'Captain of their own ship': debate over MAID deepens as numbers climb

Despite a growing number of people who are opting for a doctor's help in ending their own lives, the practice remains controversial, and very much up for debate.

The latest statistics on MAID show a rapidly rising curve, including hundreds of Maritimers.

"Obviously, issues like this do tend to be polarizing," Dr. Gord Gubitz, Nova Scotia's MAID Access and Resource Team Medical Lead told CTV News on Tuesday.

"There are all sorts of factions in the country both 'for' and 'against' medically-assisted dying,"

"The truth of the matter for us is that it's the Canadian law, and so we have to be available to allow people who are applying for a medically-assisted death to be assessed, and if they're found eligible to have a medically-assisted death, this is then something they could choose to do or not to do," said Gubitz.

In the end, he says, MAID is an option for those who feel they have none left.

"I think, to use a Maritime analogy, they would like to be the captain of their own ship," said Gubitz. "They want to be in charge, and that whole sense of having personal autonomy for decisions about your health and your health care is really strong in these people."

With eligibility for MAID expanding next year, critics insist the country is on a slippery-slope.

"At this point, it includes people who have a disability. They might be perfectly healthy and capable in every other way except for their disability, but they can request euthanasia, they can be killed," said David Cooke, National Campaign Manager for the Campaign Life Coalition.

"And next year, in March, people with depression, anxiety disorders, different mental illnesses, they can be killed. This is turning our suicide prevention initiatives on their head," he said in an interview from Edmundston.

"The increase is very disturbing as more and more Canadians are being murdered by euthanasia," said Cooke.

"That's an idiotic argument and it shouldn't be given time of day, to be honest," said Eric MacDonald, a retired Anglican Minister who spoke to CTV News in February of 2018.

At the time, he shared the story of his late wife, Elizabeth, who was around 40 when they left Canada for Switzerland so she could seek a doctor's help in ending her life -- and her long battle with Multiple Sclerosis.

Now, some four-and-a-half years later, his belief in the necessity of the program has only deepened.

"We should stop paying attention to religious arguments, which continue to misrepresent the whole practice of assisted dying," he told CTV News Wednesday.

"There are people who are concerned that (the expanded eligibility) opens up the door for medically-assisted dying for people with mental health problems or disabilities who can't access resources they need, but that's something that, as a society, we will have to work with and find solutions for," said Dr. Gubitz.

According to an extensive report from Health Canada, some 792 Nova Scotians have used the service, 655 New Brunswickers and 111 Prince Edward Islanders, for a total of 1,558 over the five years.

As a percentage of the total deaths in Canada, the latest number is a little more than 3 per cent, but it, too, has been rising.

While Gubitz stopped short of suggesting MAID is short-staffed, he did acknowledge the team could always use some help.

"The vast majority of people who are doing this are doing it along with the other jobs they do. I work as a full-time neurologist, and I end up seeing patients on my lunch hours and evenings and weekends, and the provisions happen in the same way. And pretty much everyone else in the province who is seeing patients is doing the same thing," he said.

"The pandemic, and the changes in the health-care system, and the stressors that are going on right now, really are challenging for health-care professionals. And when we ask some people, they're interested, but often, there's not enough gas left in the tank."