News

Hospice society president warns Canada’s assisted suicide rate could be ‘much higher’ than gov’t numbers – LifeSite

(LifeSiteNews) — The president of the pro-life Delta Hospice Society (DHS) Angelina Ireland has disputed Canada’s official euthanasia statistics, saying she believes the rate “of state-sanctioned execution” is much higher than what is being reported. 

“I do not believe the government numbers. I believe those being euthanized are much higher than the just over 10,000 the government admits to,” Ireland told LifeSiteNews. “Just by our anecdotal evidence alone, it feels like far more Canadians have succumbed to euthanasia.”

Ireland was responding to a July report from the Government of Canada which shows its ever-more permissive euthanasia laws have increased the assisted suicide death toll by a whopping 32 percent since 2020, with over 10,000 people dying by doctor-assisted suicide in 2021 alone.  

Ireland suggested that “perhaps if the people really knew the extent of state-sanctioned execution, it would shock and terrify them into action.” 

Ireland also told LifeSiteNews that in Canada’s “current climate” of ever-degrading morality, she expects “the euthanasia numbers to only exponentially increase.” 

According to a federal government report, last year, 10,064 people died from what is formally called “Medically Assistance in Dying (MAiD).” By comparison, in 2016, the first-year euthanasia was legal in Canada, just 1,018 people died from MAiD. 

Legal euthanasia ‘preys on the vulnerable’

Ireland told LifeSiteNews that in her view, “MAiD preys upon the vulnerable,” which is especially concerning for an “entire nation that has been traumatized over the past 2.5 years of COVID-mania, inflation, threats of war and social disintegration.” 

Serving up MAiD as an expression of human rights is a creation of marketing spin-doctors,” continued the hospice society president, adding that MAiD as a movement is a “predatory political and cultural crusade.

“There is nothing medically necessary about its existence. With life-affirming palliative care, and other appropriate symptom management options, we have the technology to effectively and successfully treat our suffering,” Ireland insisted in her comments to LifeSiteNews.

“We are a nation in need of care, and treatment opportunities, but the answer we receive is death. MAiD now is the’ cure-all’ for a pack of nihilists. A ‘cure-all’ for every illness, for poverty, for disability, for mental instability, and PTSD.” 

Ireland added that she thinks MAiD is an “abdication of responsibility and a betrayal from a government that is broke, overwhelmed and incapable of bringing this nation to a shining and hopeful tomorrow.” 

In an interview with LifeSiteNews earlier this year, Ireland had noted that the DHS’s “Do Not Euthanize’ Advance Directive (DNE)” has experienced unprecedented demand in the wake of an increased push for MAiD in Canada.

According to Ireland, the fact people feel the need to sign up for an anti-euthanasia directive program proves that people are very concerned about Canada’s ever-expanding euthanasia laws and do not trust the government to protect them.

Pro-life Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) MP Dr. Leslyn Lewis, like Ireland, thinks that Canada’s euthanasia laws are being used to “rid society” of the most vulnerable.   

MAiD has turned into a wicked and discriminatory policy to absolve the gov’t of its duty to protect the most vulnerable,” charged Lewis.

Even pro-abortion CPC leader Pierre Poilievre has spoken out against the nation’s euthanasia laws, rejecting the notion that the laws should be further expanded. 

Despite push back, Canada’s euthanasia laws are set to be further relaxed in March of next year.  

This expansion comes as the result of the 2021 passing of  Bill C-7, which expanded the scope of the 2016 law that first legalized the fatal practice.  

Bill C-7 took away many “safeguards” found in the 2016 bill, including the prerequisite that the person who is looking to take his or her own life with assistance be terminally ill, and be able to provide their consent at the time of death.    

Bill C-7 also took away the requirement that two witnesses be present to demonstrate that the person who is seeking to kill himself indeed wanted to “die” with medical aid.    

The controversial law also included a clause that declared that starting in March of 2023, “mature minors” and those suffering solely from mental illness will likewise be able to qualify for doctor-induced death.  

Due to these expansions – which now allow the chronically ill to choose death, instead of just the terminally ill – a recent report highlighted how disabled Canadians are now choosing assisted suicide to escape poverty, with another report stating that doctors in Canada are being urged to promote euthanasia as an option to sick patients.   

Previous ArticleNext Article