The family of a woman denied a medically assisted death in her BC hospital room is suing the province and health officials, alleging a Catholic hospital’s ban on the practice deprived their daughter of her constitutional rights.Gaye O’Neill filed the lawsuit on behalf of Samantha O’Neill, who at age 34 chose MAID during her struggle with terminal cervical cancer but was denied the opportunity to have medical assistance in dying (MAiD) in her hospital room, according to the claim in B.C. Supreme Court.In April 2024, she requested MAiD in her room at St. Paul’s Hospital, a faith-based facility that prohibits MAiD in its hospitals and care homes, but was instead transferred by ambulance to St. John’s Hospice, a faith-based palliative care home also run by the Providence Health Care Society, the claim said.Before the trip, O’Neill was sedated, but during the trip she was “writhing and moaning in pain and needed a further injection of pain relief,” the claim said.O’Neill never regained consciousness after sedation for the ambulance trip and was therefore denied the chance to say goodbye to family and loved ones, it said.“The circumstances surrounding the forced transfer and Ms. O’Neill’s access to MAID caused and exacerbated Ms. O’Neill’s egregious physical and psychological suffering, and denied her a dignified death,” the claim stated.The province’s MAID policy requires health authorities to avoid transferring patients, but a facility run by a faith-based organization is exempt.Samantha’s parents Gaye and Jim offered a statement in a Dying With Dignity Canada press release. DWDC is an intervener in the case"At this most painful and vulnerable time of her young life, St. Paul’s Hospital refused to honour her decision, forcing her to leave its premises and receive MAID elsewhere. She endured a painful, undignified forced transfer. Sam and our family lost our chance to say a final goodbye as she never woke up after being sedated for the transfer," they wrote."Sam suffered because her beliefs did not align with that of a religious group. There was no peace in Sam’s passing. It was violent and cruel. We don’t know if we will ever heal from this experience, but we know we owe it to Sam to make sure this never happens to another family.”After Samantha’s experience, Providence Health reached a deal with the provincial Health Ministry to allow patients at St. Paul’s who want to access to MAID to be discharged by Providence Health and transferred to the care of Vancouver Coastal Health in a clinical space built for that purpose.The O’Neills said that doesn’t solve the problem of having to physically move an ailing patient from a hospital room to the nearby facility and notes the province has promised to build this dedicated space at only one of several health facilities run by Providence Health.DWDC said the new space has not yet been built and if it had been built during Samantha’s hospital stay, it wouldn’t have made a difference. She still would have had to be placed on a stretcher and moved to the other facility — a move that would have caused Samantha pain, according to DWDC vice chair Daphne Gilbert, a University of Ottawa law professor.An advocacy page on Dying with Dignity Canada has "institutional religious instructions" as one of its lobbying targets and lists the O'Neill court challenge as part of its advocacy.
The family of a woman denied a medically assisted death in her BC hospital room is suing the province and health officials, alleging a Catholic hospital’s ban on the practice deprived their daughter of her constitutional rights.Gaye O’Neill filed the lawsuit on behalf of Samantha O’Neill, who at age 34 chose MAID during her struggle with terminal cervical cancer but was denied the opportunity to have medical assistance in dying (MAiD) in her hospital room, according to the claim in B.C. Supreme Court.In April 2024, she requested MAiD in her room at St. Paul’s Hospital, a faith-based facility that prohibits MAiD in its hospitals and care homes, but was instead transferred by ambulance to St. John’s Hospice, a faith-based palliative care home also run by the Providence Health Care Society, the claim said.Before the trip, O’Neill was sedated, but during the trip she was “writhing and moaning in pain and needed a further injection of pain relief,” the claim said.O’Neill never regained consciousness after sedation for the ambulance trip and was therefore denied the chance to say goodbye to family and loved ones, it said.“The circumstances surrounding the forced transfer and Ms. O’Neill’s access to MAID caused and exacerbated Ms. O’Neill’s egregious physical and psychological suffering, and denied her a dignified death,” the claim stated.The province’s MAID policy requires health authorities to avoid transferring patients, but a facility run by a faith-based organization is exempt.Samantha’s parents Gaye and Jim offered a statement in a Dying With Dignity Canada press release. DWDC is an intervener in the case"At this most painful and vulnerable time of her young life, St. Paul’s Hospital refused to honour her decision, forcing her to leave its premises and receive MAID elsewhere. She endured a painful, undignified forced transfer. Sam and our family lost our chance to say a final goodbye as she never woke up after being sedated for the transfer," they wrote."Sam suffered because her beliefs did not align with that of a religious group. There was no peace in Sam’s passing. It was violent and cruel. We don’t know if we will ever heal from this experience, but we know we owe it to Sam to make sure this never happens to another family.”After Samantha’s experience, Providence Health reached a deal with the provincial Health Ministry to allow patients at St. Paul’s who want to access to MAID to be discharged by Providence Health and transferred to the care of Vancouver Coastal Health in a clinical space built for that purpose.The O’Neills said that doesn’t solve the problem of having to physically move an ailing patient from a hospital room to the nearby facility and notes the province has promised to build this dedicated space at only one of several health facilities run by Providence Health.DWDC said the new space has not yet been built and if it had been built during Samantha’s hospital stay, it wouldn’t have made a difference. She still would have had to be placed on a stretcher and moved to the other facility — a move that would have caused Samantha pain, according to DWDC vice chair Daphne Gilbert, a University of Ottawa law professor.An advocacy page on Dying with Dignity Canada has "institutional religious instructions" as one of its lobbying targets and lists the O'Neill court challenge as part of its advocacy.
