A senior who went to Vancouver General Hospital for a diagnosis and treatment after experiencing sudden pain was offered euthanasia by a doctor – before the woman had even been asked what was wrong with her.
“I am 84 years old, and a year ago, an amazing thing happened,” Miriam told Amanda Achtman, the founder of the Dying to Meet You Project. “When I got out of bed one morning, I was suddenly in excruciating pain, so much so that my daughter came running in from another room.”
“She called an ambulance,” Miriam said. “Off I went to the Vancouver General Hospital, and I was approached by a young lady doctor. The very first words out of her mouth [were]: ‘We would like to offer you MAID.’ I was taken aback—that was the last thing on my mind! I just wanted to find out why I was in pain! I did not want to die!”
Miriam had not asked for euthanasia. She had not even asked about euthanasia. She had not yet received a diagnosis. But still, she was offered a lethal injection that would kill her immediately – in all likelihood, simply because she is an elderly woman.
This deadly ageism that infects Canada’s healthcare system, combined with our ever-expanding euthanasia regime, has turned many medical facilities into genuinely dangerous places for the vulnerable.
“I was a month in hospital, came home, recuperated nicely enough that I could take some trips,” Miriam said. “Off I went last year to Cuba – before the problems today in Cuba – and then, this just recently, I have been to Mexico and Guatemala. My recovery has been amazing, and there was no need for MAID to even be suggested.”
Achtman’s video of Miriam’s testimony has gone viral on X, racking up over a quarter of a million reposts and accruing more than 3,300 reposts.
“Physician assisted killing creates a structure of sin which amplifies so many other evil cultural biases which push towards discarding the vulnerable,” ethicist Charlie Camosy stated in response to the video. “Ageism and ableism are foremost among them.”
This enactment amends the Criminal Code to make it an offence for certain persons in certain circumstances to initiate a discussion with a person about the availability to them of medical assistance in dying, knowing that they have not specifically requested to have such a discussion.
“My mother, at roughly the same age as this woman, had kidney failure, after which her first dialysis was excruciating,” another Canadian wrote. “Dialysis shouldn’t hurt & nobody knew why it had. She refused any further treatment, chose to die instead. But her longtime primary care doc talked her out of it. ‘Now Pat, do you want to die?’ ‘Well, no.’ He persuaded her to try a second dialysis, which went fine, no pain, and she had another year… of good life.”
“He gave that year to her and to us. Today, in Canada, she would have been euthanized same day.”
