We know doctors will euthanise disabled people without consent and will proudly admit to it. In 2013, of patients who died that year in Flanders, Belgian doctors reported hastening the deaths of 1.7% of them (1,048) without a request for #euthanasia: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmc1414527

Similarly, studies from August to December of 1990 showed doctors performed euthanasia without request on .8 to 1.6% of all 7000 patients who died in the #Netherlands in that time, before it was legal.

Legalisation of euthanasia is not necessary for doctors to deny treatment to disabled people. In 2014, in the #UK, the #UKHighCourt granted a petition by #NancyFitzmaurice ’s mother to allow the hospital to withhold fluids, killing her by dehydration: https://autisticadvocacy.org/2014/10/asan-statement-on-the-killing-of-nancy-fitzmaurice/

It was the first time the British legal system allowed a child breathing on her own, not on life support and not diagnosed with any terminal illness, to be killed by the medical system.

In the #UnitedStates, the “futility laws” allow hospitals in #California, #Texas, and #Virginia to refuse treatment, nutrition, and hydration to a patient if they decide that care for a patient is “futile.” https://khn.org/news/texas-law-highlights-dilemma-over-care-for-patients-with-no-hope-of-survival/

#FutilityLaws #Eugenics #MedicalAbleism

Many disabled people deemed “futile” have been documented recovering if lucky enough to be moved to other hospitals. Disabled people are also denied organs in most #US states and can have Do Not Resuscitate (#DNR) orders placed on them without consent: https://www.disabilityrightswa.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/DevaluingPeoplewithDisabilties_May2012.pdf

In October 2021, #GraceSchara, a 19-year-old with Down Syndrome, was admitted to a #Wisconsin hospital with covid-19. During the hour the hospital sent her sister home to shower, she was strapped down, coded as DNR over her & her family’s objections, and given three contraindicated medications that resulted in her death. Nurses refused the family’s pleas to help Grace and instead utilised an armed guard to keep them from helping Grace themselves: https://wsau.com/2022/04/07/wisconsin-hospital-protocols-kill-19-year-old-downs-syndrome-girl/

#MedicalAbleism #DoNotResuscitate #DoNotResuscitateOrders #COVID19 #covid

#Euthanasia safeguards are not enforced. In 2016, an elderly Dutch woman with dementia verbally refused euthanasia 3x, so Dr. #MarinouArends had drugged her with a sedative. When she still sat up & tried to resist being euthanised, Dr. Arends had her son-in-law hold her down.

Dr Arends was prosecuted and convicted for murder, and 220 Dutch doctors signed a letter saying they would not euthanise a patient without their express agreement, even though Dutch law doesn’t require it. (source in Dutch): https://nos.nl/artikel/2157398-grote-groep-artsen-tegen-euthanasie-bij-demente-ouderen

Arends was cleared of all wrongdoing by the #DutchSupremeCourt in 2020, which held that the woman’s refusal *was itself* evidence of her lack of capacity to decide for herself if she wanted to die, because of course any sane person would rather be dead than disabled or elderly.

Most English language news sources, such as this one, are supportive of this eugenic view, even presenting the same facts (drugging her, holding her down) as neutral or positive elements of the euthanasia process: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/groupthink-exposed-in-prosecution-of-dutch-doctor-in-euthanasia-case-1.4285547

This view has become so pervasive that as of 2016, 1 out of 30 people in the #Netherlands now die by euthanasia: https://web.archive.org/web/20210307123258/https://www.nzma.org.nz/journal-articles/social-consequences-of-assisted-dying-a-case-study

#VoluntaryAssistedDying #VAD #MedicalAbleism #Eugenics

#KateCheney was one of the first people to die under #Oregon’s #DeathWithDignity law in 1999. After her doctor refused #euthanasia, her daughter Erika took her to 3 more doctors: the 4th noted that Erika was “coercive” & that “her choices may be influenced by her family’s wishes” but approved euthanasia anyway. Erika then left her at a nursing home for a week until she requested euthanasia, which was performed on the spot.

The Michigan Law review notes many other legal inconsistencies, systemic lack of data, & other cases of coercion: https://web.archive.org/web/20140123080900/http://www.michiganlawreview.org:80/assets/pdfs/106/8/hendinfoley.pdf

In 2008, a woman named #TamiSawyer moved in with a disabled man named #ThomasMiddleton; within a month she was named his heir and he was euthanised under Dying with Dignity. Two days later she sold his estate and pocketed the money: https://ctmirror.org/2015/03/06/op-ed-assisted-suicide-would-be-fraught-with-problems-and-abuses/

We only know about this because she was convicted of real estate fraud; there are no mechanisms to protect disabled people, nor was the state interested in investigating Middleton’s death.

Our lives have less value than the tax paid on property.

Linda Fleming, the first person to be euthanised in #Washington state, was divorced, bankrupt, and unable to work due to disability, yet her situation presented no “red flags” to the proponents of euthanasia who pushed for her to be euthanised: https://web.archive.org/web/20150701071719/https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/23/us/23suicide.html?_r=0

#UnitedStates #MedicalAbleism #Eugenics

Under the #DeathWithDignity Law, patients must be diagnosed with a terminal illness that will lead to death within 6 months to be eligible: https://www.oregon.gov/oha/ph/providerpartnerresources/evaluationresearch/deathwithdignityact/pages/faqs.aspx

Yet people have been euthanised up to 1503 days (>4 years) after their #euthanasia request: https://www.oregon.gov/oha/PH/PROVIDERPARTNERRESOURCES/EVALUATIONRESEARCH/DEATHWITHDIGNITYACT/Documents/year23.pdf

Both #Oregon and #Washington allow witnesses to be heirs, something that would not be permitted for witnesses to a will: https://dredf.org/public-policy/assisted-suicide/what-do-we-advise-our-clients/

They allow others to communicate a person’s wish for euthanasia, encourage doctors to count if the person is a “burden” as grounds for euthanasia, & define “self-administration” as “ingestion” of lethal medication, whether orally or by absorbing it in an IV: https://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=elders

Individuals have no right to opt out of euthanasia laws, to proactively protect themselves from being euthanised, and if they are euthanised there will be no investigation into their death.

#UnitedStates #MedicalAbleism #Eugenics

cw: #transphobia, #audism

In #Belgium, doctors euthanised #NathanVerhelst, a 44-year-old trans man, after his gender affirming surgeries went poorly & he was rejected by his family. The same doctor previously euthanised deaf twins afraid they wouldn’t be able to talk with each other: https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.independent.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Feurope%2Fbelgian-man-dies-by-euthanasia-after-failed-sex-change-operation-8851872.html

Belgium has since become the first country to allow #ChildEuthanasia of *any* age: https://edition.cnn.com/2016/09/17/health/belgium-minor-euthanasia/index.html

#Colombia allows children as young as 7 to make the decision to be euthanised: https://latinamericanpost.com/20090-colombia-has-regulated-euthanasia-for-children-and-adolescents

While the #Netherlands considers children 13 and older able to consent to #euthanasia, the Dutch government is advancing legislation to allow children from 1-12 years old to be allowed to choose to die: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54538288

#Eugenics #VoluntaryAssistedDying #VAD

#Canada has seen the most extreme expansion of #euthanasia laws with their #MedicalAssistanceInDying (MAiD), passed over the objections of the disability community: https://www.mcgilldaily.com/2021/02/bill-c-7-devalues-the-lives-of-disabled-canadians/

Prior to the expansion of #MAiD, Disability Inclusion Minister #CarlaQualtrough told the justice committee that it’s easier to access MAiD than to get a wheelchair in some parts of the country: https://www.ipolitics.ca/news/senators-worried-its-easier-to-access-maid-than-other-health-services

#RogerFoley, a disabled man (without a terminal illness) secretly recorded doctors repeatedly attempting to coerce him to end his life in 2017, threatening to charge him $1800 a day if he remained in the hospital: https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/chronically-ill-man-releases-audio-of-hospital-staff-offering-assisted-death-1.4038841?cache=kyifhaaa

But that pales compared to what has happened since Canada expanded MAiD. In February 2022, after 2 years of being refused accessible housing, a woman w/ multiple chemical sensitivities requested MAiD: the government approved her application the same day: https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/woman-with-chemical-sensitivities-chose-medically-assisted-death-after-failed-bid-to-get-better-housing-1.5860579

MAiD’s expanded criteria, allowing euthanasia for those whose death is “not reasonably foreseeable,” had not even come into effect until 17 March 2022.

Madeline, a 54-year-old woman $40,000 in medical debt, plans to get euthanasia when her money runs out this year: the government doesn’t provide enough resources for disabled people to live, but they will kill them free of charge: https://www.chatelaine.com/health/maid-assisted-death-poverty/

#MedicalAbleism #Eugenics #Genocide #Ontario #BritishColumbia