{"id":267220,"date":"2022-05-03T10:45:49","date_gmt":"2022-05-03T15:45:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=267220"},"modified":"2022-05-02T22:20:38","modified_gmt":"2022-05-03T03:20:38","slug":"police-investigating-assisted-suicide-concussion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/police-investigating-assisted-suicide-concussion\/","title":{"rendered":"Police investigating after woman gets assisted suicide following concussion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Police are investigating after two Canadian women are claiming that their mother received assisted suicide despite the fact that her mental health should have disqualified her from the procedure.<\/p>\n

According to CTV News<\/a>, Alicia and Christie Duncan have requested a police investigation into the death of their mother, Donna Duncan, who died by assisted suicide in October 2021 under the country’s Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD) laws. The sisters say that their mother suffered a concussion in a car accident in 2020 that left her acting “out of character.”<\/p>\n

Alicia and Christie explained that the COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted the treatment Donna was able to receive following her accident.\u00a0“It was March and that’s when the COVID shutdown happened. So she didn’t have treatment for months and months,” said Christie. Their mother had symptoms consistent with post-concussion syndrome, and she suffered from irritability, anxiety, and depression. She also started losing weight and refused to stay on medication for any significant length of time.<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Pro-euthanasia group wants to force religious medical facilities to commit assisted suicide<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

After a year of undergoing tests, no specific cause of her physical pain was identified, but Donna’s condition worsened. At that time, she asked her physician,\u00a0Dr. Parin Patel, to approve her for MAiD, but he refused, noting that Donna’s\u00a0“mental health really needs to be treated.” Donna was then referred to a psychiatrist,\u00a0\u00a0Dr. Abid Khattak, who also noted that Donna needed to give medication a chance to work. His notes from the time state, \u201cher feeling that this is all physical is so strong that unless she is made aware that treating the mental health condition is a process and takes time\u2026 it would take weeks to months to realize the improvements.\u201d<\/p>\n