The mother of a woman who was denied medical assistance in dying at a Catholic-run hospital in Vancouver says her daughter's final hour was "unbearably painful," and a legal challenge of St. Paul's policies is "built on her legacy."
Closing arguments in a lawsuit challenging "institutional religious obstruction" to medical assistance in dying at Catholic-run, publicly funded hospitals began in Vancouver Monday.
Samantha O'Neill had advanced cervical cancer when she chose medical assistance in dying in 2023, but St. Paul's Hospital is run by Providence Health Care, a Catholic provider that prohibits the procedure on religious grounds.
Patients who choose the procedure are transferred elsewhere, and the lawsuit alleges the transfers are harmful after O'Neill was sedated and taken to another facility in an ambulance, but never regained consciousness.
Gaye O'Neill says the transfer caused her daughter "unnecessary pain and suffering," and alleges St. Paul's Hospital imposed the Archbishop of Vancouver's beliefs to "impede" her daughter's access to the procedure.
Lawyer Robin Gage told the court that the practice of forcing transfers of patients who choose medical assistance in dying carries risks, and they "have no choice but to accept those risks” if they receive care at faith-based medical facilities.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
