Update: Calls from the CCC Helpline

Calls have been steady on the CCC helpline. For some, callers are looking to help loved ones turn away from assisted suicide, for others, they need assistance regarding advocacy or ensuring their loved one’s needs are being met and they have not been treated wrongly. This article captures one caller’s response, her reality and experience with MAiD being drawn on around her, for her one family members, and to those vulnerable in her community.

Quotes from Laura*, one women’s experience (Ontario, Canada):

I was shocked when I first heard about MAID, I was volunteering at a hospital and we were ordered not to talk about it; this was just before Covid. Then more and more people were talking to the patients about it, yet volunteers could not object and say anything to dissuade patients or their family members from choosing it: it was completely one-sided. I decided I was not going to go back to volunteering; I’m not going to comply with that.

When you find your own family members are talking about it, it hits a whole new level. “Yikes” – is my first line of thought, it’s creeping all over the place. My brother has terminal cancer, and he flew out the euthanasia term once while speaking to us: “when the time comes, I would go for MAID”, I was in shock. I didn’t know what to say. My query is when should we talk about? His comment caught me by surprise, I was not prepared and I did not know how to respond. Now I’m better equipped to deal with it.

It’s insidious, a friend of mine was all for having MAID done for her husband, ‘there’s nothing wrong with it.’ And yet, she goes to church all the time. It’s creeping into every element of society.

When I first called the CCC helpline, and was told about what actually happens when you get euthanized, the injections you get -- it’s not necessarily pain-free, no suffering, and the easy exit people assume it is. There are accounts and publications that share the experience of it each injection does something else: the first immobilizes you, then the second injection feels like an “internal inferno,” followed by a “drowning sensation,” and then finally, the heart stops beating, a cardiac arrest. All of it can last anywhere from 5-30 minutes. I’ve never heard of what the process may feel like, I liked knowing this so I can share it with others.

What so many who are desperate at end-of-life don’t realize, is that there is always a cure for the pain. Not long ago, a person was in hospital and getting treatment, after the staff approached her about her considering getting euthanized and she refused, they made it so she had another week in the hospital and after that she would be charged $800/day. She went through with and got MAiD, instead of being charged.

Recently at a local organizational meeting, one of the meeting members threw out the idea of MAID for her own husband (he was sick since 2009), I was shocked and saddened she would wish this for her own husband. I believe it was her sharing she needs helps, respite care and support as she’s probably burned out. She doesn’t have anybody and this is not a way for her to spend the last years of her life.

The bottom line is, MAiD/euthanasia - it’s not about caring for someone, it’s about money. The hospitals see this as a cost saving, and provide it readily to anyone for any reason.”

*Name changed for confidentiality.