Canadian man threatened by assisted death.

By Adrian Rhodes

We learned on March 16 2018 that Roger Foley, a 42 year old man diagnosed with various illnesses, who is disabled, has been experiencing abuse in home care and substandard care in hospital.

• Canadian man wants Assisted Life not Assisted Death.

Roger Foley

The hospital abused him by threatening to charge him for his daily care; they also ‘offered medical aid in dying’ (sic). Foley did not ask to die, yet the hospital suggested it as an apparently good idea. From the source article: 

‘…administrators have tried to discharge him (Foley) from Victoria Hospital, have threatened to charge him the non-OHIP rate of $1800 a day to stay in a room and offered to refer him for a medically assisted death.’

Sign the petition: I support Roger Foley's plea assisted life not assisted death (Link).

In other words, you’re expensive, and you’re better off dead, please die now. This is abuse. Foley requires care due to his diagnoses; he is disabled and not nearing death; he has had poor care at home and the hospital is now trying to get him to agree to death. Isn’t the request for death to come from the patient themselves? Yes it is.

So the threats to this patient in care, who is in care through no fault of his own, are continuing: the same caregivers who suggested he die by MAiD (sic) are probably the same 'caregivers' who are participating in his needed day-to-day care. That is an ongoing threat and constitutes presence coercion: when Foley sees those same caregivers in this scenario, he is reminded of the implied wish for him, and he is disenfranchised all over again.

Foley’s issue is that he has been unable to fire his caregivers; he experienced ‘particularly poor quality agency care – characterized by rotten food, unwashed plates, lack of medication, and being banged into walls…’ according to the source article. 

So not only does Foley not have social power to control access of those caring for him, going home is not possible, and he is now living under daily coerced threat to end his life. In short, Foley is now living in an abusive social environment and all he is asking for is “self-directed care.” He is quite right to sue. I hope he wins. We will all be safer.

Adrian Rhodes comments on issues related to euthanasia, assisted suicide and disability rights.