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The family of an 83-year-old Canadian grandmother has alleged that she was euthanised despite previously rejecting assisted suicide on religious grounds and later expressing distress about the decision.
Brigitte Stegemann, known to her family as “GG,” died through Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) programme on 10th July.
Stegemann, a devout Christian, had been diagnosed with stage-four stomach cancer around five months earlier and had lived in an Ontario long-term care facility for two years.
According to a public statement from her family, assisted suicide was first raised around two months before her death. They claim Stegemann clearly rejected it, saying MAID conflicted with her Christian faith.
Her granddaughter, Brigitte Kranendonk, held power of attorney and was the primary family contact concerning her care.
In the weeks before Stegemann’s death, the family said she became extremely weak and largely unresponsive, leading them to question whether she had the mental capacity to make a decision about assisted suicide.
During a subsequent assessment, Stegemann incorrectly told a doctor she had one sibling when she was actually one of 14 children.
Despite this, according to the family, the physician concluded: “I have deemed her capable of making her own decisions.”
This happened whilst her granddaughter, the aforementioned legal power of attorney, was on holiday. Stegemann agreed to MAID then, with her family subsequently saying she appeared to not understand what this meant.
When Kranendonk asked whether she was certain she wanted to proceed, Stegemann reportedly responded with words to the effect of: “I’m going to die Friday? They’re going to kill me Friday?”
According to the family, she then wept for an extended period and repeatedly said that she had “made a mistake.”
Nevertheless, her death remained scheduled for 10th July.
The family spent Stegemann’s final hours with her, taking her outside for fresh air and strawberry ice cream before she was returned to the facility and connected to an intravenous line.
The family said that when they were later called into the room, they encountered what they described as an alarming amount of blood on Stegemann, her bedding, and the surrounding area.
She died shortly afterwards, with her family saying her hands remained “tightly clasped together in a fixed prayer position.”
Alex Schadenberg, from Canada’s Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, said: “When euthanasia is legalised it becomes very difficult to protect family from being killed. The concept of a free and competent request becomes questionable especially when a person is not really competent but still capable of responding.”
He continued, “The other key problem is that some pro euthanasia medical staff normalise killing as a “good” act. Dead people don’t complain about the killing and families suffer from the deadly loss.”
SPUC will fight to stop the sick stories from Canada becoming a reality here.
