Ontario man approved for euthanasia (MAiD) can't get needed medical treatment.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Alan Philips (63), has lived with chronic pain for 18 years and has now been approved for MAiD (euthanasia). Philips has been trying to get spinal fusion surgery to relieve his pain and allow him to live but his doctor has not approved the surgery and only prescribes opioids for pain.

Philips was featured in a recent article by Zahraa Hmood that was published in the Niagara This Week on September 16. Hmood writes:

Phillips said he’s had several medical procedures over the years to try and fix the issues in his spine, or permanently block the nerve pain, which haven’t been successful.

The procedure he wants the most is a spinal fusion, which he said could secure the loose vertebrae disc in his spine causing the pain — however, no doctor he's asked will approve the surgery for him.

Regardless, he said, his doctor continues to prescribe him daily opioids — four two-milligram tablets of hydromorphone and three 30-milligram tablets of morphine sulfate: “It just fries my brains so that I can endure the agony — but I (still) go through all the pain.”

Hmood asked David Lepofsky, chair of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance about this case who reportedly said:

the MAiD program is “running amok.” According to him, there hasn't been public vetting of applications, no independent reviews of the decisions made, and very little oversight of the doctors who agree to provide assisted death to a patient.

“The federal government seems to make it easier to die for (a) disability than to live”

Alan contacted me and responded with the following email message:

Are they guilty of manslaughter? Or lying to all the citizens of Canada and the world by saying we have "universal healthcare" when they KNOW it is not true. The woman who told me to contact you got adequate healthcare, a fusion. Why not me? For 18 years? The doctors are clearly guilty, take your pick? I just know that I cannot get adequate healthcare. I am fed opioids and left to kill myself. So I asked MAID to kill me and they said "sure !".

Alan Philips is one of many people who are getting approved for euthanasia, not because they want to die, but because our medical system has abandoned them.

Moira Wyton wrote an article in July that was published in the Tyee concerning Gwen, who was seeking death by euthanasia because she could not access treatment for her medical condition. Whyton reported that "Gwen wants to live and care for her daughter. But the system makes it easier to seek MAID than treatment."

 To make it worse, the federal government will be expanding euthanasia to people with mental illness alone in March 2023. 

More euthanasia, more abandonment. 

Links to more stories of the euthanasia experience in Canada:

• Veterans affairs worker advocates euthanasia for PTSD (Link).
• Alberta man requests euthanasia based on poverty (Link).
• Shopping for doctor death in Canada (Link).
• Gwen is seeking euthanasia because she can't access medical treatment (Link).
• Euthanasia for disability and poverty (Link).
• Euthanasia for Long Covid and poverty (Link).
• Canada's MAiD law is the most permissive in the world. (Link).