BC Family Says 52-Year-Old With Cancer Not Able to Get Chemo Opted for MAID

Dan Quayle chose assisted death after he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer and was unable to receive chemotherapy treatments before his health worsened.
BC Family Says 52-Year-Old With Cancer Not Able to Get Chemo Opted for MAID
A care worker carries a bed in the emergency department of a hospital in a file photo. Lou Benoist/AFP via Getty Images
Chandra Philip
Updated:
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A 52-year-old B.C. man chose medical assistance in dying (MAID) under Canada’s expanding MAID laws after failing to get chemotherapy treatment in time.

Kathleen Carmichael told CTV News that her partner, Dan Quayle, opted for death after he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer and unable to receive chemotherapy treatments before his health started to fail.

Mr. Quayle died on Nov. 24, according to CTV News.

“The oncologist would come in and say, ‘We’re pretty backlogged right now so hang in there,” Ms. Carmichael said.

The incident is the latest in a rising number of cases where people choose MAID when facing issues like poverty or lack of access to adequate medical care.

Canada has one of the most liberal assisted death laws in the world, and the government is currently working on a framework to expand it further to allow those whose only medical condition is mental illness to end their lives through the procedure as well.

In October 2022, a 54-year-old man from St. Catharines who had chronic pain due to a back injury applied for MAID, saying that social supports were failing him and he was afraid he would become homeless. However, he did not go through with the procedure after public support.

In December 2022, CBC News reported that a woman said the pain of fibromyalgia led her to consider applying for MAID. She told media that she was also contemplating the idea as her disability benefit had her financially struggling.
In 2022, the number of MAID deaths increased by 31.2 percent, accounting for over 4 percent of deaths, according to Statistics Canada. That equates to 13,241 MAID deaths last year. The government said that 463 of those were for individuals whose natural death was not reasonably foreseeable.

That is up from 10,029 MAID deaths in 2021 and 7,446 in 2020.

Those numbers are expected to keep going up in 2024 as MAID will be expanded to allow those with mental illness to end their lives.

A private members bill sponsored by Conservative MP Ed Fast that would have blocked MAID expansion was defeated during its second reading in the House of Commons earlier this year.

Matthew Horwood contributed to this report.