News

EDMONTON, July 5, 2001 (LSN.ca) – A story in the May 28 edition of Report newsmagazine details the horrifying story of a caring wife who alleges that her husband was euthanized in an Alberta hospital. Irene McNeilly of St. Paul, Alberta has lodged a complaint with the College of Physicians and Surgeons regarding the treatment her late husband Dr. Keith McNeilly received at the St. Therese Hospital in St. Paul. However, an advocate for the elderly in Alberta, Ruth Adria of Edmonton, told the magazine that euthanasia is becoming more common and that she has other charges in progress.

Adria noted that failure to feed or hydrate is the most common form of euthanasia. “Institutions literally don’t want to spend the dollars on the care. Everyone knows it’s going on, but it has to be articulated: when people can no longer feed themselves, they are left to starve.” The magazine reports that on May 10, Ms. Adria distributed in the Legislature a pamphlet on elder abuse seeking enforceable laws similar to those in the U.S. with fines of $1,000 per day for weight loss, malnutrition or bedsores.

Mrs. McNeilly’s priest, Father Anthony O’Riordan, says he has also known “a lot of instances of deliberate neglect where people are starved and dehydrated to death. A utilitarian ethic is taking over,” he says. “If life is not convenient, take it. It’s alarming, but pretty well hidden.”

Source Report newsmagazine: https://www.report.ca/

(with files from Pro-Life E-News)