Family learns hospice bed opened as father faced scheduled assisted suicide

As New Yorkʼs Medical Aid in Dying Act takes effect amid legal challenges, one Canadian woman is sharing her familyʼs experience with physician-assisted suicide, saying it convinced her that vulnerable patients need greater access to hospice and palliative care — not assisted death.

Speaking with “EWTN News Nightly” in an Aug. 5 interview with host Veronica Dudo, Colleen De Vos recounted the final months of her father’s life. He died through Canadaʼs medical assistance in dying (MAID) program in 2023 at age 85 after being diagnosed with terminal chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

“My father wasnʼt very forthcoming with his intentions, unfortunately,” De Vos said. “We did see some very fragile moments during the course of his illness.”

As his condition worsened, De Vos said her family worked to arrange hospice or in-home palliative care, believing those services would provide the compassionate support he needed.

“We were advocating very strongly for hospice care or at-home palliative program,” she said. “He seemed to agree with that.”

But the familyʼs efforts were unsuccessful.

“He was turned down on two occasions, deeming that his diagnosis wasnʼt enough to warrant hospice care,” De Vos said. “That was a surprise to us because we could see he was deteriorating very quickly.”

Instead, she said, a nurse practitioner overseeing his care at home spoke privately with her father about pursuing MAID as his symptoms worsened.

De Vos said the contrast between accessing hospice and obtaining assisted suicide was striking.

“The irony of the availability of MAID that could be arranged very quickly …  sidelined us very much,” she said.

She recalled receiving “literally the cardboard box in the mail” containing the drugs and supplies needed for the procedure.

“Obtaining [hospice care] was very difficult,” she said. “And this was very simple.”

On the day her father was scheduled to die, De Vos said the family finally learned that a hospice bed had become available.

She called it “very heartbreaking” that he declined the hospice bed.

“I think he proceeded because of his loss of hope,” she said. “We absolutely were prepared to provide him with round-the-clock care.”

Religious freedom challenge in New York

De Vos’ story comes as Catholic ministries in New York are challenging the stateʼs new assisted suicide law in federal court.

Speaking on Aug. 5 with “EWTN News Nightly,” Adele Keim, senior counsel at Becket Fund, said New Yorkʼs law differs significantly from those in states such as Oregon and Washington.

“New York has created an opt-out law,” Keim said. “The presumption is youʼre in unless you opt out.”

While some providers may decline to prescribe or administer the lethal drugs, Keim argued that Catholic ministries are still required to participate in other aspects of the process.

“You canʼt opt out of your obligations to counsel patients about assisted suicide and the ‘benefits’ it would provide,” she said. Nor can Catholic providers refuse to refer patients elsewhere if they object to assisted suicide on religious grounds, she said.

Keim said those requirements prompted the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne and other Catholic ministries to seek relief in federal court.

Hope, dignity, and the court’s decision

She also spoke with hope in a federal judgeʼs decision to temporarily block New York from enforcing the law against the Catholic plaintiffs while the case proceeds.

“The right to assisted suicide is not a fundamental right,” Keim said, noting that both the U.S. Supreme Court and New Yorkʼs highest court have ruled there is no constitutional right to assisted suicide. “But… there is a fundamental right to religious freedom.”

According to Keim, the injunction ensures the state cannot enforce the law against the Catholic ministries while their constitutional claims are considered.

The Catholic Church teaches that assisted suicide and euthanasia are gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person while encouraging compassionate palliative and hospice care that accompanies patients through natural death.

De Vos said she hopes lawmakers instead “think about the sacred gift of life that we are given by God,” adding: “I donʼt believe that itʼs up to the lawmakers… to give someone the autonomy to end their life.”

Source: https://www.ewtnnews.com/world/us/family-learns-hospice-bed-opened-as-father-faced-scheduled-assisted-death