Clergy distress related to euthanasia and assisted suicide (MAiD)

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition is not a religious organization, so when I read the article With assisted death, Christian clergy face profound questions, by Richard Cuthbertson that was published by CBC news, I wondered how to comment.

Euthanasia was legalized in Canada under the invented term (MAiD) in June 2016. Over the past 8 years EPC has dealt with many people who were seeking to die by euthanasia (MAiD), who were already approved for euthanasia or family members and friends who were wanting to prevent the euthanasia death. I have also been involved with helping or advising many clergy from different denominations as they were faced with a Church member who was approved for or died by euthanasia.

I also have significant experience with people who are suffering from grief and distress after a friend or family member has died from euthanasia. People have spoken to me with PTSD symptoms and others have talked about their profound grief.

Cuthbertson's article concerns interviews by April Hart, a United Church minister who is working on a Masters of Divinity. 

I wonder if the first story was dug up and dropped into the article to undermine the Catholic Church approach that opposes killing people. The opening interview was based on a Catholic man who died by euthanasia in February 2020. It is striking that there is no mention of the priest seeking to prevent the euthanasia death. The story explains that:

"(the priest) heard Peter's confession in the living room and anointed him with oil, a Catholic ritual known as the sacrament of the sick."

"Peter's funeral, officiated by another priest, was held in the local Catholic church, an imposing gothic revival sandstone building on the north side of town. He is buried in the graveyard across the street."

Cuthbertson did not interview the priests involved so it's hard to know if there were attempts to dissuade Peter from euthanasia, nonetheless if the article's rendition of the story is accurate then there are concerns with how it was handled.

Cuthbertson also writes about David Maginley who was a chaplain in Halifax. Cuthbertson tells Maginley's story:

David Maginley, a former chaplain in the Halifax hospital system who has sat at the deathbeds of hundreds of people, vividly remembers attending his first MAID in 2017.

The patient's body was withered by end-of-life cancer, but he had "shining eyes." The disease would kill him soon, likely within a week, but he didn't want to wait.

As the two talked, the man spoke of a childhood memory of lying in the grass, staring at the sky and eating a Jos Louis cake. Maginley popped out and bought him one.

Just hours later, with his wife holding him, the patient was injected with the drugs that would take his life. Maginley recalls him saying: "I love you and goodbye, thank you."

It was, it seemed, a "beautiful" death. But Maginley said he was struck by something unexpected.

"I'm at the foot of the bed and seeing that big, that gigantic white vial of medication go into him," he said. "It just felt so different than removal of life-support or natural death. It was so different. We were causing death."

Unsure what to do next, Maginley prayed the man would be at peace, that he could once again lie down in the grass in the sunshine, that he would watch over his family.

Maginley returned to his office, locked the door and "fell apart." What had he just witnessed? Had he colluded in death? Wasn't this compassionate?

Since then, he's been at the bedsides for about 10 more MAIDs. Some have been "horrible," most have been "what we would call kind." But his distress remained. MAID, he worries, is about clinging to control in a medical model that aims to fix things.

"Most people, as they die, move into a mystical or a transpersonal state of consciousness," he said. 

"They're filled with peace, equanimity, they have mystical visions — these are universal. And it really changes not only their fear of death, but the family's process of grief. It's beautiful. But I don't see it happening with MAID. We shut you off before you reach that stage."

He realized he could no longer attend assisted deaths. Unwilling to simply step back from those cases, leaving them to other chaplains, he took early retirement in January after 25 years in spiritual care, and has written a book about what he has learned that he expects to publish soon.

It is good that Cuthbertson included significant information about Maginley and his experience with euthanasia. Maginley expresses his concern with MAiD deaths but also points out how natural deaths are very different than euthanasia deaths.

Maginley expresses his experience with distress with relation to these deaths. The distress related to euthanasia is very common. As stated earlier, I have spoken to many people who were grieving or experiencing PTSD reactions. 

There are not easy responses to individual situations. My personal experience helps me recognize the emotional, spiritual and psychological distress that many people have experienced with relation to euthanasia deaths. Some people have said to me 'You don't understand' as if, since I oppose euthanasia I cannot understand these deaths, where in fact, nothing is further from the truth.

Killing is never caring or compassionate. Killing abandons the person in their time of need.