A Canadian woman with ME does not qualify for care but qualifies to be killed.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Marcia Doherty

Marcia Doherty is a Canadian woman who has been approved for euthanasia, but wants to live.

Hannah Sharland reported for the Canary on December 20, 2024 that:

After decades battling severe ME/CFS and systemic lack of support, Marcia Doherty – known online as “Madeline” – is going fully public in a desperate bid to secure her survival and fight for change. It comes amid her being approved for assisted suicide in Canada – something she doesn’t actually want at all.

Sharland explains:

Marcia lives with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS), a debilitating condition often triggered by viruses, which can rival cancer and late-stage AIDS in severity.

It’s a chronic systemic neuroimmune disease which affects nearly every system in the body. As a result, it causes a range of symptoms that hugely impact patients’ daily lives. These typically include influenza-like symptoms, cognitive impairment, multiple forms of pain, and heart, lung, blood pressure, and digestive dysfunctions, among other significantly debilitating symptoms.

In particular, post-exertional-malaise (PEM) is the hallmark feature of ME. This involves a disproportionate worsening of other symptoms after even minimal physical, social, mental, or emotional exertion.

At least 25% of people with ME live with severe ME. In these cases, people living with severe ME are mostly, if not entirely permanently bed-bound or hospitalised. On top of this, they are often unable to digest food, communicate, or process information and are fully dependent on others for their care.

Sharland explains that the British Columbia Ministry of Health does not fully recognize ME and therefore leaves people with ME, such as Marcia, without the care and treatment that they need.

Sharland explains that since Canada's euthanasia law was expanded in 2021 to include non-terminal conditions that:

It has led to harrowing stories of chronically ill and disabled people turning to MAiD due to poverty, homelessness, and a lack of quality available healthcare. So naturally, it’s extremely concerning Marcia has been approved for this, while the Canadian healthcare system continues to utterly fail her.

Marcia doesn't qualify for care that she needs but she qualifies to be killed. Marcia has tried to change British Columbia Ministry of Health policies. Sharland reports:

For years, I’ve fought to stay alive and advocate for my community.

Yet over and over I’ve been told there’s no route to adequately help people like me – no human rights recourse, no legal pathway to address the systemic neglect of my illness.

I’ve worked with the medical community, government ministries and legal experts, and been told that coverage for ME is a political decision. Well, political change only happens when there’s public awareness – which is why I’m sharing my story.

The problem with ME not qualifying for care is not limited to British Columbia. Sharland states:

In the past year alone, the Canary has covered the stories of multiple ME patients. In the UK, the NHS has abused, neglected, and sectioned patients like 18-year-old Millie McAinsh and 24-year-old Carla Naoum. From Australia, we spoke to severe ME patient Anna. She is still without support or care to leave an abusive household.

There’s 29-year-old Nevra in Pakistan too. Like Marcia, she has had to fundraise for care – and is currently doing so for urgent endometriosis surgery. Meanwhile, a hospital in New Zealand forced 34-year-old severe ME patient Rhiannon into an ‘aged care facility’ as the government has no provision in place to support her elsewhere.

It’s a disgraceful state of affairs that governments globally are denying ME patients like Marcia the support they need. Moreover, the British Columbian state’s authorisation of an assisted death for Marcia, before funding adequate care, should send alarm bells ringing.

Marcia has been approved for euthanasia but is not approved for the care that she needs.

Marcia has launched a petition calling for better recognition, care, and support for ME.

People can support Marcia’s petition, both in Canada and internationally, and learn about her fight here.

They can also learn more about her story via her video announcement, podcast and YouTube channel, and support her crowdfunding campaign.