Shocking reports from Belgium, the Netherlands and Canada are the writing on the wall.

NEW YEAR Fundraising Appeal - Day 6

Just in case you missed it, I am re-sending my email from yesterday.

It is about an extremely important and pressing subject and it will affect many of our supporters – perhaps even YOU.

The battle for a pro-life world hangs in the balance.

For all our own sakes, I really hope that each person receiving this email will read it right the way through, and think carefully about what it means.

Dear
SPUC supporter,
If not firmly resisted NOW, assisted suicide/euthanasia could become law in the UK by the end of this year (2024).

Right now, there are FOUR ongoing bids to legalise assisted suicide or euthanasia in Britain…
1. Westminster Inquiry into Assisted Suicide
2. McArthur assisted suicide Bill in Scotland
3. Jersey euthanasia Bill
4. Isle of Man euthanasia Bill.

Arguments for legalising euthanasia and assisted suicide always rely upon the assertion that such requests are well-considered and always a free choice.

In other words, fully informed consent must always apply.

However, in jurisdictions where euthanasia/assisted suicide is legal, the evidence shows MANY cases occur where choice is absent or unacceptable coercion is applied to vulnerable people to pressure them into agreeing to take their own life.

DONATE ([link removed])
Take infant euthanasia.
* In Dutch and Belgian reports up till 2010, between 7% and 9% of all infant deaths involved active euthanasia, that is, a lethal injection.

Non-voluntary euthanasia of adults in Holland, Belgium and Switzerland also occurs in large numbers.
* Dutch reports for 1990 and 1995 showed that approximately 1000 deaths per year involved ‘ending of life without patient’s explicit request’.

The way such deaths are now recorded makes cases involving intentionally ending life without request from the patient difficult to assess, but some researchers believe that they have likely increased over time.
* In Switzerland, the incidence of CDS (continuous deep sedation) while removing food and fluids, known as Euthanasia by Omission, nearly quadrupled from 6.7% in 2001 to 24.5% in 2013

It has been suggested that 24,000 patients in the UK may be at risk of euthanasia by omission.

Euthanasia of dementia patients

In the Netherlands, this increased from 12 cases in 2009 to 169 in 2017.

In Belgium, research from 2010 showed that somewhere in the vicinity of 200 dementia patients were euthanised without consent.

Euthanasia of psychiatric patients

Dutch numbers have increased from 0 in 2008 to 83 in 2017.

Cases include euthanasia for depressive disorders, personality disorders, psychosis, posttraumatic stress or anxiety, eating disorders, substance abuse, prolonged grief, and autism.

The numbers and increasing incidence are similar in Belgium.

Euthanasia in the context of pressure, coercion, undue influence and cultural expectation is difficult to identify but involves patients with particular vulnerabilities.

These include where euthanasia is used for organ donation, for prisoners, for those who perceive themselves as burdensome to others, and for persons with a disability.

DONATE ([link removed])

Euthanasia for Poverty (and other resolvable social ills)

In Canada, euthanasia was legalised in 2016.

A few short years later, the North American country is experiencing a euthanasia epidemic.
* By 2022 (the last year we have figures for), a staggering 4.1% of ALL recorded deaths in Canada were due to a medically assisted death.

Cases of vulnerable people being offered death by the state as a solution to poverty, disability or social problems are commonplace today in Canada.

A blog written by Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director of the Canadian Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, has highlighted such cases, including:
* Christine Gauthier, a retired Canadian soldier and Paralympic athlete who had been asking for help with a wheelchair ramp or lift for 5 years was told:

"Madam, if you are really so desperate, we can give you medical assistance in dying now."

* Roger Foley, who has a degenerative brain disorder and is hospitalised in London, Ontario, was so alarmed by staff mentioning euthanasia that he began secretly recording some of their conversations.

In one recording, the hospital’s director of ethics told Foley that for him to remain in the hospital, it would cost “north of $1,500 a day.”

Foley said that this felt like coercion and asked what plan there was for his long-term care.

“Roger, this is not my show,” said the director.

“My piece of this was to talk to you, [to see] if you had an interest in assisted dying.”

Foley said he had never previously mentioned euthanasia.

* Alan Nichols had a history of depression and other medical issues, but none were life-threatening.

He lost his hearing after brain surgery at age 12 and later suffered a stroke but managed to live independently for the most part.

In 2019, after being hospitalised over concerns that he might be suicidal, Alan asked his brother to “bust him out” as soon as possible.

Within a month, Mr Nichols had been euthanised by the hospital.

His euthanasia application gave only “hearing loss” as the reason for his request.

Tired of life

In the Netherlands, there is now a new potential category for euthanasia, namely for those tired of life, where otherwise healthy individuals over the age of 70 would ‘choose’ euthanasia.

Slippery slope

Those pushing for legalised medical killing begin with narrow qualification criteria, typically terminally ill competent adults.

But as we have seen in Canada, the Netherlands and Belgium, this is the thin end of a dangerous wedge. It inevitably expands to include

Inevitably, it eventually expands to include children, and criteria such as:
* Non-terminal illness
* Mental illness
* Disability
* Boredom with life.

It results in establishing a culture where vulnerable people are expected to accept death while society absolves itself of responsibility for providing them with modest levels of healthcare and social help.

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We must raise the alarm before it’s too late and the law is changed.

One way I would like to do this is by discovering what concerns voters in the UK have about assisted suicide/euthanasia and using those insights to inform SPUC’s General Election campaign.

This would entail commissioning a professionally conducted poll to survey the British public.

Polling is an essential strategic tool for a campaigning organisation like SPUC. It allows us to demonstrate the strength of public support for pro-life issues. This is crucial when dealing with elected politicians.

Estimated cost: £10,000

SPUC also runs a dedicated network for anyone going into hospital called the Patients First Network.

It helps you to let healthcare workers know that you expected to be treated in hospital if you are mentally incapacitated – and not euthanised or put on an "end-of-life pathway."

Changes in medical guidelines and in law mean that medical professionals can decide to stop giving YOU and any other patients food and fluids, or to stop giving medical and nursing care, if they think it is in your "best interests".

Nothing should be done deliberately to end your life, nor should your health care team withdraw treatment with the deliberate intention of causing your death.

Most importantly, SPUC's Patients First Network operates a confidential telephone service which can advise you and your family on end-of-life issues.

But operating a service like this requires manpower and resources. Without funds, we cannot provide YOU and YOUR FAMILY with advice that may make the difference between life and death.

Estimated cost: £5,000

Will you help protect vulnerable people from assisted suicide/euthanasia legislation by giving £10, £25, £50 or £100 or £500 or £1,000, or more today?

DONATE ([link removed])
Thank you for defending vulnerable people, who cannot protect themselves.

Yours in Defence of Life
John Deighan
​Chief Executive

PS – With 4 separate bids to legalise medically assisted killing currently underway, time is running out to STOP assisted suicide/euthanasia.

Should new legislation be adopted, a new norm will be quickly established that operates as a cultural pressure upon elderly, sick, lonely, impoverished and disabled people whose lives are perceived by society as having no value at all.

But such a choice is no choice at all.

They will be pressured to swallow a cocktail of deadly drugs or accept a lethal injection.

In this respect, abortion and euthanasia are two sides of the same deadly coin.

Just as vulnerable women and girls are routinely railroaded into “choosing” abortion - a BBC poll found that 15% of respondents were pressured into having an abortion – so vulnerable people in the UK will be routinely coerced into ending their own lives on a new state-sponsored conveyor belt of death.

That is why I urge you to support this key 2024 objective with a personal donation today if you can.

DONATE ([link removed])

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