By Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
The 23-year-old Kiano who was scheduled to die by euthanasia on September 28, is alive.
The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition was instrumental in this first victory to prevent the killing of Kiano.
After speaking with Margaret Marsilla, the mother of Kiano (who was originally scheduled to die by euthanasia on September 22 and then rescheduled for September 28) I published an article titled: Mother wants to stop her 23-year-old son from being killed by euthanasia.
Margaret had started a Change.org petition. I asked her if we could republish her petition on CitizenGo, a petition platform that we have successfully launched other petition campaigns. Almost 10,000 people signed the CitizenGo petition.
Margaret told the media that the petition campaign was instrumental in activating people to stop the doctor and MAiD House from killing Kiano.
We originally did not publish Kiano’s name because he asked his mother to keep his name private. But since then Kiano has used his name when being interviewed by the media.
But the battle is not over. Margaret wants to prevent her son from being killed by euthanasia but she also wants to set a precedent that wrong approvals for euthanasia can be challenged.
Since the government in Ontario is treating euthanasia as “medical treatment,” challenges to euthanasia applications should be able to be reviewed before the Consent and Capacity Board, like other medical treatment disputes.
Linda Slobodian wrote on September 28 in an article for the Western Standard news quoted Margaret as saying:
“We’re going to be fighting the Ontario health system to not allow any other doctors to perform euthanasia on my son.”
“We have to bring this to the Capacity Board, so he’ll be forced to do some testing with regards to his psychological capacity.”
Ontario’s Consent and Capacity Board, a quasi-judicial administrative tribunal, operates independently from the health ministry under the Health Care Consent Act’s authority. Marsilla’s also considering legal action against MAiD House and the doctor.
“This is going to be a big battle. I’m not going to give up my fight.”
The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition told Margaret that we would help her in this process.
You may also want to read the interview with Kiano written by Dorothy Cummings McLean and published by LifeSiteNews on September 29.
Kiano is alive, at least for now. This is great news. Our work with his Margaret has been successful and has made a difference.
But the battle continues.
Editor’s note. This appeared on Mr. Schadenberg’s blog and reposted with permission.