120 articles
Meghan Schrader, a disability activist and EPC-USA board member, discusses the Texas vs. Kennedy lawsuit which threatens new protections against euthanasia and infanticide.
Read →The first euthanasia death in the Netherlands of a child under the age of 12 occurred at the end of 2025, involving a child around 2 years old. The child was born very prematurely, and this case follows the country's existing allowance of infant euthanasia under the age of 1 based on the Groningen Protocol.
Read →Assisted suicide bills were defeated in the UK, Scotland, and Slovenia due to issues with unclear language and lack of protections for vulnerable people, highlighting cultural challenges and the need for better end-of-life care. The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition opposes medical homicide and calls for improved care, equality for people with disabilities, and support for those with chronic conditions, emphasizing that opposition to killing must come before providing better care.
Read →Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, expressed gratitude for the defeat of assisted suicide bills in the UK, Scotland, and Slovenia in 2025. These outcomes highlight both a lack of overwhelming support for euthanasia and assisted suicide and reveal significant cultural challenges, particularly in the UK, partly due to ineffective language in the proposed bills.
Read →By Gordon Friesen President: Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Gordon Friesen Those of us who are committed to the prevention of medical homicide have frequently felt betrayed by the unfortunate adoption of pro-death policies, by those very organizations whose natural mandate is to oppose such practice without reservation. Our latest example involves the American Association of Suicidology, which has apparently reposted the following policy statement on its website: “the practice of physician aid in dying ... is distinct from the behavior that has been traditionally and ordinarily describe
Read →Meghan Schrader By Meghan Schrader Meghan is a disability activists and a member of the EPC-USA board. This blog post responds to the fact that the American Association of Suicidology’s 2017 statement saying that Oregon Model “MAiD” is not “suicide,” previously “ retired ” by the AAS Executive Committee in 2023, was reissued verbatim this year. I may write follow-up blog posts about this development, but I will stick with this one for now. Clearly the AAS is comprised of brilliant scholars who have done great good for suicide prevention. Yet AAS’s vacillation can be understood to suggest that
Read →Ashley Dalton UK (MP) L This is the speech in the British parliament by Ashley Dalton (Labour MP) West Lancashire who is living with terminal cancer. Dalton spoke against the assisted suicide bill on Friday September 11, 2026. Dalton is not philosophically opposed to assisted suicide but she is concerned about it's effects and she was opposed to the bill which was defeated by a vote of 286 to 270. ( Link to the speech ) The last time this House considered this bill at Second Reading I was keeping a secret. Whilst Honourable and Right Honourable members were debating the issu
Read →Alex Schadenberg Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition In March 2021, the Canada's parliament expanded the euthanasia law by passing Bill C-7. One of the expansions in the law permitted euthanasia for a mental illness alone . but, at that time, the government declared a two-year moratorium to provide time to prepare for the change. The government has now delayed the implementation of euthanasia for mental illness, as a sole criteria, three times with implementation currently approved for March 17, 2027 . On June 20, 2025, Tamara Jansen (MP - Cloverdale
Read →The Delta Hospice Society in Canada refused to provide medical assistance in dying (MAiD) after it became legal, leading to the hospice being forced to close and patients having to relocate. Angelina Ireland, Executive Director of the Delta Hospice Society, warns that legalizing assisted dying can fundamentally alter the philosophy and operation of hospices, which traditionally focus on accompanying people through dying rather than hastening death.
Read →The British Parliament defeated the Edwards assisted suicide bill on September 9, 2026, by a vote of 286 to 270, following previous rejection of a similar Leadbeater bill in the House of Lords earlier that year. Changes influencing the outcome included a new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, who emphasized improving palliative and social care before considering assisted suicide, and ongoing concerns about the expansion of euthanasia laws as seen in Canada.
Read →Alex Schadenberg and Dr. Paul Saba urge the British Parliament to vote against the Edwards assisted dying bill, citing the Canadian experience where assisted dying laws expanded beyond initial restrictions and led to increased risks such as misdiagnosis and broader eligibility criteria.
Read →Wesley J Smith criticizes World Suicide Prevention Day for ignoring the role of assisted suicide and euthanasia, which he claims contradicts key suicide prevention strategies promoted by the World Health Organization. He highlights that assisted suicide is not opposed or even mentioned by major suicide prevention organizations despite evidence that legalizing it increases overall suicide rates.
Read →A federal judge denied a request from disability rights advocates to block the Illinois assisted suicide law from going into effect on September 12, 2026, rejecting arguments that the law violates the Americans with Disabilities Act and other protections. The judge noted that one plaintiff, a quadriplegic woman, did not demonstrate harm under the law and questioned the standing of the plaintiffs, while giving them 30 days to appeal the decision.
Read →Disability rights organizations petitioned a federal judge to block the Illinois assisted suicide law scheduled to take effect on September 12, 2026, arguing it violates the Americans with Disabilities Act and discriminates against disabled people due to potential physician bias and coercion. Additionally, Chicago Archbishop Cardinal Blase Cupich and two orders of Catholic nuns filed a lawsuit claiming the law infringes on constitutional protections for free speech and religious freedom, while a judge is expected to decide on the law's legality before its implementation date.
Read →Register for the Bring Roger Home Campaign Town Hall Meeting. Date: Wednesday September 16 at 2 pm (Eastern Time), 11 am (Pacific Time) ( Zoom event Registration Link ) Join our speakers: Roger Foley Alex Schadenberg, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, Lino Defacendis, Life Care Network, Kathy Matusiak Costa, Compassionate Community Care. It will also be Roger's 51st birthday. There is now a plan to bring Roger home. ( Zoom event Registration Link ) After almost a decade living in a London Ontario hospital and experiencing multiple series issues related to his care, and being denied direct
Read →A new assisted-suicide clinic in New York plans to charge up to $12,000 per suicide facilitation, including medical evaluations and a prescription for lethal drugs. This creates significant financial incentives for doctors, with some already earning millions by assisting suicides, raising concerns about conflicts of interest and the lack of long-term doctor-patient relationships.
Read →Alex Schadenberg Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition On February 6, 2026, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed the assisted suicide bill with the law caming into effect on August 5 . This is terrible news as it will lead to the deaths of many people, at a vulnerable time of their life by lethal poison. To increase the demand for assisted suicide the New York Times published an article on September 3 by Emma Goldberg promoting a new assisted suicide "business". Goldberg describes it as a business "start-up" for assisted suicide. In reality the article is providing free ad
Read →Alex Schadenberg Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition John Pring reported for the Disability New Service on September 3, 2026 that the British government admitted that disabled people may face 'subtle pressure' to choose assisted suicide if the assisted suicide bill becomes law. Pring reported that: The impact assessment was published by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) last Thursday (August 28). The assessment’s publication came on the same day that prime minister Andy Burnham wrote to Labour MPs to say he would not vote on the b
Read →Alex Schadenberg Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition I have good news. Justice Carissima Mathen denied Claire Brosseau and Dying With Dignity an injunction to approve Brosseau to be killed by euthanasia (MAiD) based on mental illness as the sole criteria. Brosseau lives in Toronto Ontario. ( Link to the court decision ). The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC) intervened in the Brosseau case and participated in the hearings on July 21/22, 2026. ( Read ). The cost to intervene in a court case is prohibitive. EPC continues to need at least $20,000 in donations to cover ou
Read →The following article by Zubir Ahmad was published by the Guardian on August 25, 2026 . Usually we comment on an article, but Dr Zubir Ahmad it was better to simply republish this article. The British parliament will once again vote-on an assisted suicide bill on September 11, 2026. The new bill is nearly identical to the previous bill. Dr Zubir Ahmad By Dr Zubir Ahmad As a doctor, I have spent much of my professional life caring for people at some of the most vulnerable moments they will ever face. I have seen the anxiety that surrounds the prospect of dying, and the desperate wis
Read →A major article in the Journal of Health & Biomedical Law argues that doctors have an ethical obligation to inform patients about voluntary stop eating and drinking (VSED) as a means to hasten death and to provide palliative care to ease the suffering caused by this method, even if it conflicts with their moral conscience. The article also supports the use of advance directives to refuse nourishment during VSED and suggests that caregivers should deny food or drink if the patient becomes confused and requests it, framing this as a duty under the principle of non-abandonment.
Read →Gordon Friesen By Gordon Friesen President, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition One of our great friends and allies, Wesley J. Smith, has recently written about the British Medical Association's newly minted policy and other bioethics articles which require doctors to collaborate with patients who are attempting to kill themselves through hunger and thirst. This practice is commonly euphemized as ‘voluntarily stopping eating and drinking’, which ungainly expression is then replaced with the more slick-sounding acronym ‘VSED’. However we must unfortunately note (as usual) that the most important fa
Read →Alex Schadenberg Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Do not ask me about euthanasia . I am not interested. I was contacted by a woman who called us on behalf of her elderly Aunt who was receiving treatment in a hospital in London Ontario. The Aunt wanted to know if there was anything that could be done to stop the MAiD team from asking her if she wanted MAiD. The woman told me that her Aunt was asked, if she wanted euthanasia twice, in a pretty persuasive manner, and she said NO. The woman told me that her Aunt was very upset because the person in the bed next to her was sold e
Read →Alex Schadenberg and Marcel Lemmen are running a half-marathon on September 27, 2026 to raise money for the Compassionate Community Charity (CCC) and/or the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition. This is the seventh consecutive year that Alex and Marcel are running the half-marathon fund-raiser for CCC and EPC. The money raised for CCC from the previous 6 half-marathon runs combined is almost $90,000. Donations from the half-marathon (21.1 km) run are very much appreciated. The Compassionate Community Care (CCC) charity operates a help-line, a training program for visiting seniors
Read →Meghan Schrader By Meghan Schrader Meghan is a disability activists and a member of the EPC-USA board. As I’ve said, I think that one of the most effective ways to prevent euthanasia is for euthanasia opponents to be thinking about what kind of world we want people with disabilities to live in, and do what we can to link euthanasia prevention to creating a better world. Hence, I think it’s valuable for euthanasia opponents to be aware of the trend towards broad re-institutionalization that is happening in the United States right now, especially since we know that coerced institutionaliza
Read →Alex Schadenberg Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Australia's Northern Territory I have sad news. Australia's Northern Territory was the first jurisdiction in the world to legalize assisted suicide between 1996 - 97, and once again has legalized assisted suicide. Joseph Hathaway-Wilson reported for ABC News Australia on August 27 that: The Northern Territory Parliament has passed a bill legalising voluntary assisted dying (VAD) in the NT, with significant restrictions on accessing, and initiating conversations about, the practice. The NT is now both the first and last
Read →Dr. Mark Komrad The following comments were provided by Dr. Mark Komrad, M.D., DFAPA, ACP, Faculty of Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins, University of Maryland, Tulane, and LSU You may have heard that France’s National Assembly overrode their Senate’s objection to a proposed euthanasia law , and legalized it. A review by the French constitutional court has since upheld it, with a some of important clarifications, a couple of which are disturbing: Like Canada and Benelux countries, the law allows both US style assisted suicide (oral prescription) AND euthanasia (IV lethal injection by doctor). [In all
Read →Alex Schadenberg Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Philip Nitschke, also known as Dr Death, who invented a suicide pod, stated in an interview, last year, that the suicide pod will be ready for use in Britain if assisted suicide is legalized. Sanchez Manning reported for the Times on June 20, 2025 that: Nitschke, who invented the pod, which uses gas to assist death, said: “As soon as we know that the final legislation is in place we’ll start enthusiastically pursuing the option of using the device in the UK. “We’ll be looking to find UK-registered doctors to assist and of cou
Read →Alex Schadenberg Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Disability leaders opposing assisted suicide On December 12, 2025 w e reported that Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed assisted suicide bill SB 9 into law. The Illinois assisted suicide law is scheduled to go into effect on September 12, 2026. On August 13, 2026 we reported that a group of Illinois physicians, a Catholic bishop and a faith-based nursing home filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block Illinois’ assisted suicide law before it goes into effect. On August 24, 2026 Molly Sweeney reported for WCIA news that Illinoi
Read →By Odile Marcotte Retired Professor Department of Computer Science, UQAM and a Euthanasia Prevention Coalition board member. Previous article: France legalized euthanasia. What's next ( Link ). Odile Marcotte After the National Assembly of France adopted the law on “aid in dying,” ( Article Link ) five people or groups asked the Constitutional Council (the French equivalent of the Supreme Court of Canada) to state whether this law was constitutional. In its decision published on August 14, 2026, the Constitutional Council did not reject the law or any part of it but asked for three changes ( L
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