Vancouver Woman Offered Euthanasia After Seeking Help for Suicidal Thoughts

(Pascal Pochard-Casabianca/AFP via Getty Images)

A Vancouver woman is claiming she was offered the option of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) by a clinician when she went to a hospital for help with her suicidal thoughts.

“I very specifically went there that day because I didn’t want to get into a situation where I would think about taking an overdose of medication,” Kathrin Mentler, who has chronic depression and feelings of suicidality, told The Globe and Mail.

“The more I think about it, I think it brings up more and more ethical and moral questions around it.”

Ms. Mentler said she went to Vancouver General Hospital in June to receive psychiatric help for her feelings of hopelessness and suicidal thoughts. She said a clinician told her it would be a long wait to see a psychiatrist due to the “broken” health care system, and then was asked, “Have you considered MAiD?”

The counselling student said she had not previously considered MAiD, but told the clinician of her past attempts at ending her life by overdosing on medication. According to Ms. Mentler, the clinician replied that such a method could result in brain damage and other harms, while MAiD would be a more “comfortable” process.

Ms. Mentler said she believed that gauging the risk of suicide “should not include offering options to die, which is what it felt like.” She said, since the incident, she has been able to access support from Vancouver Coastal Health’s Suicide Attempt Follow-up Education and Research (SAFER) program, and is expected to see a psychiatrist in the fall.

In a statement to the Globe and Mail, Vancouver Coastal Health said MAiD was not mentioned as a suggestion for Ms. Mentler, but to assess her risk of self-harm. “During patient assessments of this nature, difficult questions are often asked by clinicians to determine the appropriate care and risk to the patient,” said the health authority in a statement provided by public affairs leader Jeremy Deutsch.

“Staff are to explore all available care options for the patient and a clinical evaluation with a client who presents with suicidality may include questions about whether they have considered MAiD as part of their contemplations. We understand this conversation could be upsetting for some and share our deepest apologies for any distress caused by this incident.”

MAiD Expansion Raises Ethical Questions

Back in 2016, the federal government passed legislation allowing Canadian adults to request medical assistance in dying. In March 2021, the eligibility criteria were modified to allow for patients with “reasonably foreseeable deaths” to apply for the procedure.

The legislation was set to be expanded again in March 2023 to allow assisted death for those with mental illness as a qualifying condition, but Ottawa passed legislation allowing for a one-year pause to further study the issue.

Since MAiD was expanded in 2021, there have been several reports of Canadians suffering from poverty seeking the procedure. Veterans Affairs Canada also conducted an investigation into reports that four veterans—including retired corporal and former Paralympian Christine Gauthier—were offered the procedure.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Ms. Mentler’s story proved that “the system is broken” because of the Liberal government. “Seriously? A 37-year-old depressed woman seeks help and the hospital says sorry ’the system is broken, how about we end your life?'” he said. “Trudeau plans to legalize medical assistance in dying for mental illness, in months.”