A family has accused Canada’s laws of ‘killing the disabled and vulnerable’ months after their son, who suffered from seasonal depression, died by assisted suicide.
Kiano Vafaeian, a 26-year-old blind man with Type 1 diabetes, died in December using Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) program, which allows patients with ‘grievous and irremediable’ medical conditions to request a lethal drug.
Eligibility was expanded in 2021 to include people with chronic illnesses, disabilities and, pending parliamentary review, potentially individuals with certain mental health conditions.
Vafaeian faced mental health struggles stemming from a car accident at 17, and according to his mother, his depression often flared during the winter months.
For years, the family had successfully prevented their son from using the program. Last year, however, Dr Ellen Wiebe, a MAID provider in British Columbia, approved Vafaeian’s death - news the family only learned about days later.
Vafaeian’s mother, Margaret Marsilla of Ontario, alleged that Wiebe was ‘coaching’ her son on how to qualify as a Track 2 patient - those whose natural deaths aren’t deemed ‘reasonably imminent,’ according to Fox News Digital.
‘We believe that she was coaching him on how to deteriorate his body and what she can possibly approve him for and what she can get away with approving him for,’ Marsilla told the outlet.
Marsilla has since been battling fiercely to undo the Track 2 modification and to support Bill C-218, a legislative effort intended to restrict MAID for those whose only condition is a mental illness.