‘Progressive health care’: Glenn Beck to fund surgery for woman forced to sign up for assisted suicide

By Ron Strom

Gal with rare disease faced death because no endocrinologist is accepting new patients

Noting sarcastically that “this is the reality of compassionate progressive health care,” commentator Glenn Beck says he is set to pay for surgery a Canadian woman needs but could not get in her home country, a circumstance that forced her to sign up for the nation’s assisted suicide program.

Saskatchewan resident Jolene Van Alstine suffers from a rare but treatable illness, normocalcemic primary hyperparathyroidism, which causes her to experience extreme bone pain, nausea and vomiting. The condition can be ameliorated through surgery, but Van Alstine was not able to schedule the operation under Canada’s government-run health care system.

Beck, founder of The Blaze, noticed an article in CBC reporting that Van Alstine would need to travel out of Saskatchewan for the surgery, but she first needed a referral from an endocrinologist. However, none is accepting new patients. As reported in Juno News, she told the CBC the pain had become so unbearable that she applied for assisted suicide, with her appointment scheduled for Jan. 7 next year.

The Canadian program is called medical assistance in dying, or MAID.