{"id":248347,"date":"2021-07-01T08:43:12","date_gmt":"2021-07-01T13:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=248347"},"modified":"2021-07-01T10:22:05","modified_gmt":"2021-07-01T15:22:05","slug":"elderly-woman-canada-pressured-euthanaized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/elderly-woman-canada-pressured-euthanaized\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of elderly Canadian woman says doctors tried to pressure her into euthanasia"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

A Canadian couple is speaking out about how their elderly family member was pressured to be euthanized while battling cancer. Joan Rohoway, 84, was receiving care through the Fraser Health Authority in Canada, but her daughter and son-in-law say doctors coerced her into agreeing to be euthanized instead.<\/p>\n

In May, Rohoway was a patient in the cancer and palliative-care wards at Surrey Memorial Hospital. Alain Seguin, Rohoway’s son-in-law, told the B.C. Catholic<\/a> she was visited by an oncologist while she was heavily medicated to discuss the Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD) program in Canada. Seguin alleges that the doctor waited until she was alone and vulnerable to bring up the controversial topic. Rohoway’s daughter, Pamela, said that when Rohoway asked what her treatment options were, the doctor told her there were none, and to consider euthanasia instead. The doctor then said Rohoway agreed to die.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was aghast, I was angry,\u201d Alain said of Rohoway agreeing to be euthanized. \u201cIt was done so underhandedly. To me, [the subterfuge] was intentional. The way they handled it was poor, where the doctor went ahead and put the idea in my mother-in-law\u2019s head.\u201d According to Alain, their family is staunchly pro-life and opposes any manner of taking life \u2014 from abortion to capital punishment. \u201cI was raised a Catholic and was raised to believe you\u2019re given life by God,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the only person who has the right to take that life is God.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ:<\/strong>\u00a0Pushback in Ireland over euthanasia bill: \u2018This isn\u2019t a gentle, peaceful death\u2019<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

After Alain and Pamela complained, a nurse and social worker said Rohoway had requested euthanasia three times. Even after Rohoway’s family brought her home for palliative care, the declaration remained. But when two FHA health care workers visited, Pamela said she and Alain were threatened that if they continued to oppose Rohoway’s euthanization, FHA would file to obtain legal guardianship of Rohoway.<\/p>\n

Finally, two new workers arrived, who asked Rohoway if she wanted to die. \u201cShe said, \u2018Absolutely not, I want to stay here,\u2019\u201d Pamela recalled. \u201cThe two then said, \u2018OK.\u2019\u201d The damage, however, has been done. \u201c[T]he level of trust we have with Fraser Health is about zero,” Alain said, as Pamela added, \u201cThey are just writing her off.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the B.C. Catholic reported, “Fraser Health\u2019s official policy on medical assistance in dying (MAiD) is that it is supposed to be an ‘entirely patient-driven’ process.\u00a0Yet the evidence, such as that of the case of Joan Rohoway, suggests doctors can and do lead euthanasia-related discussions.”<\/p>\n

Canada has been rapidly expanding its MAiD program in recent years, even as vulnerable groups fight against it<\/a>. And Rohoway is far from the first person to allege being pressured into euthanasia; Roger Foley<\/a> likewise said he was denied basic health care and threatened with euthanasia if he continued to stay in the hospital. Catalina Devandas Aguilar, a lawyer from Costa Rica and the United Nation\u2019s first Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, likewise found multiple instances<\/a> of people with disabilities who were pressured into euthanasia.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Canadian couple is speaking out about how their elderly family member was pressured to be euthanized while battling cancer. Joan Rohoway, 84, was receiving care through the Fraser Health Authority in Canada, but her daughter and son-in-law say doctors coerced her into agreeing to be euthanized instead. In May, Rohoway was a patient in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":187936,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[5,3473],"tags":[1303,10414,154,10416,498,10419,10417,10418,10290,10289,2158,10415],"yoast_head":"\nFamily of elderly Canadian woman says doctors tried to pressure her into euthanasia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"84-year-old Joan Rohoway was receiving treatment for cancer, but her daughter and son-in-law say doctors pressured her to be euthanized.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/elderly-woman-canada-pressured-euthanaized\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Family of elderly Canadian woman says doctors tried to pressure her into euthanasia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"84-year-old Joan Rohoway was receiving treatment for cancer, but her daughter and son-in-law say doctors pressured her to be euthanized.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/elderly-woman-canada-pressured-euthanaized\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-07-01T13:43:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-07-01T15:22:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_670073107-elderly-euthanasia.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cassy Cooke\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cassy Cooke\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/elderly-woman-canada-pressured-euthanaized\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/elderly-woman-canada-pressured-euthanaized\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Cassy Cooke\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/16622da192101346f516b7444d125392\"},\"headline\":\"Family of elderly Canadian woman says doctors tried to pressure her into euthanasia\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-07-01T13:43:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-07-01T15:22:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/elderly-woman-canada-pressured-euthanaized\/\"},\"wordCount\":540,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"assisted suicide\",\"B.C. 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