Monday, September 11, 2017

Doctors pressured this woman to die by euthanasia. One year later she is much better.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
Candice Lewis

Last month Candice Lewis's mother received a disappointing response from the local hospital after sending an official complaint about being pressured by doctors who wanted Candice to die by euthanasia.

Mother upset after doctor urged her to approve assisted suicide for her daughter with disabilities.

An article by Stephen Roberts that was published in the Northern Pen newspaper on August 28 explained that Candice is doing much better after receiving excellent care from a hospital in St Johns's Newfoundland. The article reported:

According to her mom, Sheila Elson, Candice hasn’t been having any seizures, is now able to feed herself, walk with assistance, use her iPad, and is more alert, energetic and communicative since her stay in St. John’s. 
“She’s back to about where she was five or six years ago,” says Elson. 
After a two-week hospital stay, Candice, along with her mother, walked her sister Glennis down the aisle at her wedding in Dildo in August. 
She’s been able to do all this despite the fact that in 2016, doctors suggested that Candice might be dying. 
In September of that year, a doctor at Charles S. Curtis Memorial Hospital in St. Anthony had also suggested to Elson that physician-assisted death could be an option for Candice. 
What is satisfying her these days is her daughter’s health. Since returning to St. Anthony earlier this month, Candice hasn’t required a visit to the hospital. 
Elson believes Candice’s condition has improved because she is now on fewer medications.
Legalizing euthanasia (MAiD) gives physicians the right in law to lethally inject their patients. The doctors attitude toward Candice's "quality of life" were based on negative and discriminatory attitudes towards the lives of people with disabilities. The doctors thought that Candice was better off dead.

Full Article & Source:
Doctors pressured this woman to die by euthanasia. One year later she is much better.

2 comments:

StandUp said...

A valid argument against assisted suicide.

Natasha said...

When someone else suggests it, it is no longer suicide. I don't think this is what the law had in mind. It is essential that we have the right to assisted suicide. It is NOT for anyone other than the person suffering to ever recommend it!! Assisted suicide is for people in great physical pain, not psychological or nay other kind of ailment. There is physical suffering that over a long period of time can make a person ready for death. I do not believe a doctor should be permitted to even mention the option, unless the patient has requested it first. I see a problem with this article. No info about what actually happened. But I certainly want the option open for myself, in case one day I need it. And I have seen many people benefit from a peaceful transition surrounded by loved ones, instead of being in a hospital in so much pain they can only live drugged, or living is no longer really life. I saw my great uncle at 96, in pain, just asking for it to come. Completely lucid. In his state he did not have that option, and so he waited.