Advocate made final plea for changes to assisted-death law in Canada
HALIFAX — A terminally ill Halifax woman ended her life on Thursday with medical assistance, after issuing an impassioned deathbed plea to Canada’s lawmakers that the federal assisted-dying law must be changed.
Audrey Parker was given a lethal injection and “died peacefully” in her Halifax apartment, surrounded by close friends and family, friends said in a statement late Thursday.
While the two-year-old law allowed her to end her prolonged suffering, the 57-year-old former image consultant issued a statement earlier in the day, saying the legislation had forced her to choose to die sooner than she would have liked.
“I wanted to make it to Christmas and New Year’s Eve, my favourite time of the year, but I lost that opportunity because of a poorly thought-out federal law,” she wrote in a Facebook post.
Parker said she loved her life and had no regrets.
But she stressed that the law had to be changed because anyone approved for a medically assisted death must be conscious and mentally sound at the moment they grant their final consent for a lethal injection — called “late-stage consent.”
The provision was included to protect vulnerable people.
Parker said she would have been denied her wish to end her life with medical assistance if she had become incapacitated by her advanced illness or the pain medication she is taking.
Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil said Parker had started an important conversation.
“It’s been a courageous journey that she has been on,” he said on Thursday. “I think that debate will go on and it will happen at the national level.”
Parker said the law should be changed to allow for so-called advance requests for those who have already been approved for a medically assisted death. These instructions would allow caregivers to administer lethal drugs even if their patient is unable to give consent.
In Ottawa on Wednesday, federal Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor told reporters the legislation can’t be altered without completing consultations and study on potential reforms.