Priest with hip fracture was twice offered assisted dying

Fr Larry Holland, 79, said a doctor at Vancouver General Hospital brought up the option of medical aid in dying (MAID) should his condition deteriorate. The doctor said it’s “something they have to discuss with someone who’s been given a terminal diagnosis”.

Fr Holland recalled telling the doctor he was morally opposed to euthanasia. The doctor explained that “he just wanted to make sure that, if a [terminal] diagnosis came up or not . . . I knew of the different services I had access to”.

Weeks later, a second offer of MAID came from a nurse who witnessed the pain the priest was enduring. Fr Holland said this was likely out of compassion, but was really a “false compassion”.

A spokesman for Vancouver Coastal Health, which operates Vancouver General Hospital, told The B.C. Catholic in an email that “staff may consider bringing up MAID based on their clinical judgment, provided they possess the necessary knowledge and skills to do so”.

A document from the Canadian Association of MAID Assessors and Providers recommends against assuming patients oppose MAID because of their faith and stated that nuns have opted for it. A later version of the document removed the Catholic reference.

Amanda Achtman, creator of the anti-euthanasia project Dying to Meet You and ethics director of Canadian Physicians for Life, said initiating MAID discussions in a medical setting is a form of coercion that attacks patients’ deepest convictions when they’re vulnerable.

To “torment” someone who has deeply held beliefs with an offer of MAID is “an attack on their identity”, she said.

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Canadian Priest Offered Euthanasia Twice While Recovering From Hip Fracture (National Catholic Register/BC Catholic)