Allison Ducluzeau was diagnosed with advanced abdominal cancer, which Canadian doctors told her was inoperable, and, instead of being given hope, she was offered assisted suicide. Two years later, Ducluzeau is in remission, and she is furious with the doctors who counselled death rather than treatment.
Following her diagnosis and being told she might only have months to live, Ducluzeau was faced with a terrible choice – she was eligible for assisted suicide under Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) scheme.
“The way it was presented was shocking”, she told UnHeard. “I was disgusted to be offered MAID twice. Once I was even on the phone… It left me sobbing.”
Ducluzeau says she might have opted for suicide if she didn’t have living children. “If I’d not had my children, I might have accepted MAiD… but when I saw the effect on them, having just been through the deaths of my own parents, it made me dig really deep.”
Refusing to accept death, Ducluzeau searched the world for a solution, even consulting doctors in Taiwan, until she found effective treatment in the United States. She is now in remission, though it was only made possible through crowdfunding. Ducluzeau has since got married.
The Canadian mother of two now warns the UK that legalising assisted suicide is a “very dangerous step to take… especially when it can be used to take a bit of pressure off physicians and the government….
“We deserve decent and timely care rather than offers of faster death.”
“No choice at all”
SPUC’s Michael Robinson, Executive Director (Public Affairs and Legal Services), said: “Allison Ducluzeau is not the first or the last Canadian to be pushed to commit suicide. Dan Quayle, from British Columbia, waited ten weeks for cancer treatment before turning to assisted suicide, which was granted to him in just two days.
“Liz Carr’s terrifying documentary also exposed the slippery slope in Canada which increasingly targets marginalised people. ‘Please, don’t allow this in the UK’, Carr begged viewers.
“If assisted suicide is legalised in the UK, it is inevitable that vulnerable people like Ducluzeau and Carr, who is disabled, would be pressured to ‘choose’ suicide either through neglect or fear of being a burden or being a drain on health services. This terrible choice is no choice at all, and we must allow it to happen here in Britain.”
Better Off Dead?
Liz Carr’s documentary Better Off Dead? aired on BBC One last week. Carr said: “These laws, I believe, will put lives like mine – marginalised lives – at risk, and those risks will be fatal… This is terrifying.”
Carr met a palliative care expert who told her that “coercion does happen… vulnerable being pressured into having assisted deaths… That’s the greatest harm, the most catastrophic risk, I would say, of changing the law.”
The actress also spoke to a disabled Canadian man who, when homeless, found he had no choice but to choose assisted suicide, especially when the waiting period was 90 days compared to ten years for social housing. Only a fundraising campaign saved his life.