With assisted death, Christian clergy face profound questions

Peter McQuaid was scheduled to die the following Monday, but first he wanted to see a priest.

His wife, Connie, was apprehensive. The Catholic Church had staked its opposition to medical assistance in dying, the course Peter planned to take. As she put it, "MAID is not for everybody." Still, she reached out to a priest she knew.

He agreed to come to the McQuaid home in the town of Souris, P.E.I. He heard Peter's confession in the living room and anointed him with oil, a Catholic ritual known as the sacrament of the sick.

"He felt as part of being a priest, he was to be supportive of the person in their journey, in their life, not necessarily agreeing or disagreeing with what their decision was," Connie said in an interview.

"And I thought, 'Oh, this is just what we need to hear.' We just felt like he was supporting people. Peter wasn't asking his permission, but he just wanted that peace with the church."

Peter McQuaid, facing the prospect of a dreadful decline from Alzheimer's disease, chose an assisted death in February 2020. But the priest who agreed to visit a few days prior and give the sacraments also made a choice, whatever his misgivings, and those of his church, with MAID.

Peter's funeral, officiated by another priest, was held in the local Catholic church, an imposing gothic revival sandstone building on the north side of town. He is buried in the graveyard across the street.

Nearly 45,000 Canadians died through MAID between 2016, the year it became legal in Canada, and 2022. It has been widely discussed and debated, and continues to be controversial, especially as eligibility has expanded.

But an often overlooked aspect has been the profound effect it has had on some Christian clergy and chaplains. Many who had not previously given the idea deep thought were now confronted with patients and parishioners choosing MAID.

Some have embraced it. Others have rejected it on theological grounds, such as sanctity of life principles. Still others view spiritual care as a duty, no matter the decisions of the patient. Many wrestle with it.

David Maginley, a former chaplain in the Halifax hospital system who has sat at the deathbeds of hundreds of people, vividly remembers attending his first MAID in 2017.

The patient's body was withered by end-of-life cancer, but he had "shining eyes." The disease would kill him soon, likely within a week, but he didn't want to wait.

As the two talked, the man spoke of a childhood memory of lying in the grass, staring at the sky and eating a Jos Louis cake. Maginley popped out and bought him one.

Just hours later, with his wife holding him, the patient was injected with the drugs that would take his life. Maginley recalls him saying: "I love you and goodbye, thank you."