Canadian grandmother offered euthanasia before ‘life-saving’ cancer surgery

A grandmother in Canada has reported that she was pressured to consider euthanasia before undergoing cancer surgery.

The 51-year-old from Nova Scotia told the Christian Medical and Dental Association that although she refused to discuss Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) at the time of her first operation, she was pushed to consider it again when she returned for a second mastectomy nine months later.

Since legalising MAID for certain circumstances in 2016, Canada has already abolished the requirement for a person to be terminally ill and intends to expand it to those who suffer from mental health problems from 2027.

Fearful

The woman reflected: “I was sitting in two surgical gowns, one frontways and one backwards, with a cap on my hair and booties on my feet. I was shivering and in a hard plastic chair and all alone in a hallway”.

When the doctor asked if she knew about MAID, she said: “‘I don’t want to talk about that’. I was scared and I was alone and I was cold and I didn’t know what was coming. Why was I being asked about assisted dying, when I was on my way into what I truly believe was life-saving surgery?”

The woman stated that the repeated offers of euthanasia made her feel “like a problem that needed to be rid of instead of a patient in need of treatment”.

‘Horrific’

In the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, Linda Maddaford said she was invited to a MAID presentation at her father’s care home the day after he arrived.

She said there is pressure that “if you aren’t open to the idea; you should be. I worry for the people who feel the pressure of: ‘Well my doctor advised it.’ Or ‘someone with a clipboard came around and kept asking.’”

Palliative medicine consultant Dr Leonie Herx highlighted that as a result of staff shortages, some hospitals have offered euthanasia to non-terminally ill patients before discussing palliative care.

She emphasised: “In some cases, MAID has become the only therapy provided, which is completely horrific from a medical perspective”.

‘Isolation’

According to a report by the Chief Coroner of Ontario, 67 per cent of the 116 non-terminally ill adults who were killed in the province last year reported “emotional distress/anxiety/fear/existential suffering”.

Almost 40 per cent were also concerned about being a “burden on family, friends, or caregivers”.

In one case, a woman in her 50s underwent MAID after she suffered “social isolation” when she was unable to secure housing suited to her medical needs.

Since MAID was first legalised in 2016, it has resulted in the deaths of 44,958 Canadians, with the number of those killed through the scheme rising by more than 350 per cent between 2017 and 2022.