Amir Farsoud lives with never-ending agony from a back injury years ago. He tells CityNews at its worst he is "crying like a 5-year-old and not sleeping for days in a row." Farsoud also takes medication for depression and anxiety.

He describes his quality of life as "awful, non-existent and terrible … I do nothing other than manage pain."

But Farsoud said his quality of life is not the reason he is applying for MAiD. He applied because he is currently in danger of losing his housing and fears being homeless over dying. "It's not my first choice."

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Tracey Thompson, a Toronto resident in her 50s, told CTV News she had begun applying for Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) due to her enduring illness and lack of financial support. MAiD first became legal in Canada in 2016.

"MAiD is exclusively a financial consideration," she told CTV News Toronto.

After 26 months of lost income since the onset of symptoms, no foreseeable ability to work and an absence of support, Thompson said she expects to run out of money in about five months.

"My choices are basically to die slowly and painfully, or quickly. Those are the options that are left," Thompson said.

Thompson said in addition to severe fatigue, her symptoms included being unable to read books or text longer than a tweet, blurring vision around sunset, difficulty digesting food, altered sense of taste and smell, difficulty breathing and scars on her heart from swelling due to myocarditis.

Long covid is ill-defined and difficult to diagnose. Some experts claim roughly 5 per cent of people who contract the virus go on to develop long-term symptoms including shortness of breath, fatigue, fever, headaches and "brain fog".

Thompson stressed she didn't want to die.

"I'm very happy to be alive," she said.

"I still enjoy life. Birds chirping, small things that make up a day are still pleasant to me, they're still enjoyable. I still enjoy my friends. There's a lot to enjoy in life, even if it's small."

But she said she didn't think she could survive without an income.

"I don't relish the idea of suffering for months to come to the same conclusion," she said.

"When support is not coming, things aren't going to change. It seems irrational to put myself through that just to die in the end."

Since Thompson's illness is not clearly outlined in the Ontario Disability Support Programme (ODSP) eligibility, she believes it could take years to qualify. Even if she did qualify, she says the whole sum of the monthly support would, at best, cover her rent.

"That would be the entirety of my living budget," she said.

A year after Thompson became ill, MAiD legislation was revised in Canada. Previously, only those whose natural death was reasonably foreseeable — otherwise known as Track One patients — were eligible to apply for MAiD. For instance, patients with terminal illnesses.

The legislation amended in March 2021 has seen the creation of a Track Two patient. Now, Canadians enduring an "intolerable" and "irreversible" illness, disease or disability who may not be near the natural end of their lives can qualify for assisted death as well.

Thompson has sought one doctor's approval for MAiD and is waiting to hear from a second specialist. To be considered, applicants need two independent doctors or nurse practitioners to confirm they meet the criteria. That goes alongside a written request for MAiD signed by the person who is applying for it.

Applicants have until the moment before the procedure to withdraw consent. Ultimately, the decision is in their hands once the criteria are reached.

While Thompson is still working through the necessary steps, she's confident she'll get approval.

"As best I know I would meet the criteria. I'm very ill."

"There is no treatment. There is no cure. You don't have to be terminally ill," Thompson said.

Sources

CTV News

New Zealand Herald

CathNews NZ

Where to get help:

Need to Talk? Free call or text 1737 any time to speak to a trained counsellor, for any reason.

Lifeline: 0800 543 354 or text HELP to 4357

Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 / 0508 TAUTOKO (24/7). This is a service for people who may be thinking about suicide, or those who are concerned about family or friends.

Depression Helpline: 0800 111 757 (24/7) or text 4202

Samaritans: 0800 726 666 (24/7)

Youthline: 0800 376 633 (24/7) or free text 234 (8am-12am), or email talk@youthline.co.nz

What's Up: online chat (3pm-10pm) or 0800 WHATSUP / 0800 9428 787 helpline (12pm-10pm weekdays, 3pm-11pm weekends)

Kidsline (ages 5-18): 0800 543 754 (24/7)

Rural Support Trust Helpline: 0800 787 254

Healthline: 0800 611 116

Rainbow Youth: (09) 376 4155

If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.

Debate rages over whether a doctor may reasonably say patients with depression, schizophrenia or bipolar disorder have realistic recovery prospects.

Experts are debating if the mentally ill have the ability to consent to end their life, the National Post reports. There are concerns the availability of euthanasia and assisted suicide will make it harder to treat those with mental illness.

The legislation will take effect in March 2023 and has stripped the requirement that a person seeking euthanasia or assisted suicide must have a "reasonably foreseeable" death. It now allows someone to seek legal euthanasia or assisted suicide even if mental illness is their sole underlying condition.

The legislation was written in response to a 2019 Quebec Superior Court decision which found that limiting euthanasia and assisted suicide only to people with "reasonably foreseeable" deaths was a violation of human rights.

Canada's Catholic bishops have strongly opposed the 2021 legislation.

"Our position remains unequivocal. Euthanasia and assisted suicide constitute the deliberate killing of human life in violation of God's Commandments. They erode our shared dignity by failing to see, to accept, and accompany those suffering and dying," Archbishop Richard Gagnon of Winnipeg, then-president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in an April 9 2021 letter.

Dr Viren Naik, medical director for the medical aid-in-dying programme in the Ottawa area, told the National Post that most providers are unwilling to see patients not in danger of imminent death but who still wish to be assessed for euthanasia or assisted suicide.

Many parts of Canada lack psychiatrists to treat mental illness. Fewer still are available to assess a patient for a euthanasia or assisted suicide request, the National Post reported.

Dr Sonu Gaind, a past president of the Canadian Psychiatric Association, told the National Post, "There's no doubt that mental illnesses lead to grievous suffering. That suffering can be even more grievous in some cases than other illnesses."

"It's the irremediability part that our framework also requires and that scientifically cannot be met. That we cannot do. That's the problem."

Depression, he noted, affects a patient's outlook on the future.

"You don't think about the future the same way. You see nothing. And there's that hopelessness," he said.

Archbishop Gangon, in his letter on behalf of Canada's Catholic bishops' conference, expressed concern that the new law will result in those with mental illness or disabilities being pressured into ending their lives. The legislation did not include conscience protections for medical professionals not wishing to participate in euthanasia or assisted suicide.

There has also been legal pressure on hospices with a history of opposing assisted suicide or euthanasia. That includes hospices with an explicitly Christian identity.

Sources

Catholic News Agency

National Post

Gary and Trish Nichols of Edmonton are publicizing the case of Gary's brother, Alan, who died in 2019 at age 62 in Chilliwack General Hospital through a Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) procedure he had requested.

Gary Nichols said his brother suffered the effects of a brain injury sustained as a child and was depressed, mentally incompetent, and certainly did not face imminent death.

"My whole problem with (MAiD) is, like, the government opened the door and, of course, people and physicians just make it wider," he said in an interview.

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