A severely disabled Canadian man named Roger Foley has gone public with a plea for help. He claims that doctors and hospital staff are pressuring him to choose assisted suicide (MAiD – Medical Assistance in Dying) – something that is directly against his wishes.
Foley, who is entirely dependent on assistance for every aspect of daily life, says he is being denied the basic care and support he needs in order to live. He has repeatedly rejected MAiD, but hospital staff continue to pressure him towards “assisted suicide” – and not merely verbally; they are placing obstacles in the way of his access to food, water, medication, and safe personal care. He describes the situation as pressure to “choose death”; it is cheaper and easier for the system than providing him with the assistance he needs in order to live.
Death – an “offer” to people in need of care
Foley suffers from a serious degenerative illness that leaves him entirely dependent on care. An extreme neurological sensitivity to light means that he cannot tolerate the fluorescent and halogen lighting used inside the hospital. He depends on low-intensity yellow light in order to see, eat, drink, and take medication safely:
– Last year, the hospital abruptly and insensitively removed the specialised lighting adaptations that I had depended on for years.
Foley has spent around ten years at the London Health Sciences Centre in Ontario. He says he is trapped in the hospital because the public authorities refuse to provide him with home nursing care.
He has repeatedly requested adapted housing and support in order to live a genuinely dignified life, but instead he says hospital staff are pressuring him to choose what they describe as a “dignified” death – namely MAiD. Foley has documented conversations in which doctors presented death as the only genuinely “dignified” solution in a case such as his.
In interviews and videos, he asks for basic human assistance – not assisted death. He stresses that he wants to live, but that the system is working against him.
It would be great if the Canadian medical system stopped trying to kill people with disabilities.
This is Roger Foley, a Canadian man who has been offered euthanasia “multiple times."pic.twitter.com/1gxMGK3Omg
— Billboard Chris 🌎 (@BillboardChris) October 28, 2024
The case casts a harsh light on Canada’s euthanasia regime, which is one of the most “inclusive” in the world. Economic considerations and a lack of care services are, according to critics, turning death into an “offer” for people in need of care. People with disabilities, mental illness, and those living in poverty are increasingly being recommended MAiD.
What began as a “right to die” for the terminally ill has developed into a substitute for genuine care.
Foley explains his situation on a new GoFundMe page, where he is asking for financial assistance to gain access to the bare essentials in his struggle to survive – food, water, medication, and personal safety.