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Elderly woman opts for euthanasia to avoid another lockdown

An elderly woman in Canada has been euthanised to avoid having to live through another COVID-19 lockdown.

90-year-old Nancy Russell ended her life by euthanasia last month in Toronto, Canada so that she did not have to endure another lockdown, despite the fact that she was neither chronically nor terminally ill.

According to a report in CTVNews, during the lockdown, which, like the UK has gone through periods of greater and lesser intensity, residents “eat meals in their rooms, have activities and social gatherings cancelled, family visits curtailed or eliminated. Sometimes they are in isolation in their small rooms for days. These measures, aimed at saving lives, can sometimes be detrimental enough to the overall health of residents that they find themselves looking into other options”.

The first wave of Government COVID-19 restrictions in March ended her daily walks, library visits and all the activities in her Toronto retirement home.

It was contact with people that was like food to her, it was like, oxygen.

Her daughter Tory said: “She, almost overnight, went from a very active lifestyle to a very limited life, and they had, very early on, a complete two-week confinement just to her room”.

“She was just drooping. It was contact with people that was like food to her, it was like, oxygen. She would be just tired all the time because she was under-stimulated”.

“She just truly did not believe that she wanted to try another one of those two-week confinements into her room”, her daughter said.

Ms Russell was subsequently euthanised by lethal injection on 20th October. According to her daughter, she did this to “avoid a great fear of hers, which was to endure winter and lockdowns”.

Responding to this case, Dr Gordon Macdonald, Chief Executive of Care Not Killing said: “This is a shocking story, that highlights how quickly well-meaning, but dangerous changes, put forward under the false premise of alleviating suffering, can spin out of control”.

“In Canada we have seen the rapid increase in the number of people being euthanised and an expansion, ahead of legislative changes, of those who are having their lives ended”.

“Our current laws here in the UK, which ban both assisted suicide and euthanasia exist to protect those who are sick, elderly, depressed or disabled from feeling obliged to end their lives – people like Nancy Russell who clearly felt alone, depressed and a burden, unable to cope with the isolation and restrictions of another COVID lockdown”.

“The current laws protect those who have no voice against exploitation and coercion and those who care for them who might come under pressure to save money on care costs. They do not need changing”.

Expanding euthanasia law

Euthanasia has been legal in Canada since 2016. Last year however, following the euthanising of Alan Nichols, a former school caretaker who was physically healthy, but struggled with depression, the legal requirement that a person be terminally ill before administration of euthanasia was dropped.

Bill C-7 which is currently being debated in the Canadian Parliament intends to further extend euthanasia legislation to people with disabilities and those with mental health problems.

Expansion of euthanasia legislation is common in other countries too. In the Netherlands, where euthanasia has been legal since 2002, doctors are now permitted to secretly sedate patients who have dementia before euthanising them. The law permits voluntary euthanasia for anyone over the age of 16, and children age 13-15 can be euthanised with their parents’ consent. Earlier this year, the Dutch government said it would be changing the regulations to allow doctors to end the lives of terminally ill children between the ages of one and twelve.

Right To Life UK’s spokesperson, Catherine Robinson, said: “Laws like the ones we have in the UK that forbid assisted suicide and euthanasia, exist precisely to protect vulnerable people like Nancy Russell. Lockdowns can disproportionately affect people like her causing great depression and anxiety”.

“The solution is not to assist such people to end their lives, but to do everything possible to end their isolation, loneliness and depression”.

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Dear reader,

We are facing two major threats in the Lords - an extreme assisted suicide Bill and an abortion up to birth amendment.

THE GOOD NEWS - OUR STRATEGY IS WORKING

At Second Reading of the Leadbeater assisted suicide Bill in the House of Lords, a record number of Peers spoke, and of those who took a position, around two-thirds opposed the assisted suicide Bill. That is more than double the number who supported it.

Our side also secured a significant win, with the establishment of a dedicated Lords Select Committee to further scrutinise the Bill’s proposals – and Committee Stage has been delayed until it reports.

This momentum has been built by tens of thousands of people like you. Thanks to your hard work, Peers are receiving a very large number of emails and letters by post, making the case against the Bill. 

Thanks to your support, we have been able to mount a major campaign in Parliament, in the media and online – alongside your own efforts – to keep us on course for our goal: that this dangerous Bill never becomes law.

BUT MORE CHALLENGES LIE AHEAD

We cannot become complacent. Well-funded groups - Dignity in Dying, My Death My Decision and Humanists UK - have poured millions into pushing assisted suicide. They can see support is slipping and will fight hard to reverse that.

This is not the only fight we are facing in the House of Lords.

At the same time, the Antoniazzi abortion up to birth amendment, which passed in the House of Commons in June, is moving through the House of Lords as part of the Crime and Policing Bill.

Second Reading will take place in a matter of weeks. It will then go on to Committee and Report Stages, where we will be up against the UK’s largest abortion providers – BPAS and MSI Reproductive Choices (formerly Marie Stopes) – who are expected to lobby for even more extreme changes to our abortion laws.

If the Antoniazzi amendment becomes law, it would no longer be illegal for women to perform their own abortions for any reason – including sex-selective purposes – at any point up to and during birth.

Thousands of vulnerable lives - at the beginning and the end of life - depend on what happens next. We must do everything in our power to stop these radical proposals.

WE NEED YOUR HELP

Our campaign against the Leadbeater Bill in the House of Lords is working, but the work we have already done has significantly stretched our limited resources.

We are now stepping up our efforts against the assisted suicide Bill while launching a major push to stop the abortion up to birth amendment in the Lords. 

To fight effectively on both fronts, we aim to raise £183,750 by midnight this Sunday (5 October 2025).

Every donation, large or small, will help protect lives, and UK taxpayers can add 25p to every £1 through Gift Aid at no extra cost.

Will you donate now to help protect vulnerable lives from these two major threats?

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to protect vulnerable lives

Help stop three major anti-life threats.

Help fight the next phase of our battles against major assisted suicide and abortion up to birth threats.