Stories
You’ve been told that all is well with MAID in Canada?
Read on…
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Amir Farsoud
“I don’t want to die. But I don’t want to be homeless more than I don’t want to die.” (Amir Farsoud, 2022)
https://toronto.citynews.ca/video/2022/10/13/choosing-death-over-homelessness/
Saved by a last-minute fundraiser, Amir Farsoud chooses to live and celebrates his 2nd ‘deathaversary.’ (Amir Farsoud, 2024)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-13413075/Disabled-Canadian-euthanasia-programme.html
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Sophia (pseudonym)
“The government sees me as expendable trash, a complainer, useless…” (Sophia, 2022)
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Donna Duncan
Abbottsford grandmother with post-concussion syndrome was never seen by the local clinic for complex chronic diseases because of a months-long waiting list, but was approved for MAID in a few days.
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Canadian Veteran
Army veteran called Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Brain Injury treatment and was offered MAiD instead.
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Michael Fraser
Michael’s decision was prompted by “a constellation of factors — intractable disease, poverty, childhood sexual trauma, mental health challenges and the option of an assisted death.” He had decided that life was no longer worth living. https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/we-re-all-implicated-in-michael-fraser-s-decision-to-die/article_a1b6e5c4-354b-58b3-9ec8-0dd8d3f53325.html
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Normand Meunier
Quadriplegic and in the emergency for a respiratory virus, Normand spent four days on a stretcher despite his wife’s insistence that he needed a specialized mattress to prevent bedsores. He developed advanced pressure sores that were extremely painful, required several debridements, and led directly to his request for MAID shortly afterwards.
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Laurence Godin-Tremblay’s grandmother
She “didn’t want to bother anyone.” After tests for abdominal pain, she was given a choice between surgery with a colostomy and probable nursing home placement; a horrific death with intractable vomiting; and “medical aid in dying.” She did not see a palliative care expert. She died by MAID two days later.
https://le-verbe.com/portrait/ma-grand-mere-a-recu-laide-medicale-a-mourir-grand-maman/
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Mr. A
Mr. A was in his forties and had inflammatory bowel disease, a history of mental illness and suicidality, and ongoing substance abuse. A psychiatrist asked him if he was aware of MAiD. He was not offered addiction treatments, and there was no input from his family. The MAID provider drove him to the location where his life was ended.
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Alan Nichols
Alan had a hearing and cognitive disability and recurrent depression but lived independently. He was admitted to the hospital involuntarily for suicidality but was soon deemed capable of requesting MAiD, for a qualifying diagnosis of “hearing loss” and against the wishes of his family. Despite contacting the medical and civil authorities and writing over 40 letters, they have not found any legal recourse.
https://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/AMAD/meeting-13/evidence#Int-11774997
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Madeline (pseudonym)
After 25 years of living with pain, fatigue and a complex disability, Madeline says that her monthly income is not enough to keep her in a pain threshold that’s bearable, so she’s seeking medically assisted dying.
https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2020/07/27/vancouver-woman-disabilities-medically-assisted-dying/