Ellen Wiebe: Doc who euthanized 400 people brags she helped kill man deemed unfit for assisted suicide
VANCOUVER, CANADA: A doctor who has reportedly euthanized more than 400 people proudly claims she helped end the life of a man originally considered unfit for assissted suicide.
Ellen Wiebe, who works with Dying With Dignity Canada, reportedly bragged at a seminar for physicians involved in assisted suicide about how she treated a patient who was ineligible for the macabre service. The unnamed man had previously been rejected by a Medical Assistance In Dying (MAID) assessor because he did not have a serious illness or "the capacity to make informed decisions about his own personal health" However, the man eventually found Wiebe, who reportedly cleared him and euthanized him in Vancouver.
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"It's the most rewarding work we've ever done," Wiebe said during a 2020 MAID event in a video that has since made waves online, The New Atlantic reported. Meanwhile, Stefanie Green, an obstetrician and colleague of Wiebe, also admitted that she'd helped 300 people die in the controversial program. She reportedly used the term "deliveries" to describe both helping women give birth and helping people end their lives.
According to records, only 486 people died from California's assisted suicide program in 2021, but 10,064 died from MAID. The program has reportedly become so popular that there are both anti-suicide and pro-suicide hotlines in Canada for people who want to kill themselves. MAID has come under further scrutiny for claims that people are now seeking assisted suicide because of poverty and homelessness or mental anguish - rather than terminally ill people seeking a painless death. Such cases were reportedly highlighted in a 2021 presentation by Althea Gibb-Carsley, a recently retired care coordinator and social worker for Vancouver Coastal Health's assisted suicide program, MAID. She described a 55-year-old patient named Mary who suffered from chronic pain and was unable to relieve the pain because of her low income. "She does not want to die, but she's suffering terribly and she's been maxing out her credit cards. She has no other options," the presentation said.
Gibb-Carsley also cited a similar situation with 68-year-old Nancy, a former doctor who ran out of savings, and with 57-year-old Greg, a writer who suffers from trauma and lacks funds for housing. Another case highlighted was that of a 38-year-old trans woman named Lucy who suffered from chronic pain and felt trapped in her studio apartment where there was "no air or light and creepy men all around." It is unclear, however, whether any of the above cases were ever approved for assisted suicide.
"It is rare for assessors to have patients who have unmet needs, but it does happen," Wiebe told The New Atlantic about this type of patient. "Usually these unmet needs are around loneliness and poverty. As all Canadians have rights to an assisted death, people who are lonely or poor also have those rights." Meanwhile, Green told the publication that stories about poor people seeking out MAID are simply "click bait." She pointed out, "You cannot access MAID in this country because you can't get housing. That is clickbait. These stories have not been reported fully."
The Canadian euthanasia program, however, has met with considerable public opposition. Former Paralympian Christine Gauthier railed against the government for offering her euthanasia when she was angered by delays in upgrading her home for wheelchair users. The retired Army non-commissioned officer testified in Parliament last month that a Veterans Affairs Canada case worker (VAC) had made her the offer of euthanasia. "Madam, if you are really so desperate, we can give you medical assistance in dying now," the caseworker allegedly told her. According to Gauthier, she has requested assistance for a chairlift for her home since 2017 at VAC.
"It has isolated me greatly because I have to crawl down my butt with the wheelchair in front of me to be able to access my house," she told Global News. Gauthier said she was taken aback by the suicide offer, which was made during a conversation in 2019. "I was like, 'I can't believe that you will … give me an injection to help me die, but you will not give me the tools I need to help me live,'' she recalled. "It was really shocking to hear that kind of comment." The veteran was injured in an Army training accident in 1989 and sustained permanent damage to her knees and her spine. Furthermore, she represented Canada in the 2016 Paralympic Games as well as Prince Harry's 2016 Invictus Games as a canoeist, power-lifter, and indoor rower.
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Gauthier's moving testimony and reports of similar cases sparked widespread outrage, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed reparations. Physician-assisted suicide was initially legalized in Canada only for terminally ill patients in 2016. Last year, the law was expanded to allow assisted suicide for patients whose natural death isn't imminent. This means that people with long-term disabilities can also seek medical aid in dying. What's next A new law set to take effect next year will also allow people with mental illness to seek physician-assisted suicide, according to the Daily Mail.