DEPROGRAMMED: A 'kind offer' of death sent this couple running from universal health care
"They should be focusing on treating people and helping people live, but instead they've expanded the system as a kind offer because they pretty much assume you're going to die," he continued.
Key points
- Kristin Logan and Donovan James say they moved to Canada with their sights set on the financial and medical benefits of publicly funded healthcare — but say they encountered a "dystopian" system that offered medically assisted death before cancer treatment, prompting them to return to the United States.
- MAID — Canada's medical assistance in dying program — is described by Health Canada as "a health service that allows eligible people to receive help from a medical practitioner in ending their life." According to Kristin and Donovan, MAID was the best initial solution Canada offered to her upon her diagnosis.
- "Americans don't get enough Canadian news to know just how much Canadian healthcare has declined over the last couple [of] decades.
SON SOUNDS ALARM AFTER FATHER'S MEDICALLY ASSISTED DEATH IN CANADA: WAY PAST APPROPRIATE' Logan said she was first diagnosed in September 2023, leaving Canada later that month to get initial treatment.
Additional details
- The Atlantic has reported that MAID now accounts for about one in 20 deaths in Canada, "surpassing countries where assisted dying has been legal for far longer," with some raising concerns the program has become too expansive.
- Logan had multiple emergencies and hospital trips during her time in Canada when a second bowel obstruction shifted her and her family’s fight or flight into overdrive to find a plan to save her life.
- I was only 43 years old when I was given this diagnosis… It made me very angry that I had been chasing this disease for nine months and had been stymied at just about every turn by the healthcare system in Canada," Logan continued.
- CANCER TREATMENT DELAYS SURGE ACROSS US AS DOCTOR WARNS SYSTEM ‘NEEDS FIXING IMMEDIATELY’ James said Canadian medical providers told the family there were "no plan[s] to operate on her," that a hospital helicopter was unavailable for a transfer to Vancouver and that a doctor advised Logan to "leave the country" if she had the means.
- It's pretty dystopian to think about now, to get information about ways that I can end my life and what the end of my life looks like before I'd even gotten an oncology appointment," Logan continued.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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