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An elderly woman from Canada seeking relief for her back pain was caught off guard when a doctor proposed euthanasia during her emergency room visit.
Last April, 84-year-old Miriam Lancaster was taken to Vancouver General Hospital due to a fractured sacrum, an injury commonly seen in older adults.
To her disbelief, Lancaster recounted that the suggestion came almost immediately after her examination by the medical staff.
“A young female doctor approached me, and her first words were an offer for [euthanasia],” Lancaster shared in a video uploaded to X.
The former piano instructor, who was simply seeking an explanation for her discomfort, had never considered the option of medically-assisted death.
‘That was the last thing on my mind,’ Lancaster added. ‘I did not want to die.’
She said that she had been most upset by the ‘timing’ of the request.
‘A patient is already upset and disoriented and wishing they weren’t there,’ she told the National Post. ‘To give them a decision, a life-terminating decision, when they are in this condition, that’s what I object to.’
Miriam Lancaster, 84, said she was stunned when a doctor at Vancouver General Hospital offered her euthanasia after she went to the emergency department with a fractured sacrum
Lancaster said the timing of the suggestion bothered her the most, as she was already upset at being at the hospital
Lancaster added that she was not thinking about ‘cashing my chips,’ which her daughter agreed with.
‘To be offered [euthanasia] right off the bat for a non-life-threatening condition? It was a matter of pain management,’ she said. ‘Just because someone is 84 does not mean they’re ready to go on the scrap heap of life.’
She called the hospital’s treatment of her mother an ‘insult to seniors.’
Euthanasia is legal in Canada for those who are 18 and over, able to make decisions for themselves and have a ‘grievous and irremediable medical condition.’
That does not mean a fatal or terminal condition, but rather ‘an advanced state of decline that cannot be reversed’ or ‘unbearable physical or mental suffering.’
There have been 76,475 medically assisted deaths in the country since euthanasia was legalized in 2016, per the Canadian government.
Weaver said religious motives prevented her from accepting euthanasia, which is also known as medical aid in dying (MAID).
‘My mother and I are practicing Catholics,’ she said. ‘We would never accept MAID under any circumstances.’
Lancaster’s daughter claimed that other treatment options were only suggested after euthanasia was firmly rejected.
‘The doctor said, “Well, you could get rehab, but it will be a long road, and it will be very difficult,”‘ Weaver said.
Lancaster, a retired piano teacher, said she had a previous experience with a euthanasia offer around the time her husband John was dying in 2023
Lancaster’s daughter, Jordan Weaver, insisted that her mother was ‘not frail’ and remained active in her daily life
Lancaster chose that option and recovered well after 10 days at the hospital and roughly three weeks in a rehab program at Vancouver’s UBC Hospital.
Just six weeks after the fracture, she walked her daughter down the aisle at her wedding.
She has also taken trips to Cuba, Mexico and Guatemala since her injury.
Most recently, Lancaster hiked and rode on horseback up Guatemala’s Pacaya volcano, which rises 8,373 feet.
‘My mother is not frail,’ Weaver said. ‘She’s a dynamo. She reads books. She goes to the theatre. She’s alert.’
Weaver added that Lancaster took the public bus on her own and remained ‘active’ in her day-to-day.
‘Her life is valuable to the people who care for her,’ she said.
In a video posted on X, Lancaster said euthanasia was ‘the last thing on my mind’ and that she had never considered a medically-assisted death
Vancouver Coastal Health, which oversees Vancouver General Hospital, said it was ‘not aware of a conversation between the patient and … physicians’ related to euthanasia
Lancaster shared that she had a previous experience with a euthanasia offer around the time her husband John died from metastatic cancer in 2023.
She recalled that a doctor at Vancouver General Hospital was required by law to raise the suggestion after John collapsed at home.
‘Of course, he turned it down,’ Lancaster said. ‘We are churchgoers. We both are ready to go when the Lord calls us, and that’s what happened to him.’
Lancaster said she thought John’s death would be her last experience with euthanasia, she wrote in the Free Press.
She described how the doctor who made the suggestion to her ‘sounded eerily like the doctor who had offered it to my husband—as if she was reading from a script.’
‘She heard my refusal, took one look at my daughter’s and sister’s faces, and swiftly changed the subject,’ Lancaster added. ‘The polite, distinctly Canadian tone of the exchange made the situation seem all the more absurd.’
Still, she admitted that the ‘disturbing’ question left her stunned.
‘All I knew was that I was in tremendous pain and that a stranger had just suggested I might want to end my life,’ Lancaster said.
Weaver said the hospital’s treatment of her mother was an ‘insult to seniors’ and that her injury was simply a matter of pain management
Lancaster did not put in a complaint at the hospital when the alleged incident happened because she ‘wanted to forget about the whole incident and just get on with my life.’
‘I really didn’t want to hang people out to dry,’ she said.
Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), which oversees Vancouver General Hospital, said it was ‘committed to the health and safety of everyone in our care.’
‘While VCH is limited in what we can say due to patient privacy and confidentiality, we are not aware of a conversation between the patient and emergency department physicians at Vancouver General Hospital related to [MAID],’ they said in a statement to the National Post.
‘Staff may consider bringing up MAID based on their clinical judgement, provided they possess the necessary knowledge and skills to do so.’
The hospital claimed that emergency department staff were ‘not generally in a position to raise the topic of MAID with patients.’
‘We strongly encourage those who are concerned about their care to connect with our Patient Care Quality Office,’ VCH said.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Lancaster, Weaver and VCH for further comment.