BC Woman approved for euthanasia can't access health care

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

A report by Penny Daflos for CTV News Vancouver concerns a chronically ill woman in her 30s who is approved for MAiD yet is unable to obtain the medical treatment that she needs to live. "Kat" wants to live. 

Kat had an easier time accessing death care than accessing health care. Daflos reports:

The chronically ill woman is in her late 30s and lives in the Lower Mainland, but given the sensitivity of the subject matter has asked us to refer to her by the pseudonym of “Kat.” She has applied to Fraser Health and been granted a request for MAID – even though she wants to live.

“I thought, ‘Goodness, I feel like I'm falling through the cracks so if I'm not able to access health care am I then able to access death care?' And that’s what led me to look into MAID and I applied last year...”

Kat has been struggling to access health care:

A decade ago she received a diagnosis of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), a genetic disorder where the body doesn’t produce adequate collagen, essentially the glue that holds together connective tissues, skin and our internal organs, sometimes leading to complications and always resulting in significant pain.

As a result, Kat has been on opioids for years and says that’s interfered with finding a replacement for her family doctor, who moved away years ago. She’s been seeing nurse practitioners for several years, as well as a revolving door of rheumatologists, neurologists, psychiatrists and other specialist doctors, none of whom are experts in EDS.

Fraser Health, the health authority that defunded the Delta Hospice Society and expropriated their buildings for refusing to participate in euthanasia, approved MAiD for Kat but is not working to obtain the medical care that she needs. Danlos reported:

Fraser Health’s MAID documentation includes a summary noting that the “patient has an extensive medical chart” and that “there were no other treatment recommendations or interventions that were suitable to the patient’s needs or to her financial constraints.”

Kat was approved for euthanasia because the medical system is not providing her the care that she needs. Kat is not wealthy enough to personally pay for the care that she needs.

In 2019, Alan Nichols died by euthanasia in Chilliwack BC. Nichols, who was not dying, was deeply depressed. His family begged the doctors to re-assess Alan based on the fact that Alan had been living with chronic depression, but they refused (Link).

Donna Duncan, from Abbotsford BC, died by euthanasia in October 2021. Donna was not terminally ill. In February 2020, Donna was injured in a car accident and had post-concussion syndrome. Due to the COVID protocols, Donna did not receive adequate rehabilitation and her symptoms persisted until she decided to seek out death by euthanasia.