{"id":313569,"date":"2024-06-10T12:56:15","date_gmt":"2024-06-10T17:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=313569"},"modified":"2025-03-06T21:06:57","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T03:06:57","slug":"healthcare-serial-killers-assisted-death-warns-ny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/healthcare-serial-killers-assisted-death-warns-ny\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Healthcare serial killers’: Man whose father died by assisted death in Canada warns New York against it"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

New York lawmakers are considering legalizing assisted suicide, and joining 10 states and the District of Columbia in allowing doctors to participate in the killing of their own patients. But as legislators consider legalization, one man whose father was euthanized in Canada is urging them to vote against it.<\/p>\n

Christopher Lyon, though originally from Canada, is a social scientist at the University of York in the United Kingdom. His father died under Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) program, which Lyon described<\/a> as horrific. He said his father had numerous health problems, albeit none terminal, and had been suicidal. As soon as he was able, his father applied for MAID and was approved. Lyon and his family tried to send information relating to his father’s medical state to the MAID assessors but hit obstacles along the way.<\/p>\n

“After he applied, my father seemed to move away from idealized suicide and, adopting the language of MAiD, claimed only vague ‘suffering’ as well as ‘autonomy’ as reasons, citing a changing series of minor complaints about leg pain, constipation, and how he felt that morning. He became elusive and angry when we queried him about remedies that doctors had offered for his ailments, including physiotherapy,” Lyon wrote, adding, “When, at last, I heard from Provider before his death, I asked if she had received our list of concerns and received an evasive response. The provider seemed to want to hurry off the phone and appeared to be in a busy place, like a hospital corridor, as I could hear voices in the background. I therefore only had a few seconds to describe my father\u2019s complex history.”<\/p>\n

Eventually, they were referred to a psychiatrist, but that did not help.<\/p>\n

\n

Christopher Lyon watched a doctor end his father’s life under Canada’s medical assistance in dying (MAID) program.<\/p>\n

Now he’s speaking out about the impact euthanasia has on family members. pic.twitter.com\/A9ny88pCcd<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Amanda Achtman (@AmandaAchtman) March 3, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n