As Canada prepares to expand its euthanasia law to include those with mental illness, some Canadians – including many of the country’s doctors – question whether the country’s assisted death programme has already moved too far, too fast.
Dr Madeline Li can recall the first patient she helped die, about one month after Canada first legalised euthanasia in 2016. “I remember just how surreal it was,” she said.
A psychiatrist at Toronto’s Princess Margaret Hospital, she recalled checking on her patient that day, asking if she had the right music and final meal, and if she was sure she wanted to go ahead. The patient, in her mid-60s and suffering from ovarian cancer, said she was.
Five minutes later, the woman was dead.
