Suicide, Assisted suicide or euthanasia

Alex Schadenbeg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

I am speaking for 5 minutes to the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying (euthanasia) on the evening (May 5, 2026). 

My presentation will focus on the outcomes of Canada's euthanasia law based on the language of the law.

This article is not based on my presentation but concerns Canada's euthanasia law and determining when counselling or aiding suicide, which remain illegal in Canada, become informing a patient that euthanasia or assisted suicide are a legal option?

The Criminal Code of Canada states:

Suicide: Counselling or aiding suicide

• 241 (1) Everyone is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than 14 years who, whether suicide ensues or not,

  (a) counsels a person to die by suicide or abets a person in dying by suicide; or

  (b) aids a person to die by suicide.

The Criminal Code provides an exception for medical assistance in dying which states:

• (2) No medical practitioner or nurse practitioner commits an offence under paragraph (1)(b) if they provide a person with medical assistance in dying in accordance with section 241.2.

• Exemption for person aiding practitioner

  (3) No person is a party to an offence under paragraph (1)(b) if they do anything for the purpose of aiding a medical practitioner or nurse practitioner to provide a person with medical assistance in dying in accordance with section 241.2.

The Criminal Code exception for medical assistance in dying is not limited. Section 241 (5.1) states:

Clarification

(5.1) For greater certainty, no social worker, psychologist, psychiatrist, therapist, medical practitioner, nurse practitioner or other health care professional commits an offence if they provide information to a person on the lawful provision of medical assistance in dying.

Canada's Criminal Code essentially states that it is an offence to counsel, abet or aid a person to die by suicide, unless the counselling, abetting or aiding is done based on providing information for euthanasia or assisted suicide (MAiD).

Why is this important?

Fr Larry Holland

There are many stories of people who have felt coerced to request euthanasia.

For instance, a Catholic priest in Vancouver was asked (coerced) on two occasions if he wanted euthanasia. The first request was made by a doctor, the second was by a nurse. How often did the priest have to say NO?

I received a call from a family in British Columbia who were upset after their elderly father was asked five times if he wanted euthanasia. His wife asked:  

How do we get them to stop asking us if he wants MAiD?

Heather Hancock

Heather Hancock, who lives with Spastic Cerebral Palsy was pressured three times to request euthanasia. The third time happened while she was in a hospital in Medicine Hat Alberta. Hancock described the situation:

One nurse came to my bedside in the early morning hours before breakfast and asked me "to do the right thing and consider MAiD." Her next words still ring through my head... "if I were you, I would take it in a heartbeat. You're not living, you're existing!"

I replied, "I am not you, and you have no right to push me to accept MAiD. I will never accept it! My life has value and no human being has a right to say otherwise."

Then there was the case of the veterans affairs worker who suggested (MAiD) euthanasia to a veteran who was dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and a traumatic brain injury. 

We don't know if the veterans affairs worker was a social worker or psychologist, nonetheless, there was no attempted prosecution, even though the veteran was not seeking MAiD and not happy to be offered MAiD.

In three of the four cases, the coercion was done by a medical professional, so even though these people felt coerced towards euthanasia, the law provided the medical professional with legal protection.

Garnett Genuis (MP) introduced a Private Members Bill C-260 to prevent coercion by non-medical staff. Whether this bill passes or not, Canada's Criminal Code clearly needs to be amended.

My concern is that Canada's euthanasia law is intentionally vague, it lacks definition and oversight. Further to that, the law gives medical professionals, who are willing to be involved with killing people, complete and total legal protection.

What about Kenneth Law?

Kenneth Law is a Canadian who sold a suicide poison kit online to as many as 1200 people world-wide. Law has plead guilty to multiple counts of aiding suicide. 

Based on a plea agreement, the Crown Prosecutor dropped the 14 counts of murder, that if convicted, would have resulted in 25 years in prison, for an agreement where Law plead guilty to aiding the suicide of his victims, a charge that would likely result in a 14 year sentence and after time served may result in 8 years remaining in his sentence.

Law is supposedly different because his poison kits were not oriented to Canada's MAiD law. Clearly we can see that Canada's Criminal Code needs to be clarified.

Even though I have concerns with the language of Canada's euthanasia law, my first concern is that we are killing people.

Canada's euthanasia (MAiD) law has been in place now for 10 years. There has now been more than 100,000 euthanasia deaths in Canada since legalization. 

The law is intentionally vague, it lacks any effective oversight and it is out-of-control.

Parliament needs to stop expanding Canada's euthanasia law and do a complete review of the law. Parliament needs to examine the language of the law and how the meaning of the language has evolved. Parliament needs to examine the practise of euthanasia and how the law has expanded far beyond its original stated intentions.

This article only deals with one of many concerns with Canada's Criminal Code. Canada's parliament needs to bring some sanity to the insanity.

New York is opening a "pandora's box" with assisted suicide.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Rita Busby, Debbie Fisher

Chadwick Moore published a warning to New Yorkers in the New York Post on April 8, 2026 referring to the legalization of assisted suicide as opening a pandora's box. The law will come into effect in August.

Moore interviewed several Canadians about their experience with assisted death. Canada will soon surpass 100,000 assisted deaths in less than 10 years of killing.

Debbie Fisher explained how her mom was almost killed by euthanasia in Canada. Moore writes:

The Canadian’s elderly mother, Rita Busby, came dangerously close to being euthanized over a single sentence.

Her mom, who was active and independent in spite of her 93 years, ended up in the hospital after accidentally overdosing on a drug she was prescribed. Drowsy and not thinking straight, Busby had made an offhand comment to one of the nurses that she “wanted to die.” Hospital workers took her at her word.

Rita Busby at 93.

Moore explains that a psychologist told Fisher that they were planning to euthanize her mom, a woman who was a devout Catholic. Fisher told Moore:

“I was terrified. I couldn’t believe what was happening. They talked to me like I was putting a dog down,” Fisher, 71, told The Post from her home in Ontario, Canada.

But Busby had also signed a Power of Attorney for Personal Care document that included statements opposing euthanasia and assisted suicide. Moore writes:

“My mom wanted to die, she didn’t want to be killed!” Fisher said. “If I hadn’t been there, and she hadn’t signed over Power of Attorney, who knows what would have happened”

“People don’t understand there’s a lot of things that go on behind the scenes [in hospitals] when there’s no one there to protect them,” said Fisher.

Moore completes the story by explaining that Busby, lived another 6 months and during that time she continued to go bowling and attend baseball games. She also attended a family reunion and mended family relationships before she died a natural death.

Heather Hancock

Moore interviewed Heather Hancock (58) who lives with cerebral palsy. Heather gave Moore a warning for New York:

“You just opened Pandora’s Box and the slippery slope will get very steep very fast,”

“This is eugenics and this is genocide against the [disadvantaged],” she claims.

Hancock has been pressured into "requesting" euthanasia several times. Moore explains:

During one hospital visit, “the nurse on my ward looked at me and said, ‘You really should consider MAiD. You’re not living. You’re just existing,” she recalled to The Post.

She now carries a laminated “do not euthanize” card wherever she goes.

Hancock warns New Yorkers how legalizing assisted suicide may threaten their lives.

“Keep your ears and eyes open, especially if you have a disability or mental illness or are in any way considered a disadvantaged or non-contributing member of society. Those are the people that are targeted,” she said.

“[PAS] is an effective way to get rid of those they deem draining the healthcare system. It’s not compassionate.”

Alex Schadenberg, (myself) the Executive Director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition told Moore that the difference between euthanasia and assisted suicide is how it is carried out. With euthanasia the medical professional injects the patient (homicide) whereas with assisted suicide the medical professional prescribes the same lethal poison but the person is required to self-ingest. Moore writes:

So far, no state has legalized euthanasia — the form of assisted suicide where a medical professional administers the lethal agent rather than being prescribed a deadly drug the patient takes on their own.

“It (euthanasia) makes it feel more like a medical act. People feel more obligated to it because, of course, the doctor has to schedule it,” Alex Schadenberg, executive director of Canada’s Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, an advocacy group, told The Post.

Canada, which has a socialized medical system, will formally legalize euthanasia for mental health as the sole underlying condition in 2027, if legal challenges against the expansion are unsuccessful.

Schadenberg warned New Yorker's about how assisted suicide can be pushed based on medical costs. Moore writes:

“It could be really touchy for someone in New York if they don’t have the gold standard in health insurance and they develop some kind of disability,” said Schadenberg.

“In Canada we have serious funding problems in our healthcare system, hospitals are running deficits. They would never say it to you, but clearly dead people don’t cost money.”

“You’ve had cases of people who are homeless asking to be approved for euthanasia,” he added, which was reported on in 2024.

Moore reported that Canada's general suicide rate has increased by 10.5% since 2021, the same year that Canada expanded it's euthanasia law to include people who are not terminally ill. Moore then pointed to a European study concerning the suicide rate countries that have legalized euthanasia and wrote:

In Europe the numbers are more staggering: suicides increased by 18.5 percent — and raised by nearly 40 percent in women — among nine countries where PAS is permitted, according to a 2022 study.

I responded to Moore by stating:

“[PAS] demystifies the issue of suicide. It takes away the whole concept that suicide is not the right way to go,” said Schadenberg.

Moore then commented on the recent Spanish euthanasia death of Noelia Castillo (25) who became disabled after a failed suicide attempt and then she was approved for euthanasia based on her injuries caused by the suicide attempt. Castillo was known to have significant mental health issues.

In 2021 Canada expanded it's assisted dying law in several ways including eliminating the 10-day waiting period and allowing a same-day death when someone is deemed to be terminally ill (Track 1).

When asked how legal assisted suicide affects the culture I stated:

“It changes medicine,”

“People have to recognize the importance of being there with their loved ones in the hospital. In our culture, there are too many people going through difficult health conditions alone and that actually breeds the death idea.”

Fisher responded to Moore about the affect on culture by stating:

But Fisher said that sends the wrong message to everyone else. “If it’s legal, it must be OK. That’s the mindset they’re in,” she said.

Adding: “My body, my choice and I’m just going to go to sleep and all my problems go away. But the families are left behind.

“It’s like a holocaust. It serves no purpose.”

During the interview with Chadwick Moore I also explained that the number of New York assisted suicide deaths will start slowly, as the medical community will not be used to killing their patients, but once assisted suicide becomes accepted the numbers will grow. Another important factor is that nearly every jurisdiction that has legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide has later expanded their law.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition supports a culture that cares for its citizens, and never kills.

Canadian doctors accused of pushing medically assisted death.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Heather Hancock

Michael Kaplan wrote an investigative report that was published by the New York Post on July 25, 2024 on how Canadians with disabilities are feeling pressured to "choose" euthanasia (MAiD). Kaplan interviews Heather Hancock, Roger Foley and myself, as well as euthanasia lobby leaders.

Heather Hancock was urged to "choose" euthanasia while she was receiving medical treatment in Alberta a few years ago. Kaplan interviewed Hancock and reports:

Recalling a rough morning while being treated at a hospital in Alberta, Canada, Hancock told The Post, "I wasn’t moving very well and the nurse on my ward looked at me and said, ‘You really should consider MAID. You’re not living. You’re just existing.’"

Hancock remembers being in shock over what she interpreted as a suggestion she should opt for death, rather than wasting Canada’s publicly funded healthcare system by staying alive. 

“I thought I misheard her; then the words settled into my being as she waited for an answer,” said Hancock. “I asked her, ‘Who gives you the right to judge what’s living and what’s existing?'”

According to Hancock, the nurse responded, “Now you’re just being selfish.”

“God put me into this world and he’s the only one taking me out,” Hancock added, “I told the nurse that my life is no less valuable than any other life.

“She just laughed in a mocking way and walked out of the room. I had that nurse removed from my care. I did not want to be anywhere near her.”

The nurse’s attitude is consistent with others Hancock says she has encountered. 

Hancock told Kaplan that:

We require more healthcare dollars than able-bodied people and often do not get the same level of service; some doctors don’t even bother trying,” said Hancock, explaining that MAID frequently gets presented as “a good solution to your situation.”

“They make you feel like you are less than human … like you have nothing to offer the world. Doctors couch it as ending people’s suffering when really they are killing you,” she added. 

Alex Schadenberg

Kaplan also interviewed me (Alex Schadenberg):

Opponents of MAID claim that those who advocate for the doctor-assisted suicide can be heavy handed to a damaging degree when suggesting it as an option.

“When you’re going through a difficult time and someone is telling you, ‘Oh, if I was in your situation, I would opt for MAID,’ well, that is not a helpful thing,” Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director of Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, told The Post.

“Nearly every major hospital in Canada has a MAID team. These teams are each comprised of a couple doctors and a couple nurses who go throughout the hospital, making sure MAID is offered and available to people who want it. But they’re not just providing access to euthanasia, they are selling it.”

Kaplan asked for an example of "selling" euthanasia:

Schadenberg recalled a situation in Ottawa:“I received a call from a man who was visiting his father there. The MAID team came in, asked the father, who was suffering from a deadly condition, if he would like MAID. The dad said no.” 

But that was not the end of it. “When the family members went downstairs for coffees, the MAID team came back and asked the patient again. They thought he was saying no only because the family members were there.

“It’s not a point of suggestion when you continually harass people with this concept of MAID. The family was ticked off.”

Roger Foley

Kaplan interviewed Roger Foley who lives with cerebral ataxia.

“I’ve been pressured to do an assisted suicide,” he had told The Post, alleging this happened with caretakers at Victoria Hospital, a primarily government-funded facility in London, Ontario.

“They asked if I wanted an assisted death. I don’t. I was told that I would be charged $1,800 per day [for hospital care]. Nurses here told me that I should end my life. That shocked me.”

That conversation took place two years ago, at which point Foley was $2m in debt. According to Schadenberg, “His current situation is unchanged.”

Kaplan ends the article by providing more information about Roger Foley:

In a recent video, conducted by Amanda Achtman of the Dying to Meet You Project, Foley recalled being offered euthanasia “multiple times.”

In terms of the impact of the suggestion, he said, “It’s completely traumatized me. It’s an overlying option. When I say I am suicidal, I am met with, ‘Well, the hospital has a program to help you with that if you want to end your life.’

“There is not going to be a second within the rest of my life when I will not have flashbacks to it, to the devaluing of me and all that I am … I don’t want to give up my life.”

More information on this topic:

• Heather's story of being pressured to "choose" MAiD (Link). 
• Roger Foley: A passion to live (Link).
• Canadian woman pressured to "choose" euthanasia was told that she was selfish for living (Link).

Britain's financial crisis may lead the government to legalize assisted suicide

Human life is devalued when a price is put on people's lives or their care

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director,
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

A report from the UK government's National Audit Office on the financial sustainability of the NHS - National Health Services in the UK, that was released on July 23, 2024 may lead to their government pushing to legalize assisted suicide.

The conclusion of the NHS financial sustainability report states:

The scale of challenge facing the NHS today and foreseeable in the years ahead is unprecedented.

When we consider how the health needs of the population look set to increase, we are concerned that the NHS may be working at the limits of a system which might break before it is again able to provide patients with care that meets standards for timeliness and accessibility.

The NHS financial sustainability report was released just when Keir Starmer, the leader of Britain's Labour Party, became the Prime Minister. Starmer is a long-time promoter of assisted suicide. During the election Starmer promised that he would introduce a bill and allow a free-vote to legalize assisted suicide in the UK. The July 4 election resulted in the Labour Party winning a massive majority of seats.

An article in The Standard states about the NHS financial sustainability report:

The report is the ninth of its kind by the NAO, and the first to be published since February 2020.

Experts said its findings depict “a picture of systemic failures and inefficient decision-making”.

The report warned that NHS England’s financial position is “worsening” due to a “combination of long-standing and recent issues, including failure to invest in the estate, inflationary pressures, and the cost of post-pandemic recovery”.

The article also pointed out that the UK is undergoing a demographic shift towards an aging population.

It said there is scope for NHS England to “make better use” of its funds, but long-term sustainability depends on how the Government addresses the “steeply increasing demand for healthcare”.

It added that the country’s changing demographics “will continue to create significant additional demand for NHS services” and warned “people are living longer and spending more years in ill-health”.

According to the report, the NHS received £153 Billion and the combined deficit in the system was £1.4 Billion which doesn't take into account the increased funding that was already invested into the NHS system to balance the funding.

Legalizing euthanasia and/or assisted suicide to control the cost of health care leads to dangerous outcomes, as has happened in Canada. 

When human lives are deemed to be "better off dead" or "costing too much" then people with healthcare needs, especially people with disabilities, will be urged to "choose" death. Subtle pressure is often enough to cause a significant shift in healthcare.

Tracy Poleczuk with her husband.

James Reinl recently published an article in the Daily Mail where he interviewed Heather Hancock, a Canadian Saskatchewan woman who lives with spastic cerebral palsy who was pressured three times, while receiving medical care, to ask for euthanasia.

An article by Matt Gilmour that was published by CTV news Montreal concerned Tracy Polewczuk, a woman who lives with Spina Bifida, who on two separate occasions was urged to request euthanasia by a medical professional without Tracy initiating the request.

Both Canadian women live with disabilities and feel that their lives have been devalued by the pressure to "choose" death over life.

Polewczuk told Gilmour in the interview that:

"Pain sucks. We all agree. It's terrible. I'm in pain 24/7. It never stops. I can survive that. I cannot survive being treated like a sack of meat,"

Heather Hancock

While Hancock told Reinl in the interview that:

A nurse was helping her into the bathroom at night, during a lengthy bout of care for muscular spasms in 2019, when the carer crossed a line into the unthinkable.

'You should do the right thing and consider MAiD,' said the nurse, referring to the country's Medical Assistance in Dying program.

'You're being selfish. You're not living, you're merely existing.'

Hancock, now 56, says she was 'gobsmacked' but stood her ground, telling the nurse that her life had value, even if she spent four fifths of it in a wheelchair.

People with disabilities are right to be concerned.

We fear that the NHS financial crisis may create pressure for the new UK government, led by long-time assisted suicide activist Keir Starmer, to push the UK government to legalize assisted suicide as soon as possible.

Human life is devalued when a price is put on people's lives or their care.

Canadian woman pressured to "choose" euthanasia. She was told that she was selfish for living.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Heather Hancock

A few weeks ago I published a personal story by Heather Hancock, a woman who lives with spastic cerebral palsy, who stated that she was having medical difficulties she was pressured to "choose" euthanasia.

James Reinl, the Social Affairs Correspondent for the Daily Mail recently interviewed Hancock. The Daily Mail published the article on July 12. Reinl writes:

It was an odious encounter with a nurse in a remote Alberta hospital that persuaded Heather Hancock how Canada's euthanasia system was coming badly off the rails.

Hancock suffered from cerebral palsy since infancy and was used to bullying from her school days, but the treatment she got at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital was something else.

A nurse was helping her into the bathroom at night, during a lengthy bout of care for muscular spasms in 2019, when the carer crossed a line into the unthinkable.

'You should do the right thing and consider MAiD,' said the nurse, referring to the country's Medical Assistance in Dying program.

'You're being selfish. You're not living, you're merely existing.'

Hancock, now 56, says she was 'gobsmacked' but stood her ground, telling the nurse that her life had value, even if she spent four fifths of it in a wheelchair.

'You have no right to push me to accept MAiD,' she recalls saying to her sneering carer.

She later complained about the nurse, who was taken off her care team, but did not make an official complaint.

Health Alberta said the nurse's comments were 'entirely unacceptable.'

Reinl states that it was the most egregious, but not the only time her supposed carers advised her to end her discomfort with a lethal injection. Hancock told Reinl that she has been pressured on three different occasions to "choose" MAiD (euthanasia).

Since legalization in 2016, Canada's euthanasia law has expanded quickly. Reinl explains:

Last year, doctors helped 15,280 suffering people end their lives prematurely, according to estimates obtained by DailyMail.com — a 15 percent jump on 2022.

Some 60,000 people have died from MAiD since the program was launched, and it accounts for 4.6 percent of all fatalities.

Doctor-assisted suicides helps recipients escape the misery of cancer, heart disease and other terminal illnesses, but for Hancock and others with disabilities, its availability has changed the way they are seen by carers.

Hancock told Reinl that medical professionals 'just view me as a drain on the medical system and that my healthcare dollars could be spent on an able-bodied person,'

Tracy Polewczuk with her husband

As bad as Hancock's experience has been that she is not the only one. Reinl continues:

Another Canadian, Tracy Polewczuk, came forward this month about suffering similar problems in Quebec.

Polewczuk has spina bifida, a birth defect that can cause weak bones, and bemoans the worsening daily home care visits she gets in Pointe-Claire, Montreal.

'Pain sucks. We all agree. It's terrible. I'm in pain 24/7. It never stops. I can survive that,' she told CTV News.

'I cannot survive being treated like a sack of meat.'

On two separate occasions and without prompting, Polewczuk says she was told she was eligible for MAiD by members of her care team.

'It feels like we are being pushed towards the MAiD program instead of being given the help to live,' Polewczuk said.

'I want to survive. I want to thrive. I want my life back. I want the opposite of what they're trying to have us do.'

Reinl then provides a little bit of history around Canada's euthanasia law and emphasizes that euthanasia is not limited to terminally ill people in Canada and euthanasia for mental illness alone is now scheduled to become an option in March 2027.

Heather Hancock points out that Canada's euthanasia practise is at least 10 times worse than the assisted suicide regimes in 10 American states but she shows concerns about where the law is headed. Hancock also pointed out her concern that Delaware recently passed an assisted suicide bill, but she pointed out that it could still be stopped since Delaware Governor John Carney has not yet signed the bill.

Reinl reports on Hancock's concerns:

Legislation in Delaware cleared both houses, leaving Gov John Carney with the ultimate decision about whether to sign it into law.

'Take a look at what's going on in this country,' Hancock said in a warning to Americans.

'It's a Pandora's Box. Once the lid is off, you cannot control it. All the restrictions disappear really quickly and your freedoms are undermined.'

Every jurisdiction that is debating euthanasia or assisted suicide need to recognize what has happened in Canada and then reject it. Hancock is correct. Legalizing medical killing is a pandora's box. It is sold as a autonomy and it becomes abandonment.

Heather's story of being pressured to "choose" MAiD.

"I am not you, and you have no right to push me to accept MAiD. I will never accept it! My life has value and no human being has a right to say otherwise." 

Heather Hancock

By Heather Hancock, an author and editor.

I've spent every moment from my first breath to the one a second ago fighting for what others take for granted. Why? I have Spastic Cerebral Palsy and have been labelled by doctors, teachers, therapists, lawyers, and society in general, as a second class citizen.

I live in Canada on the vast open prairies of Saskatchewan, but this province has only been my home for the last 5 years. I was born in Calgary, Alberta before there were NICUs and I weighed a whopping 1 pound 6 ounces at twenty-five weeks gestation. I should have died with less than a 2% chance of survival, but I was breathing on my own. There's no medical explanation for it... but God.

I was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy when I was two. The doctors solemnly told my parents to put me into an institution for the rest of my short life as I "would never amount to anything." The medical community was in agreement that all disabled children were also retarded. A trip to the University of Alberta put an end to that false assumption.. At the age of three, I had the IQ of a five-year old. My disability is purely physical.

I was the first disabled child mainstreamed into the Calgary public school system. It was great for my education, but not for my social life. Fear and ignorance resulted in years of bullying and being ostracized by my peers and a few teachers. I graduated with Honours in 1986. Intermixed with all of this were multiple surgeries and regular physiotherapy appointments.

My adult life has been spent fighting for equity and accessibility in the workplace and the relentless toll that spasticity takes on the physical body. Chronic pain and fatigue became my new companions and I lost the ability to walk independently at thirty-three. The losses continued and by forty-four, I had to medically retire, after a quarter of a century working as a Unit Clerk in hospitals on Vancouver Island. I turned to writing and discovered I could educate others about my life through fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

In 2017, all of the muscles in my legs spasmed simultaneously from the hips down both legs to the tips of my toes, and then the muscles just kept tightening and tightening. I could not move from the waist down. There were subsequent episodes in 2018 and 2019.

In hospital, I discovered a change in the attitudes of nurses, doctors, orderlies, and therapists. There was a subtle undercurrent that was almost tangible. I had nurses neglecting me, forcing me to try and walk while they stood at a distance and watched with arms crossed. It was evident the medical staff preferred not to treat me.

During my second episode of what I termed "spastic paralysis," there were words given to provide a framework for what quality of life should look like. If a person failed to meet that standard, then pressure was applied to get the person to accept medical assistance in dying (MAiD). It's a deceptively comforting term for euthanasia. It's been legal in Canada since 2016. I was in Victoria General Hospital in 2018 and was approached by a hospitalist who asked me if I had ever considered MAiD, given the incessant level of severe pain and fatigue I lived with. I made eye contact with the doctor and said, "God gave me life and He is the ONLY One who knows the number of my days. The answer now and from this moment on is NO."

The third episode in 2019 landed me back in the same hospital on a different unit, but my bed was in the hallway for my entire stay. It was humiliating. Again I was offered MAiD, and that doctor was given the same reply. It was the last straw for me. My GP retired in 2016 three years of lack of care had taken its toll and I left the Island and moved to rural Saskatchewan about an hour west of the Alberta border.

A month after moving into the new house, I had a very bad fall which landed me back in hospital, only this time it was the regional hospital in Medicine Hat, Alberta. A neurologist diagnosed what was happening and targeted a muscle in my lower back with therapeutic botox. It took three weeks for full effect and during my stay, the nurses and some doctors were very condescending.

One nurse came to my bedside in the early morning hours before breakfast and asked me "to do the right thing and consider MAiD." Her next words still ring through my head... "if I were you, I would take it in a heartbeat. You're not living, you're existing!"

I replied, "I am not you, and you have no right to push me to accept MAiD. I will never accept it! My life has value and no human being has a right to say otherwise."

The nurse stormed off and the next time she answered my call bell, she simply sneered at me instead of helping me get to the bathroom with my walker. I was very unsafe and talked with the head nurse of the unit and had her removed from my care. She wasn't reprimanded as the head nurse said it was a "personality clash."

I've had three stays in three different hospitals in Saskatchewan, and so far, this province has not pushed MAiD on me or anyone else within range of my sight or hearing. It's a wonderful relief.

With our federal government trying to manipulate the members of the House of Commons to pass laws that would throw wide open the criteria so more of the sick, terminally ill, disabled, mentally ill, elderly, and other vulnerable minorities could be coerced into accepting MAiD, or be given it against their will. That's a horrifying prospect.

I am a human being. My life has intrinsic worth. I won't allow anyone to say otherwise. I wasn't supposed to amount to anything, but I was a unit clerk, and I am now a published author and an editor. Words are powerful and I intend to wield them until my last breath. My stories educate and entertain. My poetry is raw and brings the reader into my world as a person with a disability. I fight many battles on different fronts, but the right to life is sacred, and should be treated with dignity and compassion. Sadly, the majority of our society have forgotten how.