Woman forced to end life early as Canada debates assisted death laws

Audrey Parker was assessed and approved for medically assisted death, but because federal law requires that she be lucid at the time of death her plans were derailed

 

For weeks, Audrey Parker had been organizing what she called her "beautiful death". Parker, a television makeup artist, was in excruciating pain as cancer crept from her breast into her bones and brain and intended to end her life before the suffering became too overwhelming.

 

Parker was forced to end her life months before she had intended to die, because Canadian federal law, required that she was lucid at the time of death and fearing that the combined effects of cancer and medication could rob her of that clarity. 

 

Audrey Parker passed away on 1 November, with the help of a nurse, surrounded by friends and family in her Halifax home. She was 57.

 

Critics say that Canada's legislation on medically assisted death forces terminally ill people to choose between two equally unpalatable choices: a death that is premature, or one that is painful.

 

Parker was not the first to use Canada's medically assisted death laws, more than 3,700 already have done so since the country's supreme court paved the way for physician-assisted death in 2015.

 

"The world lost a person that had such spirit, who kind of always knew she was going to do something really, really important," said Kim King, a close friend who was with Parker during her last moments. "And in the end, she did."

 

Legislation passed in 2016 allowed anyone above the age of 18 with a "grievous and irremediable medical condition" to apply for physician-assisted death. Individuals must undergo consultations and be examined by two clinicians to gain approval for the process.

 

Parker was assessed and approved, but a key provision in the law – that she be of full mental capacity when the decision to terminate life is made – derailed her plans.

 

"When we realized the implications of the late-stage consent, it was very disturbing," said King. "She was so courageous to face her death head on."

 

If she wanted to die on her own terms, it would have to be when she was still mentally sound. While she wanted to live to see another Christmas, she told friends she couldn't run the risk of waiting too long.

 

"She was worried about how this cancer had ravaged her body so aggressively that if she waited too long, she would lose capacity and then she would be completely denied the right to have an assisted death," said Shanaaz Gokool, head of Dying with Dignity Canada. "And then she would die in a manner she knew will be horrible."

 

Only three countries permit people to plan their death beforehand, and do not require competency at the moment of death: the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium.

 

Parker's death has prompted a fresh debate on end-of-life planning in Canada, said Dr Jeff Blackmer, vice-president of the Canadian Medical Association. "If you agree with assisted dying or not, one of the silver linings to this has been a more open discussion about death and dying in Canada – and about the choices that we make at the end of our lives," he said.

 

The day after Parker's death, the federal justice minister, Jody Wilson-Raybould, expressed no intention of amending the current law. "We're not considering changing something in the legislation," she told reporters, adding that she and the government were "confident in the legislation".

 

While the minister's position disappointed King and other friends, they see it as a reason to keep pushing hard for changes in the law, continuing the battle Parker fought to the end.

 

"Until she took her last breath yesterday, she never wavered," said King. "It was just so beautiful."

 

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