Canadians Are Choosing When To Die, Often With A Smile

Montreal : Jacques Poissant’s pain ended the day he asked his daughter “whether it would be a cowardly act to ask for help in dying.”

The retired Canadian insurance consultant was 93 and “wasting away” after a long battle with prostate cancer.

“There was no joy in living anymore,” Josee Poissant told AFP.

Her mother made the same choice last year when, at age 96, she realized she wouldn’t be able to leave the hospital.

He died surrounded by his children and their spouses, listening to the music he loved. “He was at peace. He sang until he fell asleep.”

Josee Poissant remembers it as a beautiful and moving moment. “There is no good way to die, but it was the best one for me” and “it was a privilege to have the opportunity to say goodbye”.

– One in 20 people is Canadian –

One in 20 Canadians who will die in 2023 chose when to leave.

Assisted death has been legal since 2016 for people at the end of life. Those suffering from serious and incurable diseases were granted this right in 2021, even if death was not “reasonably foreseeable”.

While Britain and France are considering similar measures, Canada is poised to go even further.

A parliamentary committee will start studying next month whether assisted dying should be extended to include only those suffering from mental illness.

Claire Brosseau hopes this will be her last fight. After struggling with bipolar disorder for decades, she took her right-to-die case to the courts.

“I was treated by psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors and 12-step rehab in Montreal, New York City, Toronto and Los Angeles,” he said.

“I tried antidepressants, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, benzos, sleeping pills and stimulants, cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy… tai chi, reiki, meditation, veganism, art therapy and music therapy,” the former stand-up comedian said.

“There’s really nothing I haven’t tried. It’s just been too much for too long,” he told AFP.

Every day is a test for the 49-year-old man, who lives alone in a small Toronto apartment with his dog Olive.

“I have about 10 to 30 minutes a day where I’m good. But the rest sucks,” Brosseau said.

The only time Olive goes out for sightseeing is when the streets are deserted, she has very limited contact with her family, she can no longer see her friends, and groceries are delivered. Even his appointments with his psychiatrists are held via video from his neat, minimalist home.

A change in the law, he said, would allow him to “go in peace and security, surrounded by love. It will not be violent. I won’t be alone.”

– Trivialized ‘as therapy’ –

Canada would allow assisted dying, regardless of disease, by 2024. But this has been delayed for three years because the government said it wanted to make sure the already overburdened mental health system was ready.

Eight in 10 Canadians support assisted dying, but some worry it will be expanded further.

Trudo Lemmens, a professor of health law at the University of Toronto, argued that the problem has been trivialized to the point that it “will be presented as a form of therapy.”

“We have seen a sharper increase in cases compared to other countries” such as Belgium and the Netherlands, which pioneered the practice.

“The desire to commit suicide is often an integral part of psychiatric disorder,” and it is extremely difficult to predict how a mental illness will develop, he said.

But psychiatrist Mona Gupta, who chaired an expert panel advising the government, insisted there was “no clinical reason to draw a line separating people with mental disorders from those with chronic physical illnesses”.

“We are talking about a very small number of people with chronic, severe, treatment-resistant mental disorders,” Dr Gupta said.

“We must recognize that there are people who have been sick for decades and have received all kinds of treatments, and that the pain caused by some mental illnesses is sometimes as unbearable as physical pain,” he argued.

– ‘We keep control until the end’ –

Quebecer Rachel Fournier, who has brain cancer, has just learned that her death wish has been approved.

“When you are in pain, you feel like it will never end,” the 71-year-old told AFP.

“It’s such a relief to know that there will be an ending and that I can choose that moment.

“Even though I can’t control what happens to my body, I have control of my life,” the mother of two and grandmother of four said as she admired the winter sun on the snow outside her room at the palliative care center.

Two doctors reviewed the woman’s request to ensure all criteria required by law were met.

The applicant must be an adult, have “decision-making capacity,” suffer from a serious or incurable illness, and be “suffering from persistent, intolerable physical or psychological pain that cannot be relieved under conditions considered tolerable.”

Only then does the doctor have the authority to administer lethal drugs at the date and time chosen by the patient.

Fournier said he is proud to live in a country that allows patients to make their own decisions. Because the law had not yet come into force, he watched his mother sink into dementia before she could ask to leave “with dignity” as she wanted.

“I remember my daughters saying, ‘Are we going to pull the plug?’ I don’t want him to have to answer the question.”

-‘Celebrate my life’-

The former gallerist has been spending some of his days for weeks “reviewing my life” among old photo albums and smiling at everything he “had the chance to experience.”

He said it was sad that “society wants to hide aging and death.”

But more and more families in Canada are choosing to turn their loved one’s last day into a moment of celebration with music, singing, speeches and a buffet.

“Come celebrate my life,” read one man’s invitations for his last day on Earth.

Doctors who attend to these patients describe beautiful and touching ceremonies held in gardens, at a family’s lakeside vacation cabin, and even on a boat.

Funeral parlors now offer private areas for families.

“We noticed people were going to hotels or renting Airbnbs,” said Mathieu Baker, who rents a room filled with plants and paintings at a Quebec funeral complex.

Baker recalled that one woman wanted to watch a horror movie one last time before she died, and another preferred to have a few beers and cigarettes as a last resort. “These are very beautiful, very powerful moments,” he said.

– ‘Don’t deny my humanity’ –

“It’s usually a celebration,” confirmed Georges L’Esperance, a doctor who has provided assisted dying since the early days.

“Thanks to medicine, we add years to people’s lives, but we don’t always add life to those years,” he said.

“The decision to end life should belong to the patient,” he said, adding that medical paternalism has long since taken a backseat in Canada.

Claire Brosseau challenges the idea that people with mental illness are unable to make conscious decisions. “We’re allowed to get married, write a will, make decisions that will affect our entire lives. But isn’t this?”

He wants to be recognized as a person capable of decision-making and worthy of compassion and respect. “To deny me this right is to deny me my humanity,” he said.