Bill C-7 needs your support. This Medical Assistance In Dying (MAID) legislation was passed into law in 2016.

It was then amended in March 2021 to include people whose deaths are not “reasonably foreseeable” but are on a trajectory toward death due to incurable illness, disease or disability; advanced state of irreversible decline in capacity or are enduring intolerable pain and suffering that cannot be relieved.

Unfortunately this could have been an option for my friend Madeleine who in 2017 wished to end her suffering but was not given this choice, leaving her only option to die alone by suicide.

Now another review and amendment to add “advance requests” is being considered by Parliament and supported by 83 per cent of Canadians across the country.

The addition of “advance requests” would allow people to make a formal request for assisted dying before their current diagnosis erodes their ability to make a formal request. In the absence of this amendment people risk becoming incapacitated because of their diagnosis, accident or injury leaving them unable to formally request their end of life wishes.

Please join in the push to have “advance requests” added to Bill C-7 for everyone who wishes the right to a peaceful, compassionate choice at end of life. Go to dyingwithdignity.ca to add your support.

Nancy Johnson,

Madeleine’s friend and advocate

Picton