52-Year-Old with Cancer Chooses Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) Over Chemo, According to BC Family
A 52-year-old B.C. man chose medical assistance in dying (MAID) under Canada’s expanding MAID laws after failing to get chemotherapy treatment in time.
Kathleen Carmichael told CTV News that her partner, Dan Quayle, opted for death after he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer and unable to receive chemotherapy treatments before his health started to fail.
“The oncologist would come in and say, ‘We’re pretty backlogged right now so hang in there,” Ms. Carmichael said.
The incident is the latest in a rising number of cases where people choose MAID when facing issues like poverty or mental health challenges.
Canada has one of the most liberal assisted death laws in the world, and the government is currently working on a framework to expand it further to allow those whose only medical condition is mental illness to end their lives through the procedure as well.
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In October 2022, a 54-year-old man from St. Catharines who had chronic pain due to a back injury applied for MAID, saying that social supports were failing him and he was afraid he would become homeless. However, he did not go through with the procedure after public support.
That is up from 10,029 MAID deaths in 2021 and 7,446 in 2020.
Those numbers are expected to keep going up in 2024 as MAID will be expanded to allow those with mental illness to end their lives.
A private members bill that would have blocked MAID expansion was defeated during its second reading in the House of Commons. Bill C-314 was introduced by Conservative MP Ed Fast. It failed by a 150–167 vote.
Matthew Horwood contributed to this report.
