A Saskatchewan senior says he was offered medically assisted death by a palliative care home as rising costs left him and his wife in a difficult position.
Fred Sandeski, 71, founded the Community Low Income Centre in Weyburn, Sask., and ran it for nearly 20 years. Fred suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes, and epilepsy, and was told by doctors he doesn’t have long to live.
His wife, Teresa, cares for him around the clock. But with Teresa now needing her own health-care treatments, it leaves few options for Fred’s care while she recovers from an upcoming surgery. Fred said he is now forced to choose between paying for hospice care, which costs around $45 per day, and paying rent for his home.
The couple says they were offered Medical Assistance in Death (MAID) as an option when they were in discussions with a palliative care home.
“When we started with this palliative care, they were just listing us the availability of what options they had for us,” Fred told The Epoch Times in a phone interview.
He said MAID was listed as “one option.”
Fred said he wouldn’t consider medically assisted death due to his religious beliefs.
“I really, really believe that the Lord has put me on this earth for a reason, and he’s not going to let me go until I’m done,” he said.
Sask. MLAs Debate MAID
The Sandeski’s plight was brought to the attention of the provincial legislature, where NDP Opposition shadow minister for seniors Keith Jorgenson engaged in a debate with the minister of health Dec. 4 over Fred’s future.Jorgenson said he had met with the couple, noting that Teresa was scheduled for surgery on Dec. 6 and would not be able to care for Fred during recovery.
“Imagine for a moment that you know you are about to lose your partner of 41 years and being asked to make the choice between hospice care for yourself and the homelessness of your partner or, more shocking of all, medical assistance in dying,” he
said, asking Saskatchewan Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill if he will step in to help the couple.
Cockrill said that after his office had become aware of the situation, they reached out to the couple to help find a timely and reasonable solution.
“I want to find a solution that’s going to work for Fred and Theresa this week,” Cockrill said.
He addressed the conversation about MAID, saying “discussions and decisions around medical assistance in dying are deeply personal and significant.”
“I would hope that any health care professional in this province, having those discussions with a patient has a strong understanding of the patient’s health and familial context,” he said.
Jorgenson said that when Fred had called his MLA and the ministry of health, no one answered or returned his calls. Cockrill said his office does not have a record of the couple contacting them.
Euthanasia in Canada
Canada’s MAID legislation was revised in 2021 to include those enduring “unbearable suffering” from an irreversible illness or disability that is not terminal, following the Superior Court of Québec’s 2019 Truchon decision. Prior to 2021, MAID was strictly for the terminally ill.
The number of medically assisted deaths has risen as eligibility expands, accounting for 4.1 percent of all deaths in 2022—a 31 percent jump from 2021.
Cases of people with financial difficulties and those living with disabilities being offered MAID have been reported since the expansion.
Winnipeg woman Sathya Dhara Kovac, 44, received MAID in October 2022. She had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, a degenerative disease. She said she didn’t want to choose assisted death but that she could’t get enough home care support to stay in her home. In an obituary to loved ones, she wrote, “Ultimately it was not a genetic disease that took me out, it was a system.”
That same year, a 31-year-old woman in Toronto qualified for MAID, saying she was driven to it because of abject poverty. After enough donations were raised to help her find housing, she opted not to go through with it. Another Toronto woman, under the pseudonym Sophia, gave up after two years of unsuccessful efforts to secure suitable housing. She had been suffering with a condition called multiple chemical sensitivities. She posted a video online eight days before receiving MAID, saying, “The government sees me as expendable trash, a complainer, useless, and a pain.”
Canada’s MAID regime also stirred controversy internationally following several reports from Canadian Armed Forces veterans who said they were
offered assisted death unprompted by Veterans Affairs employees when requesting unrelated services.
