The leader of a hospice organization in Canada is working to raise awareness about an anti-assisted suicide film, which she says draws attention to the predatory nature of the Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) regime.
Angelina Ireland is the president of Delta Hospice Society in Delta, British Columbia, which offers palliative and other end-of-life services in addition to hospice care. She appears in “The Story of Euthanasia,” which explores the “philosophical belief, moral conflict, and social impact concerning legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide.” In an interview with the Catholic News Agency, Ireland explained why she got involved with the film, and how the rise of MAiD has affected hospice.
Delta Hospice recently lost a $1.5 million contract with the government due to its unwillingness to participate in MAiD. “We refused to participate [in MAiD] because we’re a palliative care organization, and palliative care does nothing to hasten death,” she said. “We take care of people. Palliative care is from diagnosis to natural end. So we refuse to start killing our patients in the hospice.”
Yet the government wasn’t willing to accept that decision; Delta Hospice soon found itself effectively evicted. The British Columbian Fraser Health Authority retaliated by terminating the organization’s lease, forcing Delta Hospice to continue its services virtually, by phone, or in person at someone’s home.
“Our buildings sort of got classified as affixtures to the land,” she said. “The government evicted us. We lost about $8 million. We got no compensation for that expropriation. We were then left out of the business of providing palliative care.”
As Ireland pointed out, “there’s very little room at all for dissent around this medical regime.”
Since legalizing assisted suicide and euthanasia, Canada has seen MAiD deaths skyrocket. Many people have applied for MAiD, not because they are dying, but because they are disabled, struggling with poverty, or are unable to access timely health care. Canada is also the world leader in euthanizing prisoners.
Though Ireland is not a doctor or nurse, she has fought cancer herself, and said she understands the issue from the patient side all too well. “MAiD is very predatory. It’s going after sick, vulnerable, aged people. All we can do now is create awareness of what’s happening to us,” she said, adding, “I’m not a doctor or a nurse. I’m sitting on the other side of the aisle as a person who has been particularly vulnerable to this medical regime.”
“I’ve made it my life’s work to try and pass this message about what it really means to accept this idea that the state can kill people, how quickly it gets out of hand, and what we lose in terms of our humanity when it becomes so easy just to kill,” she added.
