Friday September 3, 2010
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Saves Brampton Pastor From Euthanasia
By Thaddeus M. Baklinski
BRAMPTON, Ontario, September 3, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Although warning that the danger is not over, Canada’s anti-euthanasia leader has confirmed that an incapacitated pastor who was being deydrated to death at a hospital has now been given food and water.
Alex Schadenberg, director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, said that Pastor Joshua (Kulendran Mayandy), who has been hospitalized since a heart attack in May and was denied food and water under orders of a Substitute Decision Maker (SDM), was fed orally by a member of his church and his condition is improving.
Joshua is a native of Sri Lanka and a Pentecostal pastor at Humberlea Worship Centre. He has no family in Canada, and did not write down his personal wishes or assign a person to make legal and health care decisions on his behalf prior to his incapacitating heart attack.
Schadenberg said that Joshua, 48, who was not otherwise dying, was being dehydrated to death – known as euthanasia by omission – at the behest of an SDM appointed by the court under the direction of the Consent and Capacity Board of Ontario, the Brampton Civic Hospital and the lawyer for the hospital, who concurred that Joshua was not likely to recover.
“The court then chose someone to make decisions for him [who] had originally agreed that…he would go along with the hospital’s wishes, which was no medical treatment, including no IV fluids, foods or medicines at all,” Schadenberg said.
The Consent and Capacity Board further ruled that Joshua would need to ask for food and water for it to be given.
“This is not a case when hydration and nutrition need to be withdrawn because he is actually dying and nearing death,” Schadenberg explained, “but rather the decision appears to have been made to intentionally cause his death by withdrawing IV hydration and nutrition because he is unlikely to recover from his disability.”
However, Schadenburg reported Friday that “a major breakthrough” occurred after meetings with a legal counsel, a lawyer from the Christian Legal Fellowship, and several doctors.
The SDM, he said, “has given permission for a nurse, who is a member of the [pastor’s] church, to feed Joshua orally.”
“Today, Joshua was fed orally and I was told it went very well,” Schadenburg reported.
Schadenberg cautioned, however, that the SDM could change his mind and withdraw permission for Joshua to be fed and hydrated orally, so pressure on the Brampton Civic Hospital and the Consent and Capacity Board of Ontario to keep Joshua alive must be kept up.
Contact Info:
Brampton Civic Hospital
email: [email protected]
Communications Hotline: 905-494-2120, ext. 22505
Consent and Capacity Board of Ontario
email: [email protected]
Phone: 416-327-4142
Fax: 416-924-8873
See previous LSN coverage:
Brampton Civic hospital imposes euthanasia by dehydration through pressure tactics
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/aug/10082014.html