Euthanasia doctor believes housing problems is valid reason for assisted suicide

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A euthanasia doctor in Canada has said that she believes that those who are suffering due to poor housing is a valid reason to be eligible for assisted suicide.

Canada made assisted suicide legal in 2016 for those with a terminal illness, with safeguards. However, since its legalisation, the law has relaxed its safeguards, including repealing the requirement that the natural death is “reasonably foreseeable,” back in 2022. Currently, the government are pushing to expand the law to allow for those who are suffering with a mental illness to avail of assisted suicide, however, conservative ministers have sought to block this attempt.  

Euthanasia doctor, Dr Ellen Wiebe has recently said in an interview with the Daily Mail that she believes that those suffering due to poor housing should also be eligible for Canada’s assisted suicide program.

“In some situations, I will actually ask: ‘If you could have better housing, if you could have better services, would you want to live longer?’ And you know, some would say ‘yes’”.

“Does that mean that person should not have rights? No. They should still have the right to make this decision [to end their lives by euthanasia or assisted suicide]”.

Speaking on the possibility of expanding Canada’s law to allow for terminally ill teenagers to avail of assisted suicide, Wiebe said: “I’m surprised we haven’t yet had a 17-year-old with terminal cancer insist on their rights. When it happens, a judge will agree – I have no question about that”.

Wiebe had previously boasted about euthanising patients, with one patient she euthansied after he was denied MAiD due to being unable to make that decision for himself.  She has also called her euthanasia work “the most rewarding work we've ever done.” 

Amidst concerns of people seeking assisted suicide due to poverty and loneliness, Wiebe had said: “As all Canadians have rights to an assisted death, people who are lonely or poor also have those rights.”

However, concerns have arisen with Canada’s MAiD act, that has seen assisted suicide being offered in place of the requested care people ask for to help them live.

Life Institute recently reported on the case of a woman who had contacted a suicide hotline to help her deal with her suicidal thoughts as she had expressed she wanted to live, instead they recommended assisted suicide.

“Well, MAiD is a legit and legal option. Maybe it’s something you should consider. The medical system seems to be failing you. And you are never going to get the opiate pain medication that you think you need,” they said.

Another tragic case is that of Roger Foley who has been fighting for his life in hospital for nine years against doctors who have repeatedly offered him assisted suicide, despite him repeatedly refusing and repeatedly asking for assisted living at home. Mr Foley suffers with spinocerebellar ataxia, an incurable brain disease that makes it difficult to move, and thus requires aid with basic needs.

Other horrific cases involve army veteran, Christine Gauither, who was offered assisted suicide after complaining about the delay in getting a chair lift in her home and that of an elderly woman who was offered assisted suicide moments before she was due to have a life-saving surgery for breast cancer.

According to Right to Life UK, an official report on assisted suicide from Ontario, had 16 experts say that vulnerable people were placed under “undue influence” and “potential coercion”, with some saying that discussing assisted suicide with a vulnerable person could “confirm an impression that their life is not worth living”.

Speaking on Wiebe’s comments, spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “Wiebe is an apparent ideologue, seemingly content to accept any reason for euthanasia as legitimate. Doctors like Wiebe, with their euthanasia fanaticism, are an instrument of despair for people who need support and love, not offers of death”.

Sandra Parda of the Life Institute commented, saying: “This is a very worrying attitude expressed from someone who supports assisted suicide, but it should also be a wake-up call to what accepting assisted suicide really leads to. It seems that doctors in Canada, like Wiebe, are using assisted suicide as a solution to any problem as opposed to offering them real help so that they can continue to live their lives.”

“Life is not meaningless that we should encourage casting it aside the second suffering or even a minor problem arises, and we as a society will be failing our fellow neighbour if we simply allow resolvable issues, like housing, to become a valid reason to opt for killing yourself. We can do better than this.”