Killing Patients Who Have Not Asked to Die (Sounds like the Nazi Doctors are still here) See the book: the Nazi Doctors by Lifton (This reinforces the statement BC lawyer Bridge told me at the Bentley court case that DNRs are put on patients without their consent and it is common knowledge within the medical community).

Belgian GPs 'killing patients who have not asked to die': Report says thousands have been killed despite not asking their doctor 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3120835/Belgian-GPs-killing-patients-not-asked-die-Report-says-thousands-killed-despite-not-asking-doctor.html

By Steve Doughty, Social Affairs Correspondent for the Daily Mail
Published: 18:49 EST, 11 June 2015 | Updated: 19:00 EST, 11 June 2015

Thousands of elderly people have been killed by their own GPs without ever asking to die under Belgium’s euthanasia laws, an academic report said yesterday.
It said that around one in every 60 deaths of a patient under GP care involves someone who has not requested euthanasia.

Half of the patients killed without giving their consent were over the age of 80, the study found, and two thirds of them were in hospital and were not suffering from a terminal disease such as cancer.

In about four out of five of the cases, the death was not discussed with patients subjected to ‘involuntary euthanasia’ because they were either in a coma, they were diagnosed with dementia, or because doctors decided it would not be in their best interests to discuss the matter with them.

Very often doctors would not inform the families of plans to lethally inject a relation because they considered it a medical decision to be made by themselves alone, the report published by the Journal of Medical Ethics said.

The report raised new questions over Belgium’s increasingly controversial 13-year-old euthanasia law, which has won wide acceptance from the medical establishment, and which now allows even children to be killed by doctors.

Report author Professor Raphael Cohen-Almagor of Hull University said: ‘The decision as to which life is no longer worth living is not in the hands of the patient but in the hands of the doctor.’
 
‘It is worrying that some physicians take upon themselves the responsibility to deliberately shorten patients’ lives without a clear indication from the patients that this is what they would want.

The Israeli-born politics and philosophy professor added: ‘The Belgian population should be aware of the present situation and know that if their lives may come to the point where physicians think they are not worth living, in the absence of specific living wills advising physicians what to do then, they might be put to death.’

Belgium’s Euthanasia Act restricts the practice of mercy killing to adults and ‘emancipated children’ who are suffering unbearably and who are able to consent. It remains officially illegal for doctors to kill patients who have not given their consent to death.

The study found, however, that many GPs are killing their patients without consent and that lack of consent may be more common than officially-approved deaths.

Given that ending patients’ lives without request is more common than euthanasia, it is suggested to urge the Belgian medical profession to put this issue high on its agenda,’ Professor Cohen-Almagor said.

The study was published after Rob Marris, Labour MP for Wolverhampton South West, announced that in September he will introduce a Private Member’s Bill into the House of Commons to legalise assisted suicide.

There have been a series of attempts in the courts and in Parliament to overthrow the assisted suicide laws which in Britain mean anyone who helps someone else to die faces a maximum 14 years in jail.

Former Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer, now a Labour MP, brought in prosecutions rules which mean no-one is likely to be charged with assisting a suicide unless they acted out of greed or malice, and Tony Blair’s former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer introduced an assisted suicide bill into the Lords. This would have allowed two doctors to kill a terminally ill patient who asked to die.

Supreme Court judges have held back from legalising assisted suicide but their rulings have piled pressure on Parliament to consider a new law.

Opponents of assisted suicide said that the Belgian use of euthanasia showed that an assisted suicide law would be a slippery slope towards medical killing.

Lord Carlile of Berriew, the Liberal Democrat peer who sat on the parliamentary committee that advised against the legalisation of euthanasia in the UK a decade ago, said: ‘I am horrified by it.

‘What it demonstrates, if the facts underlying it are correct, is that in Belgium, and elsewhere, so-called euthanasia is being carried out without controls and it underlines why I am opposed to the Bill which Rob Marris is going to put to the House of Commons,’ he said.

‘The safeguards which are being provided under his Bill are completely inadequate.’ Fiona Bruce, Tory MP for Congleton and the chairman of the Parliamentary Pro-Life Group, said: ‘The situation in Belgium is a stark warning that in this country we should not go down the road of legalising assisted suicide.  . . .

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3120835/Belgian-GPs-killing-patients-not-asked-die-Report-says-thousands-killed-despite-not-asking-doctor.html#ixzz3cofVQLHK
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Also link, http://activistbydefault.blogspot.com, audreyjlaferriere@gmail.com, 604-321-2276/778-689-2276

College of Physicians and Surgeons Vancouver BC 5 June 2015

A nice gesture was made by someone from the Four Seasons Hotel, a guest, who gave me two bottles of iced cold water to aid in my demo as it was hot in front of the BC College of Physicians and Surgeons. A little kindness like this makes my demo well worth it. Others agree with me.

For those new to my blog, I am demonstrating against the BCCPS as I opposed its decision when Dr. James Vincent Dunne put a DNR on my husband without Randy's clear consent and Dr. Dunne refused to take it off. Randy developed an infection and he would have died as staff at GPC would not do anything except close the curtain.  I started to bag him and call 911. I told them that Randy had changed his mind. Randy changing his mind wasn't good enough. When the ambulance arrived, they were angry because they should not have been called as Randy had a DNR and a Do Not Transfer to VGH. Randy would have died because of these Orders.

Edmund Burke

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing,” Edmund Burke. 
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Demo # 2 at GPC

I attended at GPC i.e. the public sidewalk with the sign TELL CAROLANNE THAT I MISS HERE  outside of GPC May 30 2015 at 11:15 am.  I was quite comfortable sitting on the grass with Owen and reading. No one bothered me but a few pedestrians did read the sign.
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Attorney Slams Suicide Legislation

Attorney slams California suicide bill

Dore: “Even if you like the concept of assisted suicide, SB 128 is the wrong bill.”

Contact: Margaret Dore (206) 697-1217

Seattle, WA -- Attorney Margaret Dore, president of Choice is an Illusion, which has fought assisted suicide legalization efforts in many states and now California, made the following statement after the California Senate Appropriations Committee passed SB 128 on May 28, sending the assisted suicide bill to the Senate floor.

"SB 128 is sold as giving people an 'end of life option,’” Dore said. “The fact is this bill is about ending the lives of people who aren’t necessarily dying anytime soon, and giving other people the ‘option’ to hurry them along."

Dore, an attorney in Washington State where assisted suicide is legal, explained, “In my law practice, I started out working in guardianships, wills and probate, and saw abuse of all kinds, especially where there was money involved (where there's a will, there are heirs). Then, in 2008, I got dragged to a meeting about our assisted suicide law and saw the perfect crime: your heir could help sign you up, and once the lethal dose was in the house, there was no oversight. Not even a witness is required. If you struggled, who would know?"

“If enacted, California’s SB 128 will allow assisted suicide (and euthanasia), with or without consent,” Dore said. “And in case I’m being too subtle, the drugs used are water and alcohol soluble, such that they can be injected into a restrained or sleeping person. After the person dies, the death certificate is REQUIRED to reflect a natural death. It’s the perfect crime.”

The California bill and Washington’s law are both based on a similar law in Oregon. 

SB 128, like the Washington and Oregon laws, seeks to legalize assisted suicide for people with a “terminal disease,” which is defined in terms of a doctor’s determination of less than six months to live. In real life, such persons can have years, even decades to live. This is true for many reasons. 

“Doctors can be wrong about life expectancy, sometimes way wrong," Dore said. "This is due to actual mistakes: They evaluated another patient’s test results. More typically, however, doctors are wrong because predicting life expectancy is not an exact science. A couple of years ago, I was picked up at the airport by a man who at age 18 had been diagnosed with ALS, and given 3 to 5 years to live, at which time he was predicted to die by paralysis. This had been confirmed by the Mayo Clinic. When he picked me up, he was 74 years old. The disease progression had stopped on its own.”

“Another reason that patients can have years, even decades, to live is that the definition of “terminal” as six months to live is a determination of  lifespan without treatment, Dore said. “Consider my friend, Jeanette Hall, diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2000, who was adamant that she would use Oregon’s law. Her doctor convinced her to be treated instead. She is still alive today, 15 years later.” 

In Oregon, people with chronic conditions, such as diabetes, are “terminal” for the purpose of assisted suicide. Oregon doctor, William Toffler, explains: People "with these conditions are considered terminal if they are dependent on their medications, such as insulin, to live…such persons, with treatment, could otherwise have years or even decades to live."

“If SB 128 becomes law, people with years, even decades to live, will be encouraged to throw away their lives; patients and their families will be traumatized,” said Dore. “SB 128, as written, will, regardless, allow the perfect crime.  Even if you like the concept of assisted suicide and euthanasia, SB 128 is the wrong bill.” 

For more detail and backup documentation about problems with SB 128, go here: http://www.californiaagainstassistedsuicide.org/2015/05/sb-128-promise-of-patient-choice-and.html

Where is Mary Turner

Where is MARY TURNER from |Prince George, I need to know what happened to her.
604-321--2276

Demo # 1 at George Pearson Centre

For close to a year I have been trying to see a resident at George Pearson Centre and I was always told that the patient was NOT up-to-it.  The last e-mail I got from Risk Management said that CarolAnn does not want to see me.  It has been close to a year and I do not believe Richard Singleton, Director of Risk Management.

Since I can't access George Pearson Centre I decided I would do up a sign so that someone would get a message to CarolAnn to say that I was on the sidewalk boulevard.  The sign said:  TELL CAROL ANNE THAT I MISS HER.  Innocent enough even if she doesn't want to see me I wanted her to know that I have not abandoned her.  She is a quad and she can't speak.

To make the situation a bit tense, Paladin Security, the security company that has taken over the security of all Vancouver Coastal Health properties and the one that really hurts is that Paladin and their lack of understanding basic law is even in the court house, approached me and threatened to call the police as I was harassing patients.  What patients.  No one asked me about my sign and I was on a public sidewalk..

That reminds me whatever happened to my complaint of October 21, 2013, wherein the security guard, Karen Marshall, put a choke hold on me when I was acting in self-defense over the hysterics of two nurses: one who was tired and the other spiteful. 

And there is Cheryl, Randy's nurse at that time, who saw me fall on the sidewalk when I was going to visit Randy and I wasn't able to get up. She walked by me without even inquiring if I was okay.  No I wasn't okay.  Whatever happened to her and my complaint. I suspect because the fall happened on public property she was under no obligation to help me.

I have come to the conclusion that Vancouver Coastal Health is a totalitarian state, with its own police force, ruled by star chamber justice.

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Those damn hospital/patient alarms ...

"You hear an alarm every second of every day,” Manley [the nursing home’s defense lawyer] said."

RT charged with criminally negligent homicide.
 

  http://www.startribune.com/trial-of-ny-nursing-home-employees-in-patient-death-begins/302686381/ 

By FRANK ELTMAN Associated Press

May 5, 2015 — 8:45pm

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — Five employees of a suburban New York nursing home are defending themselves against charges they disregarded alarms for more than two hours, leading to the death of a 72-year-old bedridden patient who was not connected to a ventilator.

Opening statements in the complicated double-jury trial began Tuesday in state Supreme Court in Riverhead, on eastern Long Island.

The five defendants are among nine workers at the Medford Multicare Center for Living Inc. charged in the October 2012 death of Aurelia Rios of Central Islip. Two of the nine have pleaded guilty, while two others are expected to face trial this summer. The corporate entity that runs the nursing home also is facing charges in the woman's death.

In the case of the remaining five, state Supreme Court Justice John Collins decided to conduct one trial to save time but have two separate juries hear testimony simultaneously. One jury is considering the case against Kethlie Joseph, a respiratory therapist accused of failing to connect a respirator to Rios and later ignoring pagers and other alarms indicating she was in distress.

The second jury is considering the case against four others — the director of respiratory therapy and three nurses — who are accused of falsifying business records and other charges stemming from the woman's death. All five have pleaded not guilty.

During her first opening statement in the case against Joseph, prosecutor Veronica MacDevitt said Joseph was charged with criminally negligent homicide for failing to ensure that Rios was connected to a ventilator. "It was the most basic and most fundamental aspect of her job," MacDevitt said. She added that later, when electronic monitors and other indicators showed that the patient was in distress, Joseph and others disregarded the alarms.

Defense attorney Jonathan Manley countered that Joseph had to care for 20 patients the night Rios died, and he questioned the effectiveness of a pager alarm system that he said went off constantly throughout the night for both serious and incidental problems.

"You hear an alarm every second of every day," Manley said. "A beeper is not a reliable indicator of a patient's health."

He added there was a nurse in Rios' room throughout the night, and that when Joseph was finally informed

Later Tuesday, MacDevitt laid out the case against the four other employees before a separate jury. She said each in their own way either failed to respond to alarms indicating the patient was in distress or subsequently lied to investigators about Rios' death.

"Someone else's failure doesn't excuse their failures," MacDevitt said.

Although opening statements were conducted separately before each jury, the judge indicated that for the majority of the trial, both juries would hear testimony simultaneously. The trial, expected to last five to six weeks, is being held in a large courtroom in the Suffolk County Court complex. Although rare, other double-jury trials have been held in the county.

Hank Sheinkopf, a spokesman for the Medford facility, called the trial "a very complicated case. The facts will be presented to the judge. And we will prove that Medford's patient commitment was not lacking."

Among the expected expert witnesses is a Dr. Michael Baden, a forensic pathologist and host of HBO's "Autopsy." 

Richard J. Mollot, Executive Director
Long Term Care Community Coalition
One Penn Plaza, Suite 6252
New York, NY 10119
www.ltccc.org
www.nursinghome411.org
www.assisted-living411.org
Phone: 212-385-0355
Email: richard@ltccc.org

New demo sign

29 April 2015

FAX 604-733-3503

Mr. Graeme Keirstead,
Chief Legal Council,
BCCPA,
669 Howe Street,
Vancouver,  B.C.
V6C 0B4

Dear Chief Legal Council:

Subject:  FYI

My demo sign being a work in progress now reads.  Your comments, if you have any.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons gives leave to its physicians to place unlawful (without clear consent) DNRs on its patients.

The secret star chamber courts and doctors policing doctors both have to end.

Yours sincerely,


Audrey Jane Laferriere,
5976 Cambie Street,
Vancouver, B.C.
V5Z 3A9
604-321-2276

Nurse Charged with Manslaughter in Ontario (no consent)

This is a very interesting article reported by the media April 10 2015.  The Georgia Bay General Hospital sought the help of the police to charge a nurse with murder.  In must be a first in Canada.  Not only in Canada but in the United States as well. The issue appears to be Consent.  Consent which Randy was denied and which the College of Physicians and Surgeons in British Columbia did not fully investigate.  Consent would have meant that I should have been included in any discussions about DNRs and cessation of treatment.  Joanna Flynn, Ontario Nurse, Charged in Death of Patient, Deanna Leblanc.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/joanna-flynn-ontario-nurse-charged-in-death-of-patient-deanna-leblanc-1.3027637

A nurse has been charged in the death of a patient who was removed from life support, allegedly without authorization, at a hospital in the central Ontario community of Penetanguishene last year.
The charges against Joanna Flynn, 50, are related to the death of 39-year-old Deanna Leblanc, a patient at Georgian Bay General Hospital.
The case is "essentially unprecedented in Canada," said Kerry Bowman, a bioethicist at the University of Toronto, adding there are "lots of surprising questions" raised by what allegedly occurred.
Leblanc, a married mother of two teenaged sons had a scope done on her knee on Friday, Feb. 28, 2014, at a hospital in Newmarket, Ont. It was supposed to be a routine out-patient procedure that took about half an hour, according to her husband, Mike Leblanc, but 36 hours later she was dead.

'She was telling me she was dying and begging me to help her.'- Mike Leblanc, wife of woman who died in hospital

He said his wife of 23 years appeared to be fine after she returned home after the scope. But on Sunday morning about 3 a.m. "all hell broke loose." She woke her husband and said she had to go to hospital.
"She was telling me she was dying and begging me to help her," Leblanc said.
He drove her to to Georgian Bay General, where she was admitted to the intensive care unit and placed on life support. She died later that day.
"My biggest concern is why did she end up in that hospital? What went wrong in those 36 hours that she ended up there?" he said.

Deanna Leblanc died March 2, 2014, at Georgian Bay General Hospital in Penetanguishene, Ont. A nurse working at the hospital at the time has been charged in her death. (Facebook)

"I still don't know why I lost my wife and why my kids don't have their mother any more. She was 39 years old and there was nothing wrong with her other than a sore knee. I was told it was a simple operation."
Midland police said they began an investigation on March 6, 2014, and made an arrest on Thursday. Flynn, of Wyevale, Ont., is charged with manslaughter and criminal negligence causing death. She appeared in court on Thursday and has been released on $50,000 bail. She is due back in court on May 28.

'Great mother'

"In a small community such as ours, when there is a death we are so tightly knit it does impact folks that live here," said Insp. Ron Wheeldon.
Mike Leblanc described his wife as a "great mother" who had a touching ability to sense when something was wrong with someone else.
"We were best friends and she was a best friend to the kids, too," he said.
The investigation and subsequent charges took him by surprise.

'We want to assure the public that we believe this is a one-off event.'- Georgian Bay General Hospital

"I didn't think there'd be any investigation. I didn't realize anybody had done anything wrong," he told CBC News.
He told the Barrie Examiner he did not suspect foul play until days after his wife's death when he was contacted by Midland police, who told him they had opened an investigation.
Flynn no longer works at Georgian Bay General Hospital and CEO and president Karen McGrath said it was officials at the hospital who alerted police to the circumstances of Leblanc's death.
"We want to assure the public that we believe this is a one-off event ... We actually did some investigation. We actually reported it to the police," McGrath said Friday.

Timing of charges curious, lawyer says

Lawyer Mark Handelman, who often deals with end-of-life cases, was interviewed about the charges against Flynn Friday on CBC Radio's Metro Morning.
"It's very curious to me that it took a year to decide to lay charges, which I think indicates the potential complexity of it," he said.
"I'm curious to know what the police mean when they say life support was discontinued without authorization."
He said life support is recognized as a treatment under the law and withdrawing it requires consent from the patient or a "correct substitute decision-maker."
"I've never seen a case where a nurse would implement the withdrawal of treatment. I've only seen a physician be the person that would remove life support," bioethicist Bowman told CBC News.
According to Bowman, the decision is not usually made by a single person and would usually take weeks of discussion between family and health-care workers.
"I cannot stress enough how decisions are made collectively and not in isolation ... If it was a misunderstanding about consent, there will be lots of questions as to how that could possibly happen."

With files from The Canadian Press

Hugh Scher

Further to my earlier post, this demands a reminder: Hugh Scher 1-416-668-6115  hugh@sdlaw.ca

"If we are not able to stop the most basic abuses relating to DNR orders or end-of-life care measures now, expanding those practices presents dangers."

This statement alone should be enough to force the government of Canada to order a Royal Commission on the Carter Reporter and to enact the notwithstanding clause.

Scher continues:

"The Carter decision risks creating a culture of permissiveness with regard to all end-of-life matters."  
.

Owen

I can't get over Owen, Randy's little terri-poo, not wanting to eat unless I feed him by a spoon. 

The Good Wife

Yesterday I was watching the Good Wife on the television.  A segment was about the Good Wife being on a panel that overlooked the behavior of police.  It was rubber stamping the actions of the police without full evidence.  It reminded me of how the College of Physicians and Surgeons conducted my complaint against Dr. Dunne. They took his version of my complaint without investigating it.

There was also a documentary on the Fifth Estate (CBC) called Dead Enough which documented the actions of doctors in a US hospital who changed a monitor to deceive the nurses in order to secure fresh organs.  And nothing happened to those doctors either. 

So much for watching television and having flashbacks to what happened to me at the hands of Vancouver Coastal Health. 

No Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation/support and comfort only

I tried to find the No Cardiiopulmonary Resuscitation form as directed on the form being www.health.gov.bc.ca/exforms/bcas/302.1fil.pdf.  It wasn't there.  However I found it at www2.gov.bc.ca Forms for Medical and Health Care Practioners under miscellaneous form #3021 No Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (PDF, 675KB). 

What concerns me is the declaration signed by the patient:

I, the patient, understand and accept that I have been diagnosed as having a life-limiting illness or am considered to be at the natural end of my life and that my care is to include support and comfort only and that no cardiopulmonary resuscitation is to be undertaken. 

What does this mean.  Does this mean that a patient refuses agressive medical treatment when he agrees to a DNR.
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The Selection Process 1938-1945

A selection process of who will die was implemented by the Nazi doctors as they too had to sign a document not signed by the patient..At first the patient had to agree but later he was not consulted. It wasn't the SS who corralled prisoners and killed them indiscriminately, it was the doctors who selected them on medical grounds (killing to heal) therefore it was legal. The SS bureaucracy wanted the slave prisoners to work; they did not want them dead. . History repeating itself.

Reference:  Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide, The Nazi Doctors, by Dr. Robert J. Lifton, 561 pages (2000AD)

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Patients Donot have to agree to DNRs.

I have to keep educating any new audience as to why this nightmare is happening.  Although the BCMA has a DNR form called "No Cardioipulmonary Resuscitation" form for the general public, it has to be signed by the patient.

However, Vancouver Coastal Health has its own "laws" and a form that says only a doctor has to sign a DNR.  No patient; no surrogate; no witness.  So whatever I speak I speak with the truth as I have experienced it.


11:15 a.m. postscript:
I just read the instructions to patient/family attached to the BCMA form it states If you live in a residential care facility (GPC), your doctor and care team will help you and/or your legal representative to make choices and plans abut the end of life.  Dr. Dunne would put on a DNR and he would never include me in the conversation.  And to think the social worker who is an officer of the court would not tell me as well. I was Randy's substitute decision maker and I should have been aware.  At the bottom of the form it says that it was developed in conjunction with the BCMA.  The form was issued by the Ministry of Health for British Columbia which I would speculate would mean that it is a government legal directive.

The form can be found at https://www.health.gov.bc.ca/exforms/bcas/302.1fil.pdf

The Decision of the College of Physicians and Surgeons

When I posted that the College said that Dr. Dunne did no wrong re the illegal DNR Order of November 2013, the pertinent wording was:

"Because of the confidential health information of Mr. Walker formed the basis for the Committee's discussion, we are not able to disclose details of the Committee's decision. We are able to advise you that the Committee was not critical of the medical care Dr. Dunne provided to Mr. Walker.  However, the Committee was critical of Dr. Dunne's medical documentation.  This matter is considered concluded."

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Alex Schadenberg, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition: Clear rules and consequences needed concerning the...

Alex Schadenberg, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition: Clear rules and consequences needed concerning the...: This article was published by Advocate Daily on March 30, 2015 . Hugh Scher Top British Columbia courts have made it clear that or...

The Carter decision risks creating a culture of permissiveness with regard to all end-of-life matters, says Scher, and real consequences are required for those that break or ignore the law. Without them, all Canadians are put at serious risk in health care settings across the country, Scher states.1-416-816-6115

...go down to see prior post dated April 3 2015

 

Medical Murder is now called Inappropriate Conduct

 
Medical Murder is now called Inappropriate Conduct (my headline)

Directives from Supreme Court must be enforced.

This article was published by Advocate Daily on March 31, 2015.

Hugh Scher

Many Canadians do not recognize the full extent to which existing rules around end-of-life decision-making are not serving as appropriate barriers to inappropriate conduct, says Toronto health and human rights lawyer Hugh Scher.

“This makes it all the more unlikely that new rules are going to stop the conduct,” says Scher,

Concerning cases around end-of-life care decisions continue to crop up across Canada, says Scher, noting it is unclear whether directives from prior court rulings are being respected and enforced.

In one recent case, a Toronto physician and hospital were sued by a family who alleged a “do not resuscitate” (DNR) order was unilaterally placed on an elderly patient at Toronto East General Hospital against their wishes, reports the Toronto Star.

The Star reports the statement of claim, which seeks $1.2 million in damages for four of Canh Luong’s family members, alleges Dr. Alvin Chang and Toronto East General committed “wrongful death, abuse of power, negligence and breach of fiduciary duties.”

The statement of claim, says the Star, alleges Chang was negligent in preferring “his own opinion over that of the plaintiffs with respect to the code status of Luong,” for failing to consult them before making the change, and for failing “to provide Luong with the necessaries of life.”

Scher, who is not involved in the Luong case but who has been involved in other such cases, says clear rules and meaningful consequences for those who go against the established guidelines are needed.

“If we are not able to stop the most basic abuses relative to DNR orders or end-of-life care measures now, expanding those practices presents serious dangers,” says Scher. “The Supreme Court of Canada made it clear in Rasouli that doctors should not be acting unilaterally with regard to the withholding and withdrawal of treatment including end-of-life decision-making measures and that consent to treatment or refusing treatment – particularly where it forms part of an ongoing treatment plan – is required from the patient or substitute decision-maker.”

Scher says, “Doctors who act against that consent or without it are acting without lawful authority and in my view, are running afoul of the law as established by the Supreme Court of Canada.”

In doctor-assisted suicide in specific cases. The court gave the federal government 12 months to craft legislation to respond to the ruling, with the ban on doctor-assisted suicide standing until then.

In Carter, released in February, the Supreme Court struck down the ban on doctor-assisted suicide in specific cases. The court gave the federal government 12 months to craft legislation to respond to the ruling, with the ban on doctor-assisted suicide standing until then.


The Carter decision risks creating a culture of permissiveness with regard to all end-of-life matters, says Scher, and real consequences are required for those that break or ignore the law. Without them, all Canadians are put at serious risk in health care settings across the country, Scher states.

HughScher 1-416-816-6115,  hugh@sdlaw.ca

- See more at: http://www.advocatedaily.com/directives-from-supreme-court-must-be-respected-enforced.html#sthash.43fAjQuo.dpuf

Directives from Supreme Court must be respected, enforced

THE CANADIAN PRESS

Many Canadians do not recognize the full extent to which existing rules around end-of-life decision-making are not serving as appropriate barriers to inappropriate conduct, says Toronto health and human rights lawyer Hugh Scher.

“This makes it all the more unlikely that new rules are going to stop the conduct,” says Scher, who has acted as counsel to The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition in several high-profile end-of-life files including Rasouli v. Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, 2011 ONCA 482 (CanLII); Cuthbertson v. Rasouli, 2013 SCC 53, [2013] 3 S.C.R. 341; Bentley v. Maplewood Seniors Care Society, 2014 BCSC 165 (CanLII); Bentley v. Maplewood Seniors Care Society 2015 BCCA 91; Carter v. Canada (Attorney General), 2012 BCSC 886 (CanLII); Carter v. Canada (Attorney General) 2013 BCCA 435 (CanLII); and Carter v. Canada (Attorney General), 2015 SCC 5.

Concerning cases around end-of-life care decisions continue to crop up across Canada, says Scher, noting it is unclear whether directives from prior court rulings are being respected and enforced.

In one recent case, a Toronto physician and hospital were sued by a family who alleged a “do not resuscitate” (DNR) order was unilaterally placed on an elderly patient at Toronto East General Hospital against their wishes, reports the Toronto Star.

The Star reports the statement of claim, which seeks $1.2 million in damages for four of Canh Luong’s family members, alleges Dr. Alvin Chang and Toronto East General committed “wrongful death, abuse of power, negligence and breach of fiduciary duties.”

The statement of claim, says the Star, alleges Chang was negligent in preferring “his own opinion over that of the plaintiffs with respect to the code status of Luong,” for failing to consult them before making the change, and for failing “to provide Luong with the necessaries of life.”

Scher, who is not involved in the Luong case but who has been involved in other such cases, says clear rules and meaningful consequences for those who go against the established guidelines are needed.

“If we are not able to stop the most basic abuses relative to DNR orders or end-of-life care measures now, expanding those practices presents serious dangers,” says Scher. “The Supreme Court of Canada made it clear in Rasouli that doctors should not be acting unilaterally with regard to the withholding and withdrawal of treatment including end-of-life decision-making measures and that consent to treatment or refusing treatment – particularly where it forms part of an ongoing treatment plan – is required from the patient or substitute decision-maker.”

Scher says, “Doctors who act against that consent or without it are acting without lawful authority and in my view, are running afoul of the law as established by the Supreme Court of Canada.”

In Carter, released in February, the Supreme Court struck down the ban on doctor-assisted suicide in specific cases. The court gave the federal government 12 months to craft legislation to respond to the ruling, with the ban on doctor-assisted suicide standing until then.

The Carter decision risks creating a culture of permissiveness with regard to all end-of-life matters, says Scher, and real consequences are required for those that break or ignore the law. Without them, all Canadians are put at serious risk in health care settings across the country, Scher states.

- See more at: http://www.advocatedaily.com/directives-from-supreme-court-must-be-respected-enforced.html#sthash.43fAjQuo.dpuf

I have been trying to delete this post but like another time it won't.delete/edit.  Computers are beyond me.

 

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This is also happening in Canada i.e. pressuring patients to agree to DNRs

Marlene Deakins, RN, Supporting SB 5919. Arizona

"I hope that  with the proposed bill, doctors will get the message that they need to back off , to make sure that patients are freely choosing what’s best for them, as chosen by them."

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Dear Senator Padden, Members of the Law and Justice Committee and Senator Angel:

I am a Registered Nurse.  I am writing this letter in support of SB 5919, which would make it clear that persons asking about assisted suicide remain eligible to be told about options for cure or to extend life.  I hope that this law will provide protection for people like my brother, Wes Olfert, who died a few years ago (2011) in Washington State.

When he was first admitted to the hospital, he made the mistake of asking about assisted suicide.  I say a mistake, because this set off a chain of events that interfered with his care and caused him unnecessary stress in what turned out to be the last months of his life.

By asking the question, he was given a "palliative care" consult by a doctor who heavily and continually pressured him to give up on treatment before he was ready to do so.  It got so bad that Wes became fearful of this doctor and asked me and a friend to not leave him alone with her.

I hope that  with the proposed bill, doctors will get the message that they need to back off, to make sure that patients are freely choosing what’s best for them, as chosen by them.

Marlene Deakins, RN
Tuscon Arizona

I tried so hard.

As Randy lay unconscious on 13 April 2014 and VGH ICU would not let me hold him in my arms (they called security) I cried over and over saying to comatose Randy  That I was so sorry that I did everything I could do but they won't help him.  Randy only wanted to come home.  If he was going to die he wanted to be with me.  I couldn't even hold him, how cruel they were.The ICU bed belonged to the hospital so I could not touch it and there was a liability issue.  Critical thinking on the part of this third world imported nurse was shocking.

I buried Randy on the Island in a green grave ceremony.  It was a beautiful day among the trees and nature and sun and a light wind and the sound of life among the foliage and rockery..  I piled handful and handfuls of  pink carnations and small white flowers over his grave site.  The pink carnations symbolize that he will never be forgotten.  Carnations are a study flower and can last five-six weeks with light rain.

I promised that I was going to wear Randy's Steelers clothing as a tribute to his death but I haven't been able to do that yet.  He was a Steelers fan and most of his clothes were Steelers brand name.

At VGH I was only able to afford to pay for television for him so he could watch the Steelers games.  It was expensive $20.00 a day with tax and I remember he looked at me and moved his head up and moved his lips to say " thank you.".

Only patients that have extended medical get free television and a private room.  When I research the hospitality network I learned that VGH earns $1,000,000 a year for the televisions from the backs of the poor.   Televisions are cheap now so there is no reason except for the windfall the hospital gets so that most poor patients are without entertainment and families mostly cannot afford $600 a month..  I do not understand why a group hasn't made an issue of this yet.  But then I suppose the hospitality company that own the televisions are all doctors and everyone treads lightly with them.

Thinking of Randy

All day yesterday I couldn't stop thinking about Randy.  Life is so fragile and short.  I want him back.  He looked after me even when he was disabled.  I never regretted all the time I devoted to him.  I still haven't unpacked his belongings.  I think I will do it on April 13 2015, the anniversary of his death.
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Tim Hortons and free speech

On March 26 2015 as I regularly do I have a coffee and a donut at Tim Horton at the Pacific Centre mall.  I was sitting outside on its outside cafe area with my cart with my sign saying: The B.C. College of Doctors says it is okay to place DNRs on patients without consent.  The in-camera secret courts of the college have to go.

I was told that I had to remove the sign.  So I took the 20" X 30"sign and placed it against a tree on the sidewalk until I finished my coffee. I never talked to anyone and no one approached me. . The sign was my personal property so how can Tim Horton's tell me to remove it. What next a restraining order prohibiting me from doing commerce i.e. buying a coffee and sitting outside..

I then returned to the College at 559 Howe Street and walked up to St. Paul's Hospital.
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TED MARCH 16-20, 2015

It was like a magnet.  I had to return to TED for the rest of the week mostly in the pouring rain. I wanted someone from TED to read my sign.  Owen, the doggie, and I sat on a bench under a canopy most of the time on the Convention plaza.  Although I had my sign taped to the grocery cart no one from TED approached me except for one delegate who offered me a oatmeal cookie.  He said TED provided truck loads of catered food to the delegates.  I was watching his eyes and he never read my sign.  No one from TED read my sign. 

TED is an organization within the Sapling Foundation, a non-profit.  It would be interesting to know if the curator of TED,Chris Anderson, earns no more than 3X our minimum wage which is the criteria I use to determine if a non-profit is a true non-profit or a non-profit for profit i.e. a make work project to pay its top players millions of dollars in wages. Some young reporter might want to investigate this.

I meet a young (35 year old) man who said he did documentaries and was trying to get a TED delegate to talk to him.  If he reads this blog, will you please phone me.  604-321-2276

Randy and how much he wanted to live

I woke up this morning thinking of Randy and how much he wanted to live.  I remember when we were together I could not understand why he was so angry one day.  I asked if the nurses did something to him.  He said no.  I asked he if Dr. Dunn did something.  He said yes.  I was able to determine that Dr. Dunn told him that he would never get better and Randy was determined to prove him wrong.  Randy told me that he
did not need Dr. Dunn as I would help him.  And then those people said that I was not good for Randy and they got the public guardian and trustee involved so that I would never see Randy again.

The doctors do not work for their patients, their pieces of silver are paid by the government and they do what they are told.. The government says to meet budget projections; so the doctors ration care.

Patients like Randy are encouraged to give up. Randy was chronic and he was expensive to care for.  One doctor tells me that Randy will live and for me not to worry and another one on the same day at a different hospital at the same time puts an unauthorized DNR and DNT on Randy and puts him into a room to die.  A DNT means Do Not Transfer so if you are in a residential care facility you cannot go to an acute hospital: a recipe for certain death.

Being chronically ill is like winning the lottery; there are few winners. Lottery winners are not taxed but the chronically ill are heavily taxed by having their care rationed so their quality/enjoyment of life are lessened.