It took a disturbing encounter with a nurse at a remote Alberta hospital for Heather Hancock to realise that Canada’s euthanasia system was going seriously wrong.
Hancock has suffered from cerebral palsy since childhood and was bullied since his school days, but the treatment he received at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital was exceptional.
In 2019, during her long-term care due to muscle spasms, a caregiver crossed an unthinkable line when they were helping her get to the bathroom at night.
“Do the right thing and consider MAiD,” the nurse said, referring to the country’s medical assisted euthanasia program.
“You are selfish. You don’t live, you just exist.”
Heather Hancock, 56, says her medical team sees her as a waste of medical money.
A nurse at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital in Alberta told her it was “selfish” to waste hospital resources.
Hancock, now 56, said he was “shocked” but stood his ground, telling the nurse his life had value, even if he spent four-fifths of it in a wheelchair.
“You have no right to force me to accept MAiD,” she recalls telling a sneering caregiver.
She later complained about the nurse being removed from her care team but did not file a formal complaint.
Alberta Health said the nurse’s comments were “completely unacceptable.”
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For Hancock, this was the most horrifying incident, but it wasn’t the first time her supposed carers had urged her to end her suffering with a lethal injection.
She said medical staff recommended she undergo MAiD three times, all after Canada launched its assisted dying program in 2016.
The system expanded rapidly.
According to estimates obtained by DailyMail.com, doctors helped 15,280 suffering people to die prematurely last year, a 15 percent increase compared to 2022.
Approximately 60,000 people have died through MAiD since the program began, accounting for 4.6% of all deaths.
Physician-assisted suicide helps patients escape the pain of cancer, heart disease and other terminal illnesses, but for Hancock and other disabled people, the availability of the treatment has changed the way their carers view them.
“They just see me as a drain on the health care system and think my medical dollars should be spent on healthy people,” she says.
Mr Hancock was born in Alberta in 1968 and spent many years living, studying and working as a hospital clerk in British Columbia.
She was forced to give up her job more than 10 years ago due to a deteriorating muscle condition.
Heather Hancock warns Americans should follow Canada’s lead before opening the “Pandora’s box” of euthanasia.
Our projections show that deaths from euthanasia will increase by more than 15% between 2022 and 2023.
Heather Hancock is pictured with her father at age 21, when she was able to stand unassisted.
Heather Hancock, pictured in 2017, has been a frequent wheelchair user throughout her life and now uses one 80 percent of the time.
Spina bifida patient Tracy Polewchuk says nurses treat her like a “bag of meat.”
She is now on disability benefits, living in a supportive home in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, and campaigning and writing against assisted suicide in Canada and the US.
The Canadian system is much more advanced than the American system, where recipients in 10 states and Washington can request a cocktail of medications to take themselves, in most cases at home.
About a dozen U.S. states have debated bills to legalize the procedure this year.
Delaware’s bill passed both houses of Congress, leaving Governor John Carney with the final say on whether to sign the bill into law.
Hancock warned Americans, “Look at what’s going on in this country.”
“It’s a Pandora’s box. Once the lid is open, it’s out of control. All restrictions disappear in an instant and freedom is diminished.”
Hancock is far from alone: ​​disability rights groups in both countries say MAiD leaves disabled people even more vulnerable.
Another Canadian, Tracy Polewczuk, said this month that she was experiencing similar problems in Quebec.
Polewchuk has spina bifida, a birth defect that causes weak bones, and laments the deterioration of the daily care visits she receives in Pointe-Claire, Montreal.
“The pain is the worst. We all agree. It’s awful. I’m in pain 24/7. The pain never stops. I can get through it,” she told CTV News.
“I can’t survive if I’m treated like a bag of meat.”
Polevchuk said she was told twice, without any prompting, by members of her care team that she was eligible for MAiD.
“Instead of being given help to survive, I feel like I’m being pushed into the MAiD program,” Polewchuk said.
Nearly two-thirds of people receiving assisted suicide in Canada are cancer patients.
Under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, Canada has repeatedly made euthanasia easier to access.
More than 99.9% of assisted suicides in Canada are performed by doctors.
“I want to survive. I want to thrive. I want my life back. I want the opposite of what they’re trying to get us to do.”
Every hospital in Canada has a MAiD team on-site who offer elderly and infirm people the option of physician-assisted euthanasia.
However, as in the cases of Polevchuk and Hancock, nurses should not persistently persuade disabled people about their end-of-life treatment options.
“We are sorry and outraged to hear about Heather’s experience,” Andrea Smith, a spokesperson for Alberta Health, told DailyMail.com.
“In Alberta, an individual cannot be forced into MAiD for any reason, much less because they have a disability. What happened here is completely unacceptable.”
Canada’s path to legalizing euthanasia began in 2015 when the Supreme Court ruled that criminalizing assisted suicide would rob people of their dignity and autonomy. The court gave world leaders a year to draft legislation.
As a result, a law enacted in 2016 legalized both euthanasia and assisted suicide for people over the age of 18 who meet certain conditions.
They had to have a severe, advanced condition, illness or disability that was causing suffering and imminent death.
The law was subsequently amended to allow people who were not terminally ill to choose death, significantly increasing the number of people eligible.
Critics say the changes remove important safeguards designed to protect people who may have decades left to live.
Today, any adult with a serious illness, disease or disability can request assistance in dying.
In February, officials delayed plans to expand MAiD access to people with mental illness, pushing a decision back until 2027.
There are also efforts to allow euthanasia for “mature minors.”
Euthanasia is legal in seven countries – Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Spain – and in some states in Australia.
Other jurisdictions, including a growing number of US states, allow physician-assisted suicide, in which patients self-medicate, usually by crushing and swallowing a lethal dose prescribed by a doctor.
In Canada, both options are called MAiD, but more than 99.9% of such procedures are performed by a physician. The number of deaths from MAiD in Canada has been steadily increasing by about a third each year.