‘I DO NOT FEAR DEATH’
SUFFERING IS UNBEARABLE, SAYS 80-YEAR- OLD IMMIGRANT SEEKING ASSISTED SUICIDE
One of the first Canadians to formally ask for a doctor’s help in ending his life early says he has been reduced to a skeleton of his former self, experiences unbearable pain and nausea and, despite a true love of life, is facing death without fear.
In an affidavit filed in a Toronto court Friday to support his request, the man also said he is lucid and able to choose his fate without coercion or influence.
The 80- year- old immigrant explained that he has led a “wonderful” existence since arriving in Canada but that painkillers are unable to control the agony of the blood cancer that has spread into his spine.
He also cannot control his bodily functions or perform any of the basic activities of life without help from others, the affidavit notes.
“For all my love of life, I do not fear death. In the early stages of the disease, I fought back hard as long as there was hope for recovery,” he said. “Only when the pain became too much to bear and it became evident that there was no positive outcome did I turn my focus to managing my own death. I have a strong wish to die with dignity at the time of my choosing.”
A Superior Court judge has banned media from publishing anything identifying the man, his family or his health-care team — information that has been redacted from the court papers.
But the documents, underpinning arguments his lawyer is scheduled to make in court next Thursday, still offer a poignant glimpse at the kind of suffering that can drive someone to plead for a premature end.
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled a year ago that the Criminal Code ban on assisted suicide is unconstitutional, then recently gave Ottawa an extension until June to change the law accordingly. In the meantime, patients can apply to a local court for an exemption from the code.
Once the law is changed by Parliament, it is likely such decisions will be made completely privately by doctors and their patients.
With specific dates and locations removed, the man said he and his family immigrated here and “fell in love with Canada.” He said he is a history buff, voracious reader and avid soccer, baseball and hockey fan, taking particular pleasure in helping raise his grandson.
He underwent chemotherapy after being diagnosed with aggressive b- cell lymphoma in July 2012, but decided to end that treatment after severe side-effects left him in hospital.
The cancer’s symptoms picked up in the summer of 2013, and he began palliative chemo then. Last November the symptoms worsened dramatically, the affidavit said, causing severe pain, fatigue, nausea and “profound” weakness.
He said he decided in January to seek assisted death.
“I have become a skeleton of the man I was. My suffering is intolerable and unbearable.”
His daughter described him in a separate affidavit as an “inherently happy man,” a sentimentalist and “a great poet” who marked every family occasion with verse. But she said it is “crippling emotionally” to see him suffer so much now.
An unnamed Toronto hematologist said in his document that the patient he has treated since 2012 likely has less than three months to live.
The doctor said he is willing to help administer the fatal injection, and might do the same for other patients, but has no intention of publicizing his involvement in the case. “Nor do I intend to make providing physicianassisted death a significant part of my practice.”
In his own written arguments, lawyer Andrew Faith asked the court to not only approve the aided death, but ensure it does not trigger a coroner’s investigation — and that the man’s death certificate mentions his cancer as the cause of death, not a lethal injection of barbiturates.
Physician- assisted death should be viewed simply as a “treatment for an underlying illness,” so lymphoma would be listed as the cause, argued Faith.