Vancouver doctor Ellen Wiebe and a colleague agree to carry out death wish
By Agnieszka Krawczynski
The B.C. Catholic

Caption: Dr. Ellen Wiebe.

Physicians have carried out the first known case of euthanasia in Western Canada.

Doctor Ellen Wiebe, a member of Hemlock Aid, and a colleague killed a Calgary woman at her request in Vancouver Feb. 29.

“I am not suffering from anxiety or depression or fear of death,” wrote the woman, identified only as Ms. S. due to a publication ban. “I would like to pass away peacefully and am hoping to have physician-assisted death soon.”

Ms. S. was a retired clinical psychologist, a hiker, and a dancer. She was diagnosed with ALS in 2013. Though killing someone or assisting their suicide is still a crime under the law, Ms. S. asked for and received a legal exemption because the Carter decision said the law must be changed, but the court has given the government until June 6 to write new law.

Documents say she was paralyzed and suffering serious pain. She flew from Calgary to Vancouver, where she was killed.

She was the first Canadian outside Quebec to die in this way. Wiebe told The Canadian Press she and her colleague “were grateful and honoured to be able to help her.”

Vancouver doctor Williard Johnston called that “the kind of unseemly and, I would say, unprofessional behaviour that you would expect from a zealot for suicide.”

He said 600 people die of ALS in Canada each year. “It’s very unusual for people with ALS to have pain from the ALS,” he told The B.C. Catholic. “Almost universally, their deaths are peaceful.”

The ways and means of controlling ALS symptoms are widely known in the palliative care community, he said. Euthanasia and assisted suicide could cause patients to “throw away years of their lives” because of a poor prognosis.

United for Life president John Hof noted that Wiebe has also been a vocal advocate for abortion.

“Dr. Wiebe is famous for her years of being on the front lines of Canada’s abortion industry,” including promoting abortion drug RU-486. “To have her on the forefront of the killing industry, on both ends, is not a surprise.”

Justice Sheilah Martin said Ms. S’s application for the exemption was the only one she is aware of in this country.

Quebec’s first request for death was granted in January.