Some doctors say the pandemic is making it harder to provide medically assisted deaths to patients who request them, due to shortages of protective masks and gowns and last-minute scrambles to find places to perform the procedure.
Some doctors say the pandemic is making it harder to provide medically assisted deaths to patients who request them, due to shortages of protective masks and gowns and last-minute scrambles to find places to perform the procedure.
The pandemic also is being cited as the cause of a reported surge in public interest in assisted death.
Dying with Dignity Canada CEO Helen Long told CBC News hundreds of people have contacted her organization in recent weeks to learn more about end-of-life planning. Some have been asking whether they could obtain medical assistance in dying (MAID) if they fall ill with COVID-19 and wind up on a ventilator.
“A medically assisted death is probably not the solution for most people, but there are other things that can be put in place to ensure your wishes are granted and that you do get quality end-of-life care and choice,” said Long.
One Toronto doctor said she is seeing a surge in demand for the service — and some patients are trying to move up their medically assisted deaths because of the social isolation that pandemic measures impose.
“Some of them actually have said, ‘You know, I was planning to do this anyway and I’m cooped up. I can’t go anywhere. Nobody can come and see me. So what’s the point of hanging around?'” said Dr. Chantal Perrot, who is also a director with Dying with Dignity Canada.
“It’s sad when anybody chooses to end their life, but when they feel they have to do it under circumstances that are so isolating and challenging, it just makes it that much more sad.”
Mental health advocate and Order of Canada recipient Pat Capponi recently ended her life with a medically assisted death. Her close friend Cynthia Good said Capponi moved up the date of her passing because she feared she would lose access or fall ill with COVID-19.
“She did not want to die that way, if she should contract it,” she said.
Dying in a funeral home
But the pandemic is making it more challenging to provide medically assisted deaths, say doctors. Not all facilities are willing to permit the procedure on their premises — and with inter-facility transfers curtailed by pandemic restrictions, some families have had to get “creative,” said Dr. Stefanie Green, founder