Offered euthanasia but not quality care
Ontario resident Roger Foley has filed suit against his hospital, health agencies, and the attorneys general of Ontario and Canada after doctors denied his choice of an assisted-living team and offered him euthanasia.
Foley has a neurological disorder that has taken away his ability to move his arms and legs and limited his speaking. But instead of helping him live comfortably, his government-funded home care team gave him such poor care he ended up in a hospital.
“I have been given the wrong medications, I have been provided food where I got food poisoning, I’ve had workers fall asleep in my living room, burners and appliances constantly left on, a fire, and I have been injured during exercises and transfers,” he said.
The hospital then told him he had to leave and accept the care of a government-selected team or accept euthanasia, he said.
Michael Bach, director of the Institute for Research and Development on Inclusion and Society, called Foley’s case profoundly disturbing.
“It makes absolutely clear that the safeguards are not in the system,” he said.
Meanwhile, legalized euthanasia in Canada has ended the lives of at least 3,714 people since the law allowing it took effect in 2016, according to the latest interim government report. That figure does not include euthanasia deaths in Quebec, Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, which do not report their numbers. —S.G.
Grisly crimes
Generally, I avoid reporting stories involving crimes against newborns. But the stories last week piled so high they became worth a mention:
- Virginia resident Vanessa Danielle Poteat pleaded guilty Wednesday to drowning her newborn in the tub just after giving birth to him in 2014. She faces up to 21 years in prison.
- North Dakota resident Ginny Lubitz pleaded not guilty last week to drowning her newborn after he was born in May. Friends found the baby facedown in water, and an autopsy showed “an apparent live birth” and death by drowning.
- A Brooklyn, N.Y., teen abandoned her dead child on Tuesday in the toilet of an American Airlines aircraft that had landed at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. It remains to be seen whether the crime was against a newborn or an unborn baby. A member of a cleaning crew found the baby after the girl disembarked from a flight that originated in Jamaica. Sources told the New York Post the 18-year-old might have undergone a botched abortion in the island nation. —S.G.
Generous donation
National Football League player Benjamin Watson replaced Maryland’s Severna Park Pregnancy Clinic’s failing ultrasound machine with a brand new 3D and 4D machine this summer. The clinic receives calls from about 7,000 women a year, LifeNews reported. Many of them are calling for a price quote on abortion, and the Annapolis clinic staff helps them see their babies before making up their minds. Watson played tight end for the Baltimore Ravens the last two seasons and is now with the New Orleans Saints. —S.G.
Vitals 
