The family of a Vancouver woman who was forced to transfer hospitals before she could receive medical assistance in dying (MAID) is suing the province of British Columbia and Providence Health Care, saying the health authority’s policy to ban MAID in its facilities violates patients’ Charter rights.
Gaye O’Neill, the mother of 34-year-old Samantha O’Neill, is the lead plaintiff in the case, along with Dr. Jyothi Jayaraman, a palliative care doctor who quit over Providence’s policy that bars patients from accessing MAID in its facilities.
Samantha O’Neill opted for end-of-life care in April 2023 after being diagnosed with Stage 4 cervical cancer.
She was being treated at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, but could not have the procedure to end her life there because the hospital is operated by Providence — a Catholic health organization that opposes the practice.
A statement of claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court on Monday morning states that O’Neill died hours after being heavily sedated to prepare her for the transfer to another facility.
“In the course of her transfer, Ms. O’Neill was first moved to a commode. The last time her parents saw her conscious and to say their final goodbyes was while Ms. O’Neill sat on the commode. She was then heavily sedated for the ambulance transfer,” reads the statement of claim.
“During the transfer, Ms. O’Neill was writhing and moaning in pain and had to receive a further injection of pain medication. She spent her last hours unable to see, hear or feel any of the people who had gathered to support her.
“Ms. O’Neill did not regain consciousness after being sedated for the ambulance trip.”
She died on April 4, 2023.
Lawsuit alleges physical, psychological suffering
The lawsuit alleges that while O’Neill ultimately had access to MAID, “the circumstances surrounding the forced transfer and Ms. O’Neill’s access to MAID caused and exacerbated Ms. O’Neill’s egregious physical and psychological suffering, and denied her a dignified death, including the ability to say goodbye to her family and loved ones.”
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
Providence Health said in a statement it is reviewing the court filing to determine next steps. It said while MAID is not available at its facilities, it works with Vancouver Coastal Health to ensure patient requests for MAID are addressed.
After pressure from O’Neill’s family and human-rights charity Dying with Dignity Canada, Health Minister Adrian Dix announced in November 2023 that his ministry had reached a deal with Providence that would allow St. Paul’s patients to access MAID in a clinical space next to the hospital that would be operated by Vancouver Coastal Health staff.
Dix said at the time the new dedicated space — once it’s up and running this fall — will allow patients to receive compassionate and dignified MAID services.
Dix told CBC News Monday he can’t comment on the court case but insisted the clinical space at St. Paul’s Hospital ensures patients have proper end-of-life care.
“My concern is to ensure that everyone has very good access to service. That service will be provided by Vancouver Coastal Health, not Providence Health Care.”
However, Dying with Dignity Canada and O’Neill’s parents are unhappy with the workaround.
They said Providence Health should not be receiving public funds if it refuses to provide a full suite of medical services.
O’Neill’s parents said that’s why the court challenge was the only option.
‘She died a miserable death’
Gaye and Jim O’Neill, who live in Campbellford, Ont., say they hope the court challenge will ensure no one else has to go through the suffering their daughter endured.
“She died a miserable death and it shouldn’t have been like that,” Jim O’Neill told CBC News Monday morning.
“She was an active, loving, vegan marathoner,” said Gaye O’Neill. “She had more friends than you could count. For her to arrive at dying by MAiD was not something she wanted at 34 years old. She just wanted to die with dignity.”
The lawsuit argues that B.C.’s policy, which allows Providence to deny MAID in its facilities, infringes on Canadians’ Charter rights and, as a result, should be struck down.
“Restrictions on the ability to access MAID interfere with the most fundamental life, liberty and security interests of vulnerable patients,” reads the statement of claim.
“Many individuals who are patients in facilities operated by faith-based organizations have no choice but to receive treatment there, even where they do not share the religious beliefs that ground the denial of access to MAID.”
Daphne Gilbert, a University of Ottawa law professor who assisted with the legal challenge, said there are similar faith-based organizations across Canada, so the judgment in B.C. could reverberate across the country.
“We argue this is the state imposing religious values on people who don’t share those convictions,” Gilbert said. “And those Charter arguments would be the same in any province that allows faith-based hospitals to dictate care.”
Federal legislation does not force any person or health-care provider to carry out medically assisted death since health providers have the right to conscientious objection.
The other plaintiff in the case, Vancouver-based palliative care doctor Jayaraman, says Providence’s policy resulted in “numerous cases where she was unable to provide appropriate end-of-life care consistent with a patient-centred approach because the patient was in a facility operated by PHC [Providence Health Care] which prohibits MAID from being provided on the basis of religious beliefs Dr. Jayaraman does not share.”
The documents state Jayaraman has witnessed forced transfers that “were not medically required or indicated and that imposed unbearable physical and psychological suffering on her patients.”
Dr. Jyothi Jayaraman, who says she quit her job at Vancouver hospice May’s Place because it was taken over by Catholic non-profit Providence Healthcare, is speaking out after reports that St. Paul’s Hospital, also overseen by Providence, denied a terminally ill patient access to medical assistance in dying for religious reasons.
Jayaraman said in January 2020 she was contracted by Vancouver Coastal Health to provide palliative care at May’s Place Hospice in Vancouver.
However, in January 2023, she was told the hospice would be taken over by Providence and she would be prohibited from providing MAID and patients who want it would have to transfer to another facility.
“She chose to resign on the basis that she could not serve her patients in the professional and ethical manner that she felt it was her duty to perform,” the court documents state.
Jayaraman told CBC News on Monday she has witnessed four forced transfers in the last week alone.
“And all of these are very sick patients,” she said. “The fundamental thing is, Providence’s religious beliefs are being inflicted on me. It’s not my belief that’s preventing me from providing the care I’m supposed to provide, legally and morally.”