

This is not an “opportunity.”
This is a sales pitch.
And the product is your death.

People keep asking me why veterans are being targeting? Because they’re the perfect targets, don’t you see?

Veterans, on a daily basis are dealing with chronic pain, combat trauma, moral injury, sanctuary trauma, disability, suicidality, lack of services, financial strain, bureaucratic obstruction and the government doesn’t just know know it, it caused it and it supports it and so do the MAID, pro death cult architects.

The MAID lobby knows veterans are “high-yield” candidates, and not because they want to die, but because the system has already worn them down, like water slowly dripping over the rocks. The Liberal government just cut OVER 4 BILLION in care for veterans. Veterans aren’t being shown the full picture, they aren’t given any hope. They’re being shown the early exit. What we call in some circles, being shown the path to “self-selection.”

This RCMP veterans email is a soft-touch version of coercion if I’ve ever seen one.
“We’re not telling you to choose MAID… we’re just putting the idea on the table, in a friendly community space, with a trusted expert who helps design the national MAID system.” Who’s job is to provide you with all the pathways to wanting to kill yourself.

That’s how you manipulate a vulnerable population without leaving fingerprints.

Kelsi then writes further about Dr Gubitz and CAMAP, which is the death doctors training and support group. 

Kelsi continues:

When you pair a vulnerable group with a man trained to present MAID as “equitable access,” your “information session” becomes a recruitment funnel.

HOW IS EVERYONE OK WITH THIS?

You are directly influencing and priming veterans for death under the banner of “support.” It’s an illusion, it’s predatory behaviour! It’s not informed consent in any way. It’s manipulation.

And holding it in a church? That’s strategic psychological laundering.

Churches are trusted spaces. They lower defences, help you to open your mind. Churches to most signal moral legitimacy so hosting a MAID talk in a church hall tells veterans “your community approves. Your faith approves this is acceptable, this is dignified, you don’t have to fight or feel guilty, ”

It cloaks a controversial, ethically fraught practice in community warmth. It’s taking advantage of the safety and sanctity of church.

That’s not an accident.
It’s a tactic.

This wreaks of propaganda wrapped in hospitality.

This is the playbook of a system that wants to solve suffering by eliminating the sufferer.

Canada won’t fix the care gaps. It won’t fix the mental-health crisis. It won’t fix VAC’s failures and it sure as hell won’t fix disability supports.

But it will happily fund a national MAID curriculum, expand eligibility, remove guardrails, and now apparently send MAID providers on a tour of vulnerable communities.

Veterans have always been canaries in Canada’s moral coal mine.

If the state can normalize MAID to the people who wore its uniform, it can normalize it to anyone. And that’s the point.

This story isn’t about one email. It’s about a culture shift engineered from the top down.

This is how you create acceptance - - >

First, make MAID look compassionate.

Then, bring it into community spaces.

Then, present to vulnerable groups.

Then, call it “support.”

Then, remove the stigma.

Then, remove the safeguards.

Then, expand eligibility.

Then, tell the public: “People are choosing MAID because it’s dignified.”

They leave out the part where the system helped manufacture despair.

Veterans deserve better than an invitation to die.

They deserve care, treatment, advocacy, and someone who doesn’t treat their suffering as a problem to be erased.

Not a church basement with coffee and a state-aligned MAID architect explaining their “options.”

This email isn’t benign.

It is a warning, one Canada should have heeded years ago.

If the country is comfortable offering death to the people who served it, it’s comfortable offering it to anyone.

And that’s exactly what’s happening.

Please feel free to call or email them and let them know how this makes you feel.

Articles about Veterans Affairs offering MAiD to veterans:

• Veterans Affairs tried to cover-up the euthanasia scandal (Link).
• Canadian veteran who was urged to seek euthanasia was not the only one (Link). 
• Veterans affairs offers euthanasia to a disabled veteran and former paralympian (Link). 
• Canadian veteran: 20 veterans were offered euthanasia (Link).

UK hospices collapse as government pushes legalizing assisted suicide.

This article was published by National Review online on November 20, 2025.

Wesley Smith

By Wesley J Smith

The future that some of us predicted about assisted suicide deployed as a resource saver has come to the U.K. Even as the House of Commons has passed a legalization bill — currently being debated in the House of Lords — the country’s hospice system is collapsing. From the BBC story:

Some 380 hospice beds out of around 2,000 lie empty in England because of financial pressures, say bosses.

Hospice UK has told BBC News this is up from 300 a year ago and illustrates the severe challenges facing the sector.

Beds are left empty to save money — since staffing and caring is costly — and so are unavailable to patients.

Do you know what isn’t costly? Assisted suicide. Poison is cheap.

And how can advocates spout on about “choice,” when the humane and moral alternative to end-of-life care becomes unavailable? And how can anyone think that assisted suicide/euthanasia won’t come to be seen as a splendid way to save money by erasing expensive patients well beyond the terminally ill? Add in organ-harvesting as a boon to society and the threat to — and objectification of — the medically vulnerable becomes undeniable. Indeed, such stories and studies are already appearing.

When doing research for Forced Exit (1997), my first book about assisted suicide, I came across data showing that the hospice sector in the Netherlands was stunted as compared with that of other countries. One doctor was even quoted as saying, “Why do I need hospice? I have euthanasia.”

Once one overcomes queasiness involving killing and sheds the idea that life itself has intrinsic value, such crass utilitarian logic becomes impeccable.

Those with eyes to see, let them see.

Slovenian interview with Alex Schadenberg and Theo Boer.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Slovenian rally against euthanasia.

Earlier this year, Slovenia became the first Eastern European country to legalize euthanasia. 

A citizens group formed and collected more than 40,000 signatures to require a referendum to overturn the Slovenian euthanasia law. 

The referendum is happening on Sunday, November 23, 2025.

EPC is working with the citizens group in Slovenia. We have sent articles and video interviews that the Slovenian group is using to support the referendum. The video project was mentioned in the recent letter to our supporters. Some of the footage from the video project was shared with the Slovenian group.

Please consider donating to the EPC video project (Donation Link).

Planet TV in Slovenia recorded an interview with myself and Theo Boer that was played on November 18 and 19. (Link to the interview).

In the interview I explain (54 seconds) how Canada legalized euthanasia based on a Supreme Court of Canada decision (Carter case). Planet TV then shares the data on the growth of euthanasia in Canada (1:20).

I then explain (1:44) how euthanasia, in Canada, expanded to people who are not terminally ill:

A court decision in Québec (Truchon) decided that it was a form of discrimination to not allow someone who is not terminally ill to have euthanasia. It is the same reason why we (Canada) are now discussing euthanasia for children, euthanasia for mental illness, euthanasia for people who have previously requested it, etc,. All these are based on the concept of discrimination.

I continue by commenting (2:15) on medical treatment wait times in Canada:

It might take several months to get the treatment that you need in Canada but you can get euthanasia, often, the next day.

So people for instance who have cancer and who are going through difficult conditions and not receiving treatment for that, often they are saying, well if I can't get treatment then I would rather be dead.

Planet TV also interviewed Theo Boer (2:53) who is an ethicist in the Netherlands. Boer was a member of a euthanasia review committee from 2005 - 2014 who states:

I think it can be proven with absolute certainty that whenever and where ever and however you legalize assistance in dying, which is either euthanasia or assisted suicide, once you legalize it, the numbers will go up and up.

Not one single country in the world where the numbers did not go up.

Boer explains why he resigned from the euthanasia review committee (3:34):

The situation was getting out of hand. There were an increasing number of cases that I could no longer support and these were expecially cases where there were no longer terminal illness cases but it was increasingly people who were tired of living, not people being afraid to die, but people being afraid to live.

Boer explains the expansion of euthanasia in the Netherlands (4:09): 

Since about 2005 we have seen an increase of about 10 - 15% per year steadily so we started with about 2,000 cases for year and now we are up to more than 10,000.

I was then asked for my message to Slovenia (4:34).

My message to Slovenia is don't open the door to this. Because when you open the door to allowing doctors to kill people, because that is actually what you are doing, there is always another door.

Boer concluded his interview by stating (4:45):

It will not only be a liberty for some to have their lives but in the longer run it will lead the whole society to embrace the idea that some people are not worth living and I think that will inevitably happen.

More articles about Slovenia (Articles Link).

German Identical Twins Die by Death on Demand

This article was published by National Review online on November 18, 2025.

Wesley Smith

By Wesley J Smith

In 2020, the Federal Constitutional Court, Germany’s highest judicial body, conjured a fundamental right to commit suicide, to assist, and be assisted therein. The ruling called suicide a “self-determined death” — i.e., death on demand — regardless of the reason, and perhaps even, age of the person who wants to die, as the court ruled that the right to suicide “is guaranteed in all stages of a person’s existence.” Youth is a stage of a person’s existence. (Estonia’s highest court recently issued a similar ruling, while requiring competence.)

Now, famous German identical twins have committed joint assisted suicide — reported by the notorious assisted suicide pushers, People magazine — which oohed and aahed about the death of Brittany Maynard, publishing several cover stories on her doctor-prescribed death. From the story about the deceased twins:

Alice & Ellen Kessler

The Kessler twins — renowned German sisters who reached international stardom for their post-war entertainment in the 1950s and 1960s — ended their lives together.

On Monday, Nov. 17, Alice and Ellen Kessler died at age 89 in their home near Munich after choosing medical aid in dying, German newspaper Bild reports.

According to the outlet, the sisters “no longer wanted to live” and “they had chosen to end their lives together.” Police were reportedly notified after the process was completed.

Did you get that? They just didn’t want to live — so they accessed death on demand.

For many among us, suicide is no longer considered a tragedy but is viewed as an empowering act. This is precisely the darkness into which the euthanasia movement is taking us, some jurisdictions faster, some slower. We should be debating whether becoming dead should be deemed a fundamental right, not the expedient nonsense we too often hear that it’s all about terminal illness (it isn’t) and that strict guidelines protect against abuse (they don’t).

Zoom event: Disability Justice Opposition to Assisted Suicide.

Zoom event: Disability Justice Opposition to Assisted Suicide.

Not Dead Yet UK protest.

Saturday, November 29, 2025 at 2 pm (Eastern Time) / 11 am (Pacific Time).

Register in advance (Registration Link). You will receive an email with the meeting link.

The zoom event was organized by Meghan Schrader with EPC-USA. The presenters will focus on several key questions related to disability justice and opposition to assisted suicide.

The speakers include but not limited to:

Harold Braswell PH.d., M.S.W., LCSW St Louis University Graduate Program Coordinator; Associate professor Department of Health Care Ethics

Keith Jones is the President and CEO of SoulTouchin’ Experiences.

Joe Tate is the Program Manager of the E4 Program, University of Texas (Austin) and a member of the EPC-USA board.

Andrew Dell'Antonio is a teaching Professor at the Butler School of Music in the College of Fine Arts at the University of Texas at Austin.

Meghan Schrader is an instructor at E4 - University of Texas (Austin) and a member of the EPC-USA board.

Gordon Friesen is a disabled individual who has followed the assisted suicide issue since the early 1990s, and is the President of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC).

Register in advance. (Registration Link)

We mourn the death of the great John Kelly

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

I am shocked and saddened by the loss of John Kelly, the leader of the disability rights group, Second Thoughts an activist with Not Dead Yet and a leader of Progressives Against Medical Assisted Suicide.

John was an amazing disability rights activist leader and tireless in his opposition to medical assisted suicide. John was an amazing leader, advocate, speaker, a warrior for truth.

John was a gifted orator and incredibly funny and witty.

He was a great collaborator, life few others. He worked with everyone.

I remember John coming to Toronto to speak at our Euthanasia Prevention Coalition conference. He was profound, excellent and funny. 

But life with a disability was always present. The next morning he thanked one of the doctors who was attending the conference for saving his life. I can't remember exactly what happened, but in the night he had a medical emergency.

Similar to Diane Coleman, the founder of Not Dead Yet who died last November and Stephen Mendelsohn who died in June, John's death is an incredible loss.

Here are some articles by or about John Kelly.

• Disabilities group has Second Thoughts on assisted suicide (Link). 
• Disability leader speaks out against assisted suicide in Massachusetts (Link).
• Assisted Suicide goes to a vote in Massachusetts (Link).
• John Kelly speaks out on disability and assisted suicide (Link). 
• Disability opposition to assisted suicide helped secure third defeat in New England states this session (Link). 
• Assisted Suicide. Just Too Dangerous (Link). 
• Disability rights organizations oppose assisted suicide (Link).  
• Assisted suicide laws are more dangerous than people acknowledge (Link). 
• John Kelly: Say No to assisted suicide expansion in Oregon (Link). 
• Alex Schadenberg and John Kelly on Radio Sputnik (Link). 
• John Kelly: Testimony opposing Washington DC assisted suicide bill (Link). 
• John Kelly: Second Thoughts testimony against California assisted suicide bill (Link). 
• John Kelly: Assisted suicide laws and bills are "Riddled with Falsehoods" (Link). 
• People with disabilities comment on Me Before You (Link). 
• John Kelly: Testimony opposing New Jersey assisted suicide bill (Link).
• Assisted suicide. Vulnerable to abuse (Link). 
• John Kelly: New Mexico assisted suicide bill deserved to die (Link). 
• Assisted suicide would put pressure on disabled to die (Link). 
• John Kelly's incredible presentation on why the disability community opposes assisted suicide (Link). 
• John Kelly: The case for death with dignity collapses under scrutiny (Link).
• John Kelly: People lose their lives to misdiagnosis, coercion, abuse and depression (Link).
• Assisted suicide: What seems like dignity can turn out to be anything but (Link).
• Disability rights leaders praise Massachusetts court decision (Link).
• John Kelly: Push for assisted suicide raises questions over disability rights (Link).
• Oppose the Massachusetts assisted suicide bills (Link). 
• John Kelly: The answer is not medically assisted suicide (Link).
  

The tortuous attempted passage of assisted suicide from "choice" to medicine.

By Gordon Friesen
President, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Gordon Friesen

Considering the enormous harms of treating assisted death literally as medical care; and further considering the apparent democratic support of assisted death conceived as a personal choice: it is important to insist on the logical illegitimacy of binding these two together in the hybrid MAID construct.

Indeed, it is entirely mistaken to suggest that the respect of personal choice might justify a medical paradigm of assisted death.

This is because (as I believe we will all agree) the choice to end one's life is intensely personal and subjective. There is no objective way to account for why one person will wish to end their life, while another, in apparently identical circumstances, will obstinately seek to survive.

By way of contrast, however, the medical justification of assisted death absolutely requires an objective foundation.

There is, therefore no coherent logical bridge between the two.

Let us consider, for example, the completely natural attempt to justify some limited class of assisted deaths by distinguishing between ordinary (pathological) suicide, and a second suggested form resulting from legitimate rational thought.[1] [2]

There are, certainly, a number of weaknesses with this theory.[3] [4] In particular, there persists the stubborn fact that we can never really know whether an eligible person is actually requesting death for the reasons alleged, or for entirely different ones.

(Some persons in Canada, for example, have apparently used their medical eligibility, for MAID, in order to escape poverty.)

Similarly, any apparently acceptable requests might still, nonetheless, mask choices which are not rational at all (but are the fruit of mental disturbance).

And yet, the crucially important significance of "rational suicide", in the present context, lies not in these, but in our reaction to people choosing differently in the same situations.

For it is difficult to maintain that one person is behaving in an objectively rational manner (in choosing assisted death) without also concluding that another person, making the opposite choice (of continued survival under similar circumstances) would be acting "irrationally".

Under a paradigm of sovereign personal choice, such problems simply disappear in the shrouds of subjective mystery. But in the medical world --where clearly indicated actions are unambiguously deemed rational to pursue, and irrational to avoid-- these same difficulties are intractable.

In the end, the common enabling mechanism of MAID --as both choice and medicine-- lies merely in the canonical application of politically established eligibility criteria.

As a matter of choice: any eligible patient's desire must be honored.

As a matter of medicine, however: doctors are expected to consider the proposition and prescription of euthanasia as an objectively beneficial treatment for all eligible patients, including that vast majority who do not embrace the rationality of their own deaths, and who would never spontaneously make such a request.

Clearly, the second of these propositions cannot reasonably be derived from the first.

And so also, assisted death as essential, guaranteed medical care, cannot coherently be derived from assisted death, as a subjectively justified liberty of choice.

In short, medicine cannot possibly moderate the ills of choice. Nor can choice justify what is done in the name of medicine.

Through the evil alchemy of Medical Aid in Dying, the faults of each are simply added (and even multiplied) one with the other.

[1] Giwa, Al, A complete treatise on rational suicide, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai https://www.elsevier.es/en-revista-bioethics-update-232-articulo-a-complete-treatise-on-rational-S2395938X1930021X

[2] Friesen, Pheobe, Medically Assisted Dying and Suicide: How Are They Different, and How Are They Similar?, The Hastings Center Report, 18 February 2020 https://doi.org/10.1002/hast.1083

[3] Stephen Ginn, Annabel Price, Lauren Rayner, Gareth S. Owen, Richard D. Hayes, Matthew Hotopf, William Lee, Senior doctors' opinions of rational suicide, Journal of Medical Ethics, September 2011, 37(12):723-6 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/51678637_Senior_doctors'_opinions_of_rational_suicide

[4] Cynthia M.A. Geppert, Rational Suicide? Case Consultation and Quiz Commentary, July 27, 2015, Psychiatric Times, Vol 32 No 7, https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/rational-suicide-case-consultation-and-quiz-commentary

Protecting The Dignity of Disabled People Might Require You To Be “Burdened”

Meghan Schrader

By Meghan Schrader
Meghan is an instructor at E4 - University of Texas (Austin) and an EPC-USA board member.

Opposition to assisted suicide is generally based on the premise that “MAiD” laws create new situations in which disabled people are pushed toward death because they are “burdens.”

But “MAiD” just takes the “disability as burden” attitude to a lethal extreme. Resentment towards disabled people for being burdens permeates society, which negatively impacts disabled people’s access to healthcare, education, recreation, employment, etc.

Case in point, this administration has moved to weaken or rescind disability rights statutes that it regards as “unduly burdensome” and “inflexible.” This blog post is primarily aimed at assisted suicide opponents who might be thinking that these policy changes are a good idea.

The premise that the aforementioned statutes are “burdensome” and “inflexible” runs throughout the Section 504 lawsuit, the recision of the airline wheelchair compliance regulations, the proposal to loosen requirements that new construction be accessible to people with disabilities, etc. As I’ve said, these changes will worsen the severe oppression that disabled people already experience.

I have been encouraged to look at both sides of these issues: generally disabled people should have access to things, but are there not situations in which claims about the burdens some disability statutes, such as a wheelchair handling rule that airlines say could make them accountable for “acts of God,” might have at least some ethical legitimacy?

In my opinion, no. Those who think that the burdens of inclusion are somehow of equal moral weight to disabled people’s right to accommodations are forgetting the reality of malicious compliance, and the burden that places on people with disabilities.

To illustrate this fact, I’d like to direct readers back to my blog post about the dangers of depleting Special Education staff at the US Department of Education, in which I recount the acrimonious meetings I had with my ableist guidance counselor “Dr. D,” who didn’t want me to take college entrance exams and then insisted on proctoring one of my exams himself, even though proctors had been hired for two other disabled students.

During a meeting that I had to have with him after that test, I said, “And you told me that you were giving the test to two other students, and when I showed up to take the test proctors had been hired to give the test to two other students, and you said you weren’t hiring proctors to give anyone’s test.” “I said that I wasn’t going to hire anyone to give your test,” he taunted. “That’s not what you said at the meeting,” I answered. “Oh,” he quipped dismissively. “And, if you were just going to give us the test together anyway, why would you make it so inconvenient for us by making us take it from the middle of the day until 8 PM? I mean, wouldn’t it be more convenient for you to just come in on a Saturday morning and give it to us? Why would you want to spend your entire evening doing that?” “Meghan, what does your father do for a living?” he demanded. “That’s not relevant,” I said. “Yes it is. What does your father do for a living?” “He’s a dentist,” I said. “A dentist. And does anyone tell him when to do his job?” “That has no relevance,” I answered. “Yes it does. Why should I give up my Saturday just to give you a test?” “Well, then why can’t someone else give it?” I asked. “I do not have to go through the trouble of finding you a proctor,” he scoffed.

As the aforementioned blog post about the depletion of Special Education staff at the US Department of Education explains, ambiguities in the Educational Testing Service’s testing procedures, state standards for Special Education student achievement, IDEA, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and lack of oversight of the implementation of these laws empowered this guidance counselor to behave as he did. This administration is seeking to make several core disability rights states more ambiguous, which will enable the kind of bureaucratic sadism that I experienced.

When you give people in power more latitude to interpret laws as they wish because you perceive current laws to be “burdensome,” you are enabling narcissistic bureaucrats to enforce an attitude of: “I don’t care what opportunities you forfeit, what financial hardship you experience or what severe emotional disorder you develop; the important thing is that I not be inconvenienced.”

Potentially frustrating adherence to “burdensome” disability rights statutes so that disabled people can flourish is the same thing as when “MAiD” proponents can’t have the designer deaths they want because “MAiD” causes disabled people’s wrongful deaths. In order for society to meet its moral obligations to disabled people, businesses, individuals, government agencies, etc, might have to be "burdened." Why? Because making key disability rights statutes “less burdensome” gives even more inordinate discretion to every narcissistic authority figure who doesn’t want to give up his Saturday. That’s not fair to people with disabilities.

Ontario man sought (MAiD) euthanasia after experiencing hospital overcrowding.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Cleo Gratton with his wife.

A CBC news report from November 6, 2025 concerned Cleo Gratton, who was approved for (MAiD) euthanasia after receiving terrible care caused by "hallway healthcare" at Health Sciences North in Sudbury. The article states:

When Cleo Gratton told his family he would rather die than go back to Health Sciences North in Sudbury, he wasn't exaggerating, his daughter says.

The 84-year-old from Chelmsford died last week of natural causes, shortly after he was approved for a medically assisted death, often known as MAID.

His daughter Lynn said he made that decision after a recent stay at the Sudbury hospital left him “beyond floored.”

Hallway Healthcare in Ontario

An article by Laura Stradiotto that was published in the Sudbury Star stated:

Gratton was in the process of arranging a medically assisted death when he passed away naturally and peacefully at home, surrounded by his family on Oct. 26. But he wanted his story to be known, and asked that his family share it in the hope that it might spark change in what he saw as a deeply broken health care system.

His daughter, Lynn Gratton, wrote about her father’s experience on social media one day after he was rushed to Health Sciences North on Oct. 20 after experiencing pain. According to Lynn, her father waited in the emergency department for 12 hours before being moved to the seventh floor where he was placed in a hallway with no lighting, table for a food tray, phone or bathroom.

“A nurse who came to do an assessment on his feet had to look for flashlights and headlamp to do the examination,”

When doing an internet search on the problem with "hallway healthcare" in Canada one notices that this is not only a problem in Sudbury but rather a national problem. 

Normand Meunier with his wife.

As terrible as this story is, Gratton is one of many people who have asked or died by euthanasia based on access to appropriate medical treatment.

On April 12, 2024 I reported that Normand Meunier died by euthanasia after developing a bed sore from being left on a hospital stretcher at the hospital in Saint-Jérôme, Québec for 95 hours. The bed sore got infected and became horrific, and yet it was preventable.

There were also the stories of Sarnia Saikali and Dan Quayle, who both died by euthanasia in Victoria BC after experiencing long drawn out wait times for cancer treatment. 

Mary Griffin reported by CHEK news that Danielle Baker, the daughter of Samia Saikali (67), wants changes to cancer treatment in British Columbia since her mother died by euthanasia after being forced to wait 10 weeks for an oncology appointment.

Dan Quayle with his wife.

Dan Quayle (52) died by euthanasia on December 5, 2023 after waiting 10 weeks for treatment, that he was approved for, but never received.

Legalizing euthanasia has not improved the Canadian healthcare system by killing people who may have otherwise required treatment, but rather it has created a death option for people who are not being properly cared for.

My Personal Experience With Suicide Prevention

This article was published by Choiceisanillusion on November 15, 2025

Margaret Dore

By Margaret Dore

In another life, most likely in 1980 when I was 23 years old, I talked three young men down from suicide.

What I think happened is that a final exit network person had given them my phone number by mistake. This was before the age of caller ID.

I was contacted by each of the three young men over a period of time, each one wanting assistance to kill himself.

I called a suicide prevention person to ask what I should do, i.e., with regard to the first one. The person told me to ask the suicidal person why? To engage him.

Green Lake Park

So that’s what I did. I met each young man at a local park, which I thought would be safe for me. I asked each young man why, and then I tried to expand to other topics.

The last one I got him laughing. He told me that he no longer felt like killing himself.

To the best of my knowledge they all lived, but I don't know for sure.

Euthanasia Healing retreat on November 19, 2025

Have you lost someone you love to euthanasia?

Euthanasia Healing Retreat

Wednesday, November 19, 2025
From 2:00 pm to 8:00 pm
St John the Compassionate Mission

(155 Broadview Ave Toronto, ON)

Register for the retreat: www.beingwith.org/euthanasia-healing-retreats

Join Compassionate Community Care for a healing retreat involving guided sharing, a pastoral talk, memorial service and a meal.

There is no cost to attend; a free will offering is appreciated. Overnight accommodations are available upon request.

Registration is required to St. Mary’s Refuge, an affiliate of St. John’s Mission. Visit www.beingwith.org/euthanasia-healing-retreats

MAiD will always be abused. Death down under.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Kelsi Sheren recorded a podcast on November 11 titled: MAiD will always be abused - Death down under (Video below).

In her podcast Sheren explains the story of the Queensland Australia Police who charged euthanasia actvists Ian George Taylor, Brett Daniel Taylor and Elaine Arch-Rowe with aiding suicide in the deaths of at least two people and they are being investigated in over three Australian states in at least 20 deaths.

The activists were using veterinarian euthanasia drugs to kill people. The veterinarian euthanasia drugs were obtained through a fake charity. People were charged at least $1,200 for each assisted death. The business was called End of Life Services.

For those who may be thinking that this service was "necessary" because assisted suicide is illegal in Australia, well think again. Assisted suicide is legal in every Australian state.

Prevent euthanasia (MAiD) for mental illness in Canada. Guide to supporting Bill C-218.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director,
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

In March 2021, the Canadian government expanded the euthanasia law by passing Bill C-7. One of the expansions in the law  permitted euthanasia for a mental illness alone. The government approved euthanasia for mental illness alone with a two-year moratorium to provide time to prepare for the change.

The government delayed the implementation of euthanasia for mental illness alone twice and in 2024 the government delayed its implementation until March 17, 2027.

On June 20, 2025, Tamara Jansen (MP - Cloverdale - Langley City) introduced private members Bill C-218 in the House of Commons to prevent euthanasia (MAiD) for mental illness alone. 

Bill C-218 excludes mental illness from being defined as a "grievous and irremediable medical condition" for the purposes of MAiD. Bill C-218, if passed will prevent MAID for mental illness alone.

Bill C-218 is scheduled to receive it's first hour of debate on December 5 and it's second hour of debate, followed by a vote, in later February 2026.

There are several effective ways you help get Bill C-218 passed:

1. Sign the petition in support of Bill C-218 (Link).
2. Share your story about living with mental illness, as Andrew Lawton (MP) did with his message: I got better. Support Bill C-218 prevent MAiD for Mental Illness (Link). 
3. Send your personal stories about living with mental illness to info@epcc.ca.
4. Contact your Member of Parliament and share your story or share your support for Bill C-218. Contact your Member of Parliament at: (Member of Parliament List).
5. Often it is easier and more efffective to call your Member of Parliament. The phone numbers are part of the MP contact information. (Member of Parliament List).
6. Refer to the information in the Bill C-218 handout for Members of Parliament (Link).

Remember. The majority of Canadians do not support MAiD for mental illness. 

Mario Canseco, the President of Research Co, was published by Business Intelligence for BC on October 30 with new polling indicating that the majority of Canadians do not support (MAiD) euthanasia for mental illness. Conseco reported that:

At this point, only an adult with a grievous and irremediable medical condition can seek medical assistance in dying in Canada. An expansion that would cover mental illness is expected to come into place in March 2027. Just over two in five Canadians (42 per cent, down one point) believe mental illness is a good reason for a person to request medical assistance in dying.

To pass, Bill C-218 needs Member of Parliament from all political parties to support it. Keys to speaking to your Member of Parliament:

• Only comment on MAiD for mental illness alone. Bill C-218 only deals with that issue. There are many concerns, but mixing issues weakens your position.
• Contact your Member of Parliament, even if you know his/her position on MAiD.
• Ask others, including groups that you belong to, to contact the Member of Parliament.

More information on Bill C-218.

• Bill C-218 introduced to prevent MAiD for Mental Illness (Link). 
• Support Bill C-218. No to MAiD for Mental Illness (Link). 
• Supporting Bill C-218 - I am so thankful to be alive (Link). 
• I got better. Support Bill C-218 prevent MAiD for Mental Illness (Link). 
• My story: No to MAiD for Mental Illness (Link). 
• Patti's story. Support Bill C-218. (Link).
• The majority of Canadians do not support MAiD (euthanasia) for mental illness (Link).