Quebec man with long covid seeks death by euthanasia.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Katrine Desautels reported for the The Canadian Press on August 14, 2024 that Sébastien Verret (44) is seeking a death by (MAiD) euthanasia based on long covid. 

Desautels reported that Verret is:

living with long COVID for more than three years, has requested medical assistance in dying (MAID) because he says he is exhausted, tired of being in pain and considers himself a burden to his family who are caring for him.

Desautels reported that:

When he first contracted the virus, Verret struggled with chronic fatigue and strobe lights caused him to have seizures and tremble. One night, he fell to the floor in a seizure and his smart watch called for help. “That was my first of many ambulance rides,” he said.

Over time, he had more seizures, fatigue, and nausea.

“The symptoms built up and instead of getting better, they got worse,”

Lately Verret's condition has become worse:

Since January 2024, Verret has been suffering from urinary incontinence, which meant he had trouble controlling his bladder and had to wash his bed frequently. Housework became a burden again.

“Changing the bed, for me, feels like running 10 km,” he said.

His youngest son started making him meals while he was there.

“Looking back, it’s abnormal that my child, who was 14, would make me meals. It was abnormal that he was my caregiver,” he said. “I was so weak that for the second time in a year, I gave up the accommodation. I asked the children’s mother to take them back. It was very hard for me,” he explained.

Last battle

In June 2024, he found himself in the emergency room again, this time accompanied by his parents who had mentioned to staff that they wanted their son to be placed with special resources.

“As much as it’s abnormal that my son is the one taking care of me, it’s also abnormal that at 44, it’s my mother who comes to change my bed full of (feces),” said Verret.

Verret says that he could continue to live with homecare but he was turned down for homecare, Desautels reported:

“I would like the government to wake up and give us help with domestic tasks (…) to relax the rules for the program. That’s the solution. The six months I spent with my parents, I got back on my feet, and I had hope. I was almost ready to go back to work with a job that corresponded to my new reality,” he explained.

Desautels also reported that:

Emmanuelle Marceau, associate professor at the Université de Montréal’s (UdeM) School of Public Health pointed out that quality of life is subjective to each person.

“What is a life worth living? Is a life with a lot of physical suffering and little hope of change no longer worth it,” said Marceau, who’s also an associate researcher at the Centre for Research in Ethics (CRÉ). “With the opening of medical assistance in dying, there is a fear that people will feel that they no longer have a meaning. They no longer have a contribution for their loved ones, for their family, on the contrary, they see that they are preventing them. I think we must question someone who would like MAID for these reasons. At that point, we can ask ourselves as a society: aren’t we abandoning the most vulnerable?”

The story of Sebastien Verret confirms how people are being abandoned to death by the medical system and then further abandoned with death by euthanasia.

Euthanasia was sold to the culture as concerning autonomous free choices. When a person is not provided their basic needs, the decision is neither autonomous nor a free choice.