Parents of Vancouver woman denied medically-assisted death at St. Paul's Hospital speak out
CTV
As they mourn their daughter, Sam O'Neill's parents are speaking out about the religious exemption for MAID at publicly-funded Providence Health Care hospitals that they think the provincial government should eliminate.
Sam O’Neill planned to spend her 34th birthday running the 2022 Vancouver Marathon. Instead, she was in a bed at St. Paul’s Hospital, having just been diagnosed with stage four cervical cancer.
Her parents, Jim and Gaye O’Neill, flew out from Ontario to be with their daughter for her final birthday. “She was optimistic there would be some treatment, it would be chemo and radiation,” said Jim.
But by the time it was detected, the cancer had already spread to Sam’s lymph nodes and pelvic bone. By early 2023, it was clear treatment would not save the young woman her parents say was fiercely independent.
“She wasn’t going to have anyone look after her, she was going to do it her way, all the way,” said Jim.
For Sam, that included choosing how and when she was going to die. In February, she was approved for Medical Assistance in Dying, or MAID.
“I mean I didn’t want her to go, obviously. If there was a chance, I would have discouraged her. But there was no choice,” said Sam’s mother Gaye. “She was in so much pain.”
After entering palliative care at St. Paul’s Hospital in downtown Vancouver in March, Sam learned she couldn’t have a medically-assisted death there, because the hospital falls under the umbrella of Providence Health Care, which is a Catholic organization that opposes MAID.
