Euthanasia A Growing Phenomenon

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Darrell Castle talks about euthanasia as practiced primarily by doctors in Canada but which is being made legal in more and more countries around the world.

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EUTHANASIA A GROWING PHENOMENON

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday, the 13^th day of January in the year of our Lord 2023. I will be talking about euthanasia as practiced primarily by doctors in Canada but which is being made legal in more and more countries around the world. The Netherlands was the first country to legalize what it called “Death with Dignity”, but Canada now seems to be the world leader in allowing doctors to legally kill their patients.

There are two types of euthanasia, assisted suicide, or mercy killing depending on what you choose to call the practice, active and passive.  The passive kind is where care that could possibly prolong life is withheld allowing the person to die. That practice is legal everywhere but is nevertheless subject to stringent legal guidelines. Not many would argue with or find fault with a close relative who chose to allow medical staff to withhold treatment for a loved one who had no hope of recovery. Doctors and nurses must have responsible permission or a last will which permits the withholding of such treatment before they can do so.

Active euthanasia, on the other hand, is a completely different situation. That is where a doctor, sworn by oath to the profession of healing, deliberately causes the death of a patient and in many countries it is now perfectly legal. Active euthanasia is currently legal in the nations of Australia, Belgium, Canada, Columbia, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, and Spain. Although technically illegal in many other countries the legal system simply looks away when physicians kill or assist patients in dying.

Today, I want to start by focusing my attention on our friends in Canada and examine how they are handling the subject of mercy killing. Legally, Canada allows euthanasia for adults who have a terminal illness that has made their death “reasonably foreseeable.” That wording has drawn some criticism because it excludes some who are not terminally ill, but the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that it could also apply to those with non-terminal, but grievous and incurable conditions. We will be able to see from some information in this report that the practice has been stretched or extended to just about anybody a physician chooses to kill or assist in dying.

I’m always interested in what our friends to the north are doing because they often show us a picture of what is coming here legally as we abandon our own faith in God as our Canadian neighbors have. I first came across this information from a report in The New Atlantic about two Canadian doctors who brag that they have killed more than 700 people combined. Doctor Ellen Wiebe who works with Dying With Dignity Canada, conducts seminars for other Canadian physicians who may have the desire to kill their patients. I know I’m being unkind because the good doctor would say that she only “assists” her patients with dying.

Dr. Wiebe says that she has euthanized more than 400 people and that is the most rewarding work she has ever done. It seems that she has been denied the joy of the medical profession known as saving lives, healing, making lives better and such other things. Perhaps she read a biography of Joseph Mengele when she was in medical school and took her inspiration from it, but nevertheless she finds killing “most rewarding.”

Another Canadian physician who works with Dr. Wiebe, Doctor Stefanie Green says quite proudly that she has killed more than 300. These doctors also seem quite proud of the fact that they occasionally kill people who have applied to be killed and have been rejected by the MAID or Medical Assistance in Dying gatekeeper. It makes no difference to doctors Wiebe and Green, they seem to answer to no one. One man whose story became public because he was killed by Doctor Wiebe even though he did not have a qualifying serious illness and the Maid had determined that he was incapable of making an informed decision about his own health. He eventually made his way to Dr. Wiebe who cleared him and euthanized him.

Doctor Green is an obstetrician who brings babies into the world while she is killing others. She says the more than 300 she has killed is her most rewarding work so I assume she enjoys taking them out more than bringing them in. She uses the word “deliveries” to describe both aspects of her work, the killing and the delivering babies.

Even though assisted suicide is illegal in the United States, California has a legal assisted suicide program. In 2021, 486 people died by assisted suicide in California while in Canada 10,064 died during the same time. MAID or Medical Assistance in Dying has grown so popular in Canada that suicide prevention hotlines try to stop people from killing themselves, while MAID hotlines direct them in how to do it. Maid has come under increasing scrutiny even in Canada because of people being killed because they don’t want to live in poverty anymore.

Drs. Wiebe and Green admit that they have a great deal of sympathy for people who are homeless and in poverty and that is a reasonable reason to allow them to be killed. Mental anguish is another listed cause that is not permitted as legal but is often used anyway. So a person comes to Doctors Wiebe or Green and says I am living in mental anguish because I am poor so I would like for you to kill me and the good doctors say OK.

One of these subjects listed in the report of The New Atlantic was a 41 year old woman who came to them and said she needed to be euthanized ASAP. According to her medical history and messages sent to doctors and family she was facing eviction, needed to crowdfund to pay for food, and was afraid that she would suffer alone. She was also afraid of being institutionalized and saw MAID as “the best solution for all. “She suffered from leukemia, but the condition was not terminal. Her letter admitted that her suffering was not physical but mental.

She was killed on her ex-husband’s birthday in 2021. A doctor, a licensed physician, a healer, gave her a lethal injection and she died in her basement apartment. I dare say the Canadian government and the Canadian Medical Association, not to mention the doctor who killed her would have agonized over a convicted murderer sentenced to death to a far greater extent than they did this poor woman. She needed mental health treatment, but instead they killed her.

Another patient was described as 55 years old who suffered from chronic pain and could not tackle the issue because of her low income. Can there be any doubt then, that the vaunted Canadian health system failed her and she was exterminated because she was poor. The presentation given to MAID to justify her death read like this, “she does not want to die , but she’s suffering terribly and she’s been maxing out her credit cards. She has no other options.”

Other patients in similar situations include a former doctor aged 68 who ran out of savings and a writer aged 57 who also ran out of savings. A 38-year-old trans woman named Lucy, an immigrant who suffered from chronic pain and felt trapped in her one room studio apartment with creepy men all around. It is unclear whether any or all of these people were legally cleared, but they were all killed. The report went on to criticize Canada’s welfare state  and pointed out a rising number of people wanted to end their lives due to poverty.

This report said that all Canadians have a right to an assisted death and loneliness and poverty are not bars to exercising those rights. The trouble is that under Canadian law that statement is untrue since certain conditions have to be met for assisted suicide to be legal. Why even have the law in the first place. If it is routinely ignored by the doctors without consequences, why have the law and the conditions. In essence it is now just left up to the doctors and some don’t care whether the bureaucratic gatekeeper approves their decision to kill or not.

One man aged 65 told doctors he applied to MAID although he doesn’t want to die. He applied because he cannot afford to live comfortably. A doctor has already given one of two signatures necessary, and he awaits the appearance of the second doctor soon so he can die and not have to live uncomfortably. He says that he has no doubt that he can shop around and eventually find a doctor who will kill him. This case is evidence for the increasingly relaxed standards of Canada’s assisted suicide law.

This case indicates the slippery slope that Canada is on by its increasingly lenient assisted suicide requirements. Sometimes people report that they did not apply to be killed but doctors in the program offered to kill them anyway. That makes me think that it is not always voluntary, which is the Dr. Mengele type of nightmare that I’m afraid this will eventually evolve into.

Former Paralympian Christine Gauthier criticized her government for offering to euthanize her when she grew frustrated at delays in having a wheelchair lift installed in her home. She is a former army veteran and has competed in the Paralympics, so she has not given up on life, but the Canadian government seems to have given up on her problems. She testified before the Canadian parliament that a Veterans Affairs Canada caseworker offered her euthanasia after she expressed frustration with delays.

That is or should be the fear of every Canadian. How much longer will this program remain voluntary? How much longer will people in certain situations be allowed to continue living, using up valuable resources when some government bureaucrat can just order them killed. That would probably make keeping your mouth shut very important. This is what Ms. Gauthier told parliament happened to her. She is a former army corporal now retired and she was scheduled to have a wheelchair lift installed in her home courtesy of the Veterans Affairs Canada, but the installation had been delayed for years. Her caseworker said to her, “madam if you are really so desperate we can give you medical assistance in dying now.”

Our subject doctor Wiebe has been accused by a Jewish old person’s home of euthanizing one of their patients without consulting the home. She gave “medical Assistance in dying” to one of their patients and even his nurses didn’t know about it until well after. She has been accused of unethical behavior by the home, a charge that does not bother the good doctor at all. She said she did not regret her very rewarding work and she intends to go on killing.

Finally, Folks, could Doctor Mengele be on his way to the United states right now? I would not be surprised as we continue our descent into the hell of disregarding human life. I pray that I am wrong and created in the image of God will return to America.

At least that’s the way I see it,

Until next time folks,

This is Darrell Castle,

Thanks for listening.