Canadian healthcare providers are facing backlash for encouraging a disabled woman to consider Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID). Heather Hancock, who was born with Cerebral Palsy, said a nurse in Alberta told her “to do the right thing and consider MAID.”
According to an op-ed written by Hancock for the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, which aims to raise awareness and enforce ethical guidelines regarding euthanasia, the Alberta-born woman was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy at the age of two.
Cerebral Palsy refers to a group of neurological disorders that appear in infancy or early childhood and permanently affect body movement and muscle coordination. The condition may impact one or more specific areas of the body and may become more severe over time. Approximately half of those impacted use a wheelchair, and some may also need to use speech devices to communicate.
By age 33, Hancock had lost the ability to walk without support. By 44, after over two decades in her career field, she had to retire from her position as a Unit Clerk due to her condition.
From 2017-2019 Hancock suffered a series of spastic episodes that prevented her from being able to move from the waist down, forcing her to seek medical treatment. While she was at the hospital, Hancock explained she noticed a shift in how the staff were treating her, and at some points, felt as if they were neglecting her altogether.
“In [the] hospital, I discovered a change in the attitudes of nurses, doctors, orderlies, and therapists. There was a subtle undercurrent that was almost tangible. I had nurses neglecting me, forcing me to try and walk while they stood at a distance and watched with arms crossed. It was evident the medical staff preferred not to treat me.”
In 2018, just two years after MAID was legalized in Canada, a doctor at Victoria General Hospital approached Hancock after an episode to ask her if she had ever considered physician-assisted suicide based on “the incessant level of severe pain and fatigue [she] lived with.” At the same hospital, one year later, she was offered MAID again.
After feeling abandoned by the medical system in British Columbia, Hancock moved to a Saskatchewan community on the border of Alberta. But shortly after moving into her new home, she experienced a fall and was taken to a hospital in Medicine Hat where she stayed for three weeks due to her injury.
In addition to feeling like the staff was extremely condescending during her stay, a nurse came to her bedside one morning and asked her to “do the right thing” and consider MAID.
“If I were you, I would take it in a heartbeat. You’re not living, you’re existing,” she added.
Completely shocked, 56-year-old Hancock told the nurse she had no right to “push her to accept MAID” and that she would never accept euthanasia as a treatment option because her “life has value and no human being has a right to say otherwise.”
The nurse was later removed from Hancock’s care team for having a “personality clash.”
Speaking with Daily Mail, Hancock explained that MAID-related deaths have risen over the years because the Canadian healthcare system considers disabled people like her to be “a drain on the medical system.”
“Take a look at what’s going on in this country,” Hancock warned. “It’s Pandora’s Box. Once the lid is off, you cannot control it. All the restrictions disappear really quickly, and your freedoms are undermined.”
As of 2022, over 13,000 Canadians have died by physician-assisted suicide. Since its legalization in the country, a total of nearly 45,000 deaths by MAID have been recorded.
According to Alex Schadenberg, the director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, a shocking uptick in deaths via MAID is a result of medical professionals approving patients who “suffer from nothing more than frailty” and other seemingly benign conditions.
“It’s scary how the system is getting looser, doctors are signing the paperwork, and people who didn’t meet the original criteria have become eligible,” he added, noting that although the data has not been released Canada is estimated to have seen a 15% jump in MAID-related deaths from 2022 to 2023.
This is not the first time a vulnerable patient has been offered MAID in Canada while seeking medical treatment. As previously reported by The Publica, 37-year-old Kathryn Mentler was offered information on medically assisted death at Vancouver General Hospital after seeking assistance for suicidal ideations.
“I very specifically went there that day because I didn’t want to get into a situation where I would think about taking an overdose of medication. The more I think about it, I think it brings up more and more ethical and moral questions around it,” explained Mentler, adding that the clinician told her the wait time to see a psychiatrist is extremely long due to Canada’s “broken” medical system.
Currently, eligibility for MAID includes individuals suffering from a “grievous and irremediable medical condition” but is set to expand to include those with a mental illness or addictions issues on March 17, 2027.
