CONTACT YOUR SENATOR: Urge them to reject euthanasia expansion! Contact your Senator, here.
March 15, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – With the recent moves by Canada’s Parliament to expand its euthanasia program — “Medical Assistance in Dying,” or MAiD — to include people with mental illnesses, a young law graduate, who has suffered from years of suicidal depression, has spoken out against the legislation, warning of the many lives that stand to be needlessly lost.
Last month, the Canadian Senate passed an amended version of Bill C-7, which principally removes the current stipulation for exclusive use of MAiD for those whose natural deaths are “reasonably foreseeable,” opening the door to non-terminal patients. The amended bill also expands who is eligible under the country’s euthanasia initiative to include anyone whose sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness. Following a two-year “sunset clause” such individuals will be permitted to be euthanized.
The amended bill was handed back to the House of Commons, which approved the changes last week by a vote of 180-149, meaning the Senate now has until the end of March to either amend further, or accept Bill C-7, writing it into law.
The “sunset clause” will not apply to the permission currently in law whereby individuals with neurocognitive diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, dementia, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s are given access to MAiD in advance, before they “lose the capacity” to consent.
In a video statement, 25-year-old Garifalia Milousis candidly relates her own tortured experience with mental illness, in the form of depression. She tells of the numerous occasions, starting at 14 years of age, that her struggle gave rise to increasingly harmful behaviors: from anorexia and bulimia to attempts at taking her own life.
“It was on the seventh [suicide] attempt that I got the closest, and it was then that I realized that, in wanting to end my suffering, I might actually do something final,” she said.
Continuing, Milousis added that, “To be honest, if medically assisted suicide had been available when I was in university, I might have used it to end my suffering as soon as I could.”
Given her own experience, Milousis expressed fear “that doctors could soon be able to end the lives of people suffering with mental illness — people like me.” She explained that she didn’t understand her illness as a teenager, or how to properly cope with it. She subsequently criticized the politicians who “talk about safeguards that exist to protect vulnerable people from accessing medically assisted death,” claiming instead that many years of “pretending to be okay” means the “proposed safeguards will not protect or save me,” and others like her.
As an example, she observed that some people suffering with a mental illness will, in “moments of crisis,” seek to self-harm, or commit suicide, and will even “thank you for making it possible for them to die.”
“But this is the problem,” she added. “Because in two years, in four years, that same person will not thank you.”
Milousis shared some of the long-term effects of having attempted suicide herself, including having to hide her arms by wearing long-sleeve shirts: “I wasn’t thinking about what it would mean for me to have scars everywhere … I wasn’t planning on living that long.”
Despite overcoming her depression and surviving suicide attempts, “There are still highs and lows, and the things I’ve considered and tried do come back to me,” admitted Milousis. It is precisely on this account that she fears the expansion of Canada’s euthanasia law and seeks to warn others of its far-reaching effects, which “would qualify me for medically assisted death, and put me at risk.”
“Had someone been willing to assist my suicide during one of those lows, I know the life I’ve lived would not have happened. I didn’t try to kill myself because I wanted to die; I tried to kill myself as a last-ditch effort to end my suffering.”
“And when I’m in a headspace like that, I’m already fighting internally … I need someone to be my advocate in those times. That’s what suicide prevention is for,” she said.
PETITION UPDATE (2/25/2021) -
Not only has the federal Senate in Canada not come to the aid of vulnerable people threatened by the passage of Euthanasia Bill C-7, they have actually voted to make matters worse by EXPANDING provision of euthanasia beyond what C-7 had originally intended.
The bill will now go back to Parliament, where the Senate's amendments can be accepted or rejected.
Please READ LifeSiteNews' analysis of the Trudeau Liberals' latest salvo in their all-out push to expand euthanasia in Canada: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/canada-senate-passes-euthanasia-bill-expanding-categories-of-the-killable
Then, please SIGN and SHARE this petition. Thank you.
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PETITION UPDATE (12/9/2020)
On December 3, 2020, the Concurrence at report stage of Bill C-7 passed with 213 yeas and 103 nays, with a total of 316 votes.
Bill C-7 would expand already existing provisions for assisted suicide. It would "repeal the provision that requires a person’s natural death be reasonably foreseeable."
The Bill is currently in its Third Reading in the House of Commons and will move on to the Senate if it passes.
We are obliged to help people who are suffering, especially the vulnerable, and that’s why we must oppose Bill C-7.
Please SIGN and SHARE this urgent petition. Then, please contact your MP and tell them to vote NO on Bill C-7. You can find your MP and their contact information HERE.
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We are obliged to help people who are suffering, not kill them.
But, that's exactly what the existing euthanasia law - the so-called "medical assistance in dying (MAiD)" provision - allows.
And, right now, the Trudeau Liberals are pushing for making death even more accessible to our most vulnerable citizens by tabling Bill C-7 in Parliament.
Please SIGN this petition and call for Canada's Members of Parliament to REJECT more euthanasia in Bill C-7, and, instead, provide for more homecare, palliative care, and mental health support.
Bill C-7 would expand existing provisions for assisted-suicide by removing the requirement that a person's natural death be reasonably foreseeable to qualify for MAiD.
Simply put: under C-7, people who are not terminally ill can be killed by MAiD!
This is outrageous, as it puts people with disabilities, the elderly, the young, and those who cannot consent (if they had already agreed to MAiD) at serious risk.
Please CLICK HERE to learn more about Bill C-7 and how it would put those vulnerable people more at risk, and allow for more death and more killing.
Then, please SIGN and SHARE this urgent petition.
Our elected Members of Parliament should be discussing how to help our disabled, elderly and young people with greater provision for homecare, palliative care, and mental health support, rather than encouraging our most vulnerable to kill themselves with our government's help and endorsement.
Nothing could be more foul and malicious.
And, while it's true that Trudeau's Minister of Justice is sponsoring this atrocious Bill, 40 Conservative Party politicians supported him in the vote on the Bill's Second Reading in late October.
We list these 40 Conservative MPs below, so that, after signing this petition, you can politely and respectfully contact them to let them know you want them to REJECT the expansion of MAiD (which, again, will mean more death and more killing), and to EMBRACE life-affirming provisions, like more funding for homecare, palliative care, and mental health support for our most vulnerable citizens.
Thank you!
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
'People with disabilities oppose Canada’s proposed expansion of euthanasia law' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/people-with-disabilities-oppose-canadas-proposed-expansion-of-euthanasia-law
Canada's House of Parliament Info on Bill C-7 - https://www.parl.ca/LegisInfo/BillDetails.aspx?Language=en&Mode=1&billId=10875380&View=5
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto's 'Help the Living' initiative - https://www.helptheliving.ca/
**Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com
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List of 40 Conservatives who voted FOR C-7 (Expansion of Euthanasia) on the Bill's Second Reading:
SCOTT AITCHISON (Parry Sound—Muskoka) - Telephone: 613-944-7740; Email: [email protected]
DAN ALBAS (Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola) - Telephone: 613-995-1702; Email: [email protected]
LEONA ALLESLEV (Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill) - Telephone: 613-992-0700; Email: [email protected]
MEL ARNOLD (North Okanagan—Shuswap) - Telephone: 613-995-9095; Email: [email protected]
TONY BALDINELLI (Niagara Falls) - Telephone: 613-995-1547; Email: [email protected]
JOHN BARLOW (Foothills) - Telephone: 613-995-8471; Email: [email protected]
LUC BERTHOLD (Mégantic—L'Érable) - Telephone: 613-995-1377; Email: [email protected]
SCOT DAVIDSON (York—Simcoe) - Telephone: 613-996-7752; Email: [email protected]
GÉRARD DELTELL (Louis-Saint-Laurent) - Telephone: 613-996-4151; Email: [email protected]
CHRIS D'ENTREMONT (West Nova) - Telephone: 613-995-5711; Email: [email protected]
TODD DOHERTY (Cariboo—Prince George) - Telephone: 613-995-6704; Email: [email protected]
TERRY DOWDALL (Simcoe—Grey) - Telephone: 613-992-4224; Email: [email protected]
ERIC DUNCAN (Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry) - Telephone: 613-992-2521; Email: [email protected]
KERRY-LYNNE D. FINDLAY (South Surrey—White Rock) - Telephone: 613-947-4497; Email: [email protected]
DIANE FINLEY (Haldimand—Norfolk) - Telephone: 613-996-4974; Email: [email protected]
BERNARD GÉNÉREUX (Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup) - Telephone: 613-995-0265; Email: [email protected]
JOËL GODIN (Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier) - Telephone: 613-992-2798; Email: [email protected]
JACQUES GOURDE (Lévis—Lotbinière) - Telephone: 613-992-2639; Email: [email protected]
TRACY GRAY (Kelowna—Lake Country) - Telephone: 613-992-7006; Email: [email protected]
PAT KELLY (Calgary Rocky Ridge) - Telephone: 613-992-0826; Email: [email protected]
PETER KENT (Thornhill) - Telephone: 613-992-0253; Email: [email protected]
RON LIEPERT (Calgary Signal Hill) - Telephone: 613-992-3066; Email: [email protected]
LARRY MAGUIRE (Brandon—Souris) - Telephone: 613-995-9372; Email: [email protected]
RICHARD MARTEL (Chicoutimi—Le Fjord) - Telephone: 613-992-7207; Email: [email protected]
DAN MAZIER (Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa) - Telephone: 613-992-3176; Email: [email protected]
GREG MCLEAN (Calgary Centre) - Telephone: 613-995-1561; Email: [email protected]
CATHY MCLEOD (Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo) - Telephone: 613-995-6931; Email: [email protected]
ERIC MELILLO (Kenora) - Telephone: 613-996-1161; Email: [email protected]
MARTY MORANTZ (Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley) - Telephone: 613-995-5609; Email: [email protected]
ROB MORRISON (Kootenay—Columbia) - Telephone: 613-995-7246; Email: [email protected]
PIERRE PAUL-HUS (Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles) - Telephone: 613-995-8857; Email: [email protected]
ALAIN RAYES (Richmond—Arthabaska) - Telephone: 613-995-1554; Email: [email protected]
SCOTT REID (Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston) - Telephone: 613-947-2277; Email: [email protected]
MICHELLE REMPEL GARNER (Calgary Nose Hill) - Telephone: 613-992-4275; Email: [email protected]
ALEX RUFF (Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound) - Telephone: 613-996-5191; Email: [email protected]
BOB SAROYA (Markham—Unionville) - Telephone: 613-992-1178; Email: [email protected]
DOUG SHIPLEY (Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte) - Telephone: 613-992-0718; Email: [email protected]
BRUCE STANTON (Simcoe North) - Telephone: 613-992-6582; Email: [email protected]
KAREN VECCHIO (Elgin—Middlesex—London) - Telephone: 613-990-7769; Email: [email protected]
LEN WEBBER (Calgary Confederation) - Telephone: 613-996-2756; Email: [email protected]
Milousis admitted that “[d]eath would have been a way out,” but exhorted “to whoever needs to hear this: Death doesn’t have to be the answer.” She explained that, to overcome a mental illness like depression, it “takes work. It takes time. It takes others.” And that, even after overcoming depression, for her, “still, the struggles with mental health remain.”
“But there is hope,” she said. “Now I’m excited about my future, I’m preparing to marry my best friend, and I can’t wait for us to start our lives together.” Milousis said she is sharing her story to inspire others in similar situations because “I’m not the only one who has more to live for. There are people in your life who do too.”
“As someone who struggles with mental illness, I don’t need someone to tell me how to die,” she said, “I need someone to tell me to stay.”