Canadian woman says she was offered assisted suicide for back pain

An 84-year-old Canadian woman said a doctor offered her assisted suicide shortly after she arrived at a hospital for back pain.

Miriam Lancaster said an ambulance took her to a Vancouver emergency room in 2025 after she woke up with severe pain. She recalled the encounter in an interview with “EWTN News Nightly.”

“The first person that I remember coming to speak to me was a young lady doctor. And this is where the story begins,” Lancaster said. “The very first thing she said to me was, ‘I would like to offer you MAID.’”

Canada legalized assisted suicide, which it calls Medical Assistance in Dying, a decade ago. Doctors and nurse practitioners can provide drugs to end a patient’s life.

Lancaster said she rejected the offer.

“I said, ‘No, thank you,’” she said. “I was certainly taken aback, and there were so many other things on my mind.”

She said she wanted answers about her condition.

“Yesterday I was feeling fine. I got out of bed this morning, and suddenly I am not feeling fine. I am in horrendous pain. So I need to know what’s causing the pain. Let’s not talk about end of life, please,” she said.

Lancaster said her husband faced the same situation.

“My husband, three years previously, had also been offered MAID. He turned it down,” she said. “As practicing Catholics, there is no way that we are going to take measures to end our life. That is in the hands of the Lord.”

Doctors later found a small fracture in her sacrum. She spent weeks recovering and returned home.

“When I got home, I thought, ‘Oh, I’ve been given a second chance here. I am going to make the most of whatever time is left,’” she said.

Amanda Achtman of Dying to Meet You said Lancaster’s case reflects a broader issue.

Achtman said the story spread quickly across global media because many people reacted with anger to the idea that someone with so much life ahead of her would be offered death.

“People who are opting for MAID are being killed by having a lethal injection administered by a doctor or nurse directly,” she said. “And now in Canada, one in 20 deaths is the result of this premature hastening of an end of life.”

“Now, bringing up euthanasia is not prohibited in Canada,” she said. “However, what I would stress is that simply having euthanasia offered already kills a person, because it deflates and defeats a person’s sense of self-worth, self-esteem, and of value.”