In a shocking development that highlights serious concerns with so-called “medical assistance in dying” (MAiD) policies, a woman in Canada was reportedly euthanized despite expressing her wish to stay alive just hours before her death. Meanwhile, “assisted suicide” bills continue to gain traction in Democrat jurisdictions throughout the United States, highlighting an alarming rise in support for the practice.
As originally reported by The Daily Mail, an Ontario woman in her 80s, identified as “Mrs. B,” was suffering from complications following a coronary artery bypass surgery and chose to receive palliative care support at home. She allegedly shared her desire to end her life through Canada’s MAiD program, prompting her husband to request an assessment.
However, Mrs. B later informed a MAiD assessor that she was withdrawing her request based on her faith and values and wished to pursue inpatient palliative or hospice care. Even so, following an urgent second assessment requested by her husband, MAiD providers approved euthanasia and carried it out later that day – despite the woman apparently expressing just hours beforehand that she did not want to be killed.
According to an official report from the Chief Coroner of Ontario’s Medical Assistance in Dying Death Review Committee (MDRC), Mrs. B’s husband brought her to the emergency department after an initial MAiD request was denied, where she was found medically stable, although caregiver burnout was documented.
Her palliative care doctor applied for inpatient hospice placement to ease the burden on her husband, but the request was denied because she did not meet eligibility criteria, and long-term care placement was offered instead.
After hospice placement was denied, Mrs. B’s husband contacted a provincial MAiD coordination service and requested an urgent second assessment.
A new assessor determined that Mrs. B was eligible for immediate euthanasia, despite objections from the original assessor, who questioned whether an urgent provision was warranted and cited concerns about the abrupt change in end-of-life goals and possible undue influence related to caregiver burnout.
A third MAiD practitioner was consulted remotely that evening. With Mrs. B’s husband present, the practitioner approved the request. Mrs. B was euthanized later that night — hours after being denied hospice care and less than two days after formally withdrawing consent, the committee found.
The MDRC made clear that the speed of the MAiD process was a central concern. While same-day or next-day provisions are legally permissible under Canadian law, most MDRC members concluded there was no clear clinical rationale for urgency in Mrs. B’s case, emphasizing that the short timeline prevented meaningful exploration of Mrs. B’s social circumstances and care needs.
The case has made international headlines and invited fresh scrutiny of Canada’s MAiD program, which continues to lead the world in horrific examples of state-sanctioned suicide. Kelsi Sheren, a critic of Canada’s euthanasia laws, said Mrs. B’s death “was the outcome of a series of decisions made inside a system that could not – or would not – provide care when it mattered most.” Rachael Thomas, a Canadian Member of Parliament, said, “This woman’s life was taken against her will. That’s called murder.”
Supporters of MAiD have suggested that Mrs. B’s tragic story is an isolated anomaly of the system effectively killing someone who did not want to die – but as AMAC Newsline has previously reported, that’s hardly the case. The Toronto Sun reported on the story of a Canadian veteran with PTSD who was pressured by a federal caseworker to end his life – just one of as many as 20 veterans who have been offered assisted suicide by Veterans Affairs Canada.
Back in 2023, Paralympian and veteran Christine Gauthier, 52, was offered assisted suicide when she simply requested to have a wheelchair lift installed in her home. And there are now gruesome reports that some healthcare professionals increasingly view MAiD as an organ-harvesting pipeline.
Overall, MAiD now accounts for an astonishing 1 in 20 deaths in Canada – about 15,300 people in 2024. While MAiD was initially sold as being only for those whose deaths were “reasonably foreseeable,” at least 600 people euthanized in Canada in 2024 did not meet that criteria.
Despite these appalling statistics, MAiD and assisted suicide policies are continuing to gain traction in the United States. As of late 2025, at least 12 states allow some form of MAiD, which is often sold as “dying with dignity.” Just this week, Democrats in Virginia advanced their own assisted suicide bill, adding it to the long list of far-left policies they’re looking to implement in the Old Dominion.
Mrs. B’s death was not the result of a single rogue decision, but of a system that moved faster to end her life than to support it. Canada’s experience shows that assisted suicide does not remain a last resort for rare cases but becomes a substitute for care. Americans should learn from that tragic example and reject the expansion of the practice in their own communities.
Sarah Katherine Sisk is a proud Hillsdale College alumna and a master’s student in economics at George Mason University. You can follow her on X @SKSisk76.
