INDEPENDENCE, Ohio (LifeSiteNews) — If anything positive can be derived from the proliferation of euthanasia in Canada, Alex Schadenberg says it’s that groups around the world are watching the number of medically assisted deaths spiral out of control there and taking action to prevent a similar fate in their countries.
Speaking at the annual Bringing America Back to Life Convention sponsored by Greater Cleveland Right to Life on March 13, the executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition pointed to Slovenia as an example of how individuals can make a difference in stopping unjust, anti-life laws.
Late last year, a referendum campaign initiated by a citizens’ group in Slovenia led to a euthanasia law being overturned on November 23 after it had been passed just five months earlier in July by the European country’s left-wing government.
“The most wonderful thing about what’s happening in Canada is lives in other places are being saved because of it,” said Schadenberg, who has led the 7,000-member Euthanasia Prevention Coalition since 1999 and has spoken and written extensively on the subject.
Schadenberg worked closely the Voice for the Children and the Family group in Slovenia on its signature campaign that enabled the referendum to be put before the country’s voters in a matter of months. To his surprise and many others, the nation’s euthanasia law was overturned with a 53.6 percent majority.
“It was impossible what they did,” Schadenberg said.
Pre-election polls indicated the referendum had only 30 percent backing, but Schadenberg said its backers remained firm on their talking points, and they were asked to pray.
“It’s amazing, and I think that’s a miracle,” Schadenberg said, “and it shows you that it is possible to convince people that killing people is bad idea.
“So, it’s a good warning to you that silence is not good. It doesn’t help us.”
READ: Scotland shocks the world with unexpected defeat of euthanasia
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Those talking points included calling euthanasia drugs “poison.”
“The other side said, ‘Oh, this isn’t poison.’ I said, ‘Well, what are you doing then? It’s to cause a death to somebody. So what causes death is a type of a poison. It’s intended to kill, so it’s poison. You’re going to legalize the doctors to be involved in poisoning people,” Schadenberg shared.
Euthanasia backers argued that assisted death could be considered health care reform and social reform in a country of two million people that faces challenges with its budget, providing social services and retirement pensions.
“They said, ‘This is healthcare reform, pension reform, social services reform, because dead people don’t cost money,” Schadenberg related.
The anti-euthanasia campaigners argued those points by saying, “Look, you worked all your life, you paid into the system, and now the government is offering you one new difference. They’re willing to kill you,” Schadenberg continued.
During debates leading up to the vote, euthanasia supporters disputed the claim that those seeking to end their lives would be given “poison.”
“So the debate became, ‘Is it poison or is it not poison? And the talking point was our talking point.”
The victory proved that grassroots efforts can be successful, said Schadenberg, who spent time in Slovenia doing speaking engagements and sharing what was happening in Canada, which is now considering an expansion of its Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) to include individuals dealing with mental illness.
Showing footage from interviews he had done in Canada proved to be an effective tool in Slovenia. Schadenberg is currently working on a new film titled Life Worth Living that he hopes will be used to continue to stop the spread of euthanasia around the world.
“Those stories were powerful in Slovenia and they’re powerful in other places,” he said. “So, as crazy as Canada is, I tell you, if you do nothing, you will end up like Canada (where 7.9 percent of all deaths were reported via euthanasia in 2025).”
He pointed to the United Kingdom as another example of Canada’s impact on the euthanasia debate in other nations. An assisted suicide bill that passed in the House of Commons has stalled in the House of Lords and is likely dead.
“Why? The experience of Canada is killing it,” Schadenberg surmised. “The members of the House of Lords are saying, ‘No, I don’t think so. And so at least it’s saving lives somewhere.”
On Tuesday, another major pro-life victory was secured in Scotland, where Parliament rejected a bill that would have legalized euthanasia in the country, defeating the legislation in a 69-57 vote.
In the United States, 13 states have assisted suicide laws in place to varying degrees. The distinction between assisted suicide and euthanasia is that individuals carry out self-inflicted death at home after receiving drugs while euthanasia in Canada is facilitated by a physician or healthcare professional.
“The difference is not the drug regimen. The difference is not that the doctor is approving or not approving. The difference is how it’s done,” Schadenberg explained. “In the case of euthanasia, the doctor, or as in the Canadian experience, nurse practitioners, they would inject you, or they set you up with an IV and they use a plunger to get the drugs in their system quickly. Whereas assisted suicide, you would be given a lethal powder mixture that you would mix with a drink, and you would take it yourself. The end is the same. The intention is the same. And I think it’s very important we understand this is about killing.”
Oregon was the first U.S. state to adopt assisted suicide in 1998. Last year, New York, Delaware, and Illinois joined 10 other states and the District of Columbia in legalizing assisted suicide. On a positive note, New York did amend its laws to require a five-day waiting period and a residency requirement after court challenges.
READ: Elderly Canadian woman offered euthanasia before doctor even asked what was wrong with her
Last year, California and Maine passed expansion bills. Currently, there are assisted suicide bills in Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Tennessee. Next year, New Jersey and Washington state will consider expansion bills. On the flip side, assisted suicide bills have died in Virginia and West Virginia over the past two years.
Democrats have taken the lead in pushing through legislation on assisted suicide while working closely with Compassion & Choices, an organized and well-funded group that is leading the effort to expand assisted suicide in America. An affiliate group, Catholics for Compassion, has also been formed. Schadenberg said their goal is to have laws on the books in half of the states by 2028.
He described the manner in which assisted suicide advocates work to expand the laws. They include removing safeguards, including eliminating waiting periods, allowing medical practitioners other than doctors to facilitate the process, waiving residency requirements, defining the procedure as medical treatment, or granting approval through telehealth appointments.
One of the tactics through its messaging is preying on the emotions of people while presenting assisted suicide as merciful or the prevention of suffering. One of the strategies is to offer assisted suicide as a solution to dementia.
“They know that certain stories upset people, and they play on fear, fear, fear,” Schadenberg said. “And guess what, you’re a human being. You’re not God, you’re not a computer. Fear gets all of us.
“It’s really about killing people at a vulnerable time their life. (But) suffering is not our talking point,” he told the convention attendees. “That’s talking point for the other side. We do not talk about suffering. I know people go through suffering. We’ve all experienced some suffering. It’s about abandonment. And never open the door to killing people.”
Schadenberg once again pointed out that terminology plays a major factor in the assisted suicide debate. He called it misguided mercy.
“Compassion is not letting a woman die on the floor in her home with the pills or the potion that she’s taken,” he said. “No, it’s caring for her. It’s supporting her as another human being, and that’s what medical care is all about. It’s not a quick fix.”
He stressed that it’s also a mistake to equate assisted suicide with palliative care. U.S. Catholic bishops have addressed the evils of assisted suicide issue but have muddled the message by adding end-of-life care to their statements.
“They actually have some good things they’ve been doing. The problem is that we mix the argument of assisted suicide with palliative care. We shouldn’t do that,” Schadenberg said. “I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with good palliative care, good end-of-life care, but they’re totally different issues. Absolutely, we need good end of life care, but it’s not connected to assisted suicide at all. Assisted suicide is clearly about killing. If you’re saying the antidote to suicide is good end-of-life care, you’re actually wrong.”
The antidote to assisted suicide is a culture that totally interconnects and cares about one other. In addition to compassionate care, human companionship can play a role in persuading an individual not to choose ending his or her life.
“We can prevent death by loving one another, by caring for them, by being with them, by being the example of the gift of life and the importance of it,” Schadenberg noted. “We make a mistake as we talk about suffering. We say, ‘Well, you don’t need to suffer. We can prevent suffering.’ Yes, of course, we can prevent suffering. We have a good pain and symptom management; there’s so much we can do to help people to make sure they’re not suffering. Suffering is the talking point on the other side.”
Suffering often extends to feeling of loneliness, depression, hopelessness, despair, lack or purpose or meaning when battling a life-threatening condition. Assisted suicide is presented as a solution.
“For a lot of people, it’s not that they’re experiencing pain or suffering, it’s that they fear what might be coming. They’re trying to avoid what is approaching them. They’re saying, ‘I don’t want to go through that.’ They don’t want to suffer alone.”
“We’ve got a problem our culture. We’ve got a lot of loneliness,” he added. “Assisted suicide turns our human experience also upside down. … ‘I need someone to accompany me, to make me feel like my life is meaning, even when I feel it doesn’t.’ This is a challenge. And in a place like Canada, where we’ve legalized it, we’ve been pushing very hard in our faith groups, our communities, to be involved heavily with visiting people and being with them, because, otherwise, you start hearing all these stories about (women who) regularly went to church, but nobody was there and she died of the nation. How could that have happened?”
In Ohio, where the pro-life convention was attended by close to 1,000 people over two days, euthanasia advocates are actively targeting the state. Pro-lifers fear the possibility of an amendment initiative similar to the one in 2023 that made abortion a constitutional right and they’re being proactive in addressing the threat.
Pro-life leaders and state legislators attended a meeting of the No Suicide Ohio coalition during the convention on how to prevent assisted suicide promoters such as Compassion & Choices from gaining a foothold in the Buckeye State.
“Those of us that have been working in the pro-life movement saw how quickly we went from being a pro-life state to having abortion legal by a ballot initiative a couple of years ago, and it really shocked us,” said Denise Leopold, retired executive director of Right to Life of Northeast Ohio and a member of the assisted suicide panel at the convention. “But it’s probably because of the inactivity of a lot of conservatives that didn’t go to the polls. So we’re trying to get everybody activated, to stop this ahead of time.
“We’re getting more people on board to tell them that there could be a threat in Ohio. We had great pro-life laws and they’re gone. So even though it’s illegal in Ohio right now, anybody with a lot of money and a lot of advertising dollars change minds really easily even if it’s based on false information.”
