Paraplegic Quebec man seeking euthanasia due to health care difficulties

Another person with disabilities is seeking euthanasia in Canada — not because he’s dying, but because he’s struggling to access the quality health care he needs to live.

CTV News reports that 66-year-old Jacques Comeau, who is paraplegic, is seeking Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD) even though he said he’s lived a full and happy life. This is due to changes in his local health service center (CLSC), which provides in-home care. Comeau praised the work that the CLSC used to provide. “It allowed me to go back to school, get degrees, to work,” he said. “Everything I’ve done, traveling, it’s because I’m able to not have to worry about that.”

But recently, his CLSC went through some changes, and it’s drastically affected Comeau for the worse. “I’m stressed beyond belief, I’m not sleeping well, I’m not eating regularly,” he said. “The amount of pain I’m dealing with, psychologically, is the kind I’ve never dealt with. I became disabled as a young person and got through that. And this is ten times worse. I wake up in the morning, and my first thought is, ‘How am I going to make sure I’m not going to kill myself today.'”

Previously, Comeau worked with the same 10-15 orderlies, who had all been there for years. They helped change his bowels, an intimate procedure that requires trust and comfort. Over the years, Comeau told CTV, those orderlies became his trusted companions. Now, however, CLSC is sending new orderlies who don’t know Comeau, and their lack of familiarity with him has led to procedures being performed incorrectly, which has led to pain.

READ: Woman in Canada seeks euthanasia because she can’t access medical treatment

“The second person that came, she overdid it, and I had an involuntary bowel movement,” he said. “So I had stool come out in my pants in the middle of the day, and I was in pain and cramping all day long.”

Comeau requested that his previous orderlies train the new ones, so they could familiarize themselves with his routine. But CLSC refused. “I was totally taken aback,” he said. “When they talked about these changes coming, I knew there would be an issue with people who had never come here before, because although they’re all trained in this technique, it’s different with each person.”

And because of this decision, Comeau is living with uncertainty each day.

“Think about a period where you had diarrhea, or you had a stomach bug,” he said. “Every day, you’re getting up and you’re like, ‘Am I going to make it to the bathroom on time? Do I bother going to work today, do I get in my car? Do I go to the grocery store?’ And that’s my life every day now. Is my life going to be sitting in front of a TV, wearing a diaper, sitting in stool all day long? Is that what my life is going to be? I can’t live that way. The biggest problem is, I get up in the morning, I don’t know who’s coming, how it’s going to go. So I’m constantly on edge wondering what’s happening.”

Adèle Liliane Ngo Mben Nkoth, an accessibility advocate, told CTV that Comeau’s situation is not unique.

“Everywhere in Quebec, we see this,” she said. “It’s deplorable to see that in Canada, in Quebec, in 2022, that we find ourselves in these situations, for a country so rich as ours.”

She added that these situations are preventable, and yet because nothing is being done, people like Comeau are turning to MAiD. “It’s a shame that people come to think they have to take medical aid to die because that care is not there.”

These situations are growing increasingly common in Canada, as the country has the least restrictive assisted suicide laws in the world. It has allowed countless people who are not seriously ill or dying (and are instead disabled or struggling with mental health issues) to be approved for MAiD. Despite pushback from disability advocates, Canadian politicians seem uninterested in taking action to solve the problem.

Dr. Paul Saba, a doctor who serves as president of the board of physicians at Lachine Hospital, suggested the negligence is intentional. “People are choosing it because they can’t get proper housing, can’t get affordable housing, can’t get food, where they’re not getting enough social services, not enough nursing help,” he said. “We’re basically getting rid of people that we consider as ‘undesirables’ and society is going along with it. We must say ‘stop.'”