Why an Ontario couple is leading MAID lawsuit before B.C. Supreme Court

Gaye and Jim O’Neill have spent countless hours thinking about their daughter’s final hours in April 2023. It’s a memory they say they’d wish on no one - and it’s the reason why they joined a years-long legal campaign to change the way medical assistance in dying is delivered in British Columbia. The O’Neills are at the centre of a Charter of Rights challenge, now before the B.C. Supreme Court, that seeks to end the practice of so-called “forced transfers” - compelling patients to leave faith-based medical facilities before receiving medical assistance in dying. Sam O’Neill died with medical assistance at age 34, roughly a year after she was diagnosed with cervical cancer that had spread to other parts of her body. Her family remembers Sam, the eldest of three children, as stubborn and fiercely independent, kind and encouraging. She loved animals - so much so that she tried to convince loved ones to take up her vegan lifestyle. “She would stick up for the rights of animals, but she also stuck up for the rights for people. She never wanted a bad word about people,” said Gaye O’Neill. Sam travelled the world before moving from her home province of Ontario to Vancouver, where she built a rich life with a close-knit circle of friends. She wrote a travel blog, which Gaye said was “hysterically funny.” Sam was active: she played soccer and hockey as a kid, and her kind nature and big heart endeared her to teammates. She logged a personal best time in her 10th marathon in California in December 2021. So it was a shock to her parents when, just four months later in April 2022, they learned she was sick. Gaye and Jim flew to Vancouver on May 1 to see her. “She was supposed to be running (a marathon) that day, but she was in a hospital with cancer. So it was terrible,” Jim said. She went through chemotherapy and radiation treatments, spending that year in and out of Vancouver’s St. Paul’s Hospital. The hospital is operated by Providence Health Care Society, a Catholic organization that runs 18 health care facilities in the Vancouver area. Get weekly health news Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy . Sam was assessed for medical assistance in dying, better known as MAID, early in 2023 - something she didn’t tell her family about in advance. “I was talking to her over the phone. She said she qualified for MAID and I thought she was getting someone to clean her house,” Jim said. Sam wanted the option of MAID in the event that things got worse, he said. Things got worse in March 2023. Sam hurt herself while unpacking from a move, her parents said, and she was taken back to St. Paul’s by ambulance. Over the next several weeks, the staff tried to help her manage the pain. “I remember one palliative care doctor saying, ‘She’s on as high a dosage that’s safe. We can’t give her more pain...

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