An anti-euthanasia advocate believes public pressure he spearheaded helped end a video campaign that glorified the choice of a medically assisted death..Jennyfer Hatch, a 37-year-old B.C. woman suffering with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, received Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) on October 23. The next day, La Maison Simons released 30-second and three-minute online videos narrated by Hatch entitled “All is Beauty.” Then, on October 25, Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, launched a boycott petition against the Quebec-based fashion retailer..“We were asking people to sign the boycott. And I made it very clear, this is a good time to shop at their competitor. I'm not saying that, in some way, death can't be beautiful, because death can be beautiful… as a completion of one's life. This was saying killing somebody is beautiful, and of course, it's not. There's nothing beautiful about it,” Schadenberg told the Western Standard in an interview..Simons’ president and CEO Peter Simons explained the company’s motivations in a separate video in early November, which, along with the original ads, has been made private on YouTube. He said his customers “want to engage in difficult conversations” and the company wanted to “do a project that's less commercially oriented and more focused on inspiration and values that we hold dear.”.Schadenberg doesn’t buy the argument..“How are you promoting the good of society by lethally injecting people? I don't get it; I really don't understand it. But I do understand where they're coming from in that this has become the new societal norm that we have to be progressive, we have to be promoting all these new ideas, that it's avant garde to be this way,” Schadenberg explained..“At least there's enough people standing up to say that no, this is actually a disgusting idea which we're promoting here. This is absolutely wrong, and we want nothing to do with it.”.For a decade, Hatch had suffered with Ehlers’ Danlos syndrome which led to chronic pain. On December 1, CTV revealed that she was the woman who talked with the network using the pseudonym “Kat” in a June 7 report. “I feel like I’m falling through the cracks so if I’m not able to access health care am I then able to access death care?” she told CTV..Schadenberg said that context reflects the real story of Hatch’s life and death..“Here's someone who, with proper care could live an effective life. This was a woman who was not dying. She was not nearing death. I'm not justifying euthanasia for people who are dying, but she was not dying,” he said..The ad drew fire in late November, especially from U.S. conservative journalists. Ian Miles Cheong tweeted, “Simons is actually using suicide to market their products.” Similarly, Daily Wire podcaster Megan Basham characterized the ad as “Big Commerce and Big Government partnering to promote death.” .The backlash was welcomed by Schadenberg..“I'm happy that there's been a stronger reaction,” he said..“The Simons ad was in quite a few US news and talk shows, but on top of it, the whole thing of euthanasia for mental illness--the rest of the world can't believe we're doing this. They also can't believe how we're doing this. Someone who's not terminal, who's fully treatable to die by lethal injection with a 90-day waiting period, that's pretty insane. Actually, that's ridiculous.”.in a statement, Simons said: “The All is Beauty campaign has come to an end this week. Simons is now entering their annual holiday sprint. In this context, all of their teams' efforts are focused on in-store and web holiday activities.”.In late November, Justice Minister David Lametti was challenged by Toronto Star journalist Althia Raj about expanding euthanasia to the mentally ill. .Lametti said to “remember that suicide generally is available to people. This is a group within the population who, for physical reasons and possibly mental reasons, can’t make that choice themselves to do it themselves. And ultimately, this provides a more humane way for them to make a decision they otherwise could have made if they were able in some other way.”.The EPC founder can’t understand that logic either..“You're saying because someone would be suicidal, it's better that we lethally inject them. So the treatment for suicidal ideation is lethal injection? It really isn't good,” Schadenberg said..“The world needs to wake up and say, no, I agree killing's just not quite the idea that a progressive society, if that's what you want to call it, will do.”
