Price Carter plans to die this summer.
The 68 -year -old man has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in stage 4. He knows that he will eventually take his life; Before he does, he intends to die in his own terms with his family by his side.
“They told me at the beginning: ‘This is palliative care, there is no cure for this.’
Carter said he has always known that medical assistance to die would be an option “to exercise if it could, if necessary.”
He has that option, in large part, due to his mother.
The name of Kay Carter is in the historic case of the Supreme Court of Canada that gave the Canadians the right to choose a medically assisted death just over a decade ago.
Price has finished a first evaluation of its eligibility for the procedure and said that it hopes that the second evaluation will be completed this week, clearing the way for its life to end. He spoke openly and quietly about his last days and his decision.
“I’m at peace with this, I’m really, and I would have been years ago,” he said.
It has been almost a year since the price began to experience symptoms and obtained a diagnosis. Until a couple of months ago, he said, I was swimming and rowing. He and his wife Danielle went to golf recently, playing the best ball.
“She dragged me for that course,” he said with a smile.
But his energy is starting to fade. He knows how he wants the next step to develop.
The family fought for the mother
More than 15 years ago, Price, along with her sisters Marie and Lee and her brother -in -law Hollis, she was subject to Switzerland to be with her mother on her last day.
The 89 -year -old man lived with spinal stenosis and decided to go to a non -profit center abroad that provided a medically assisted death. It became the Canadian tenth to do so.
At that time, assisted death was illegal in Canada.
Kay Carter wrote a letter explaining his decision and his family helped write a list of about 150 people to send it after his death. He could not tell them his plans in advance due to the risk that the Canadian authorities tried to prevent him from going to Switzerland, or processing the family members who helped her.
When he arrived at the Dignitas facilities, the paperwork ended, he settled in a bed and pursued the barbiturate that would stop his heart with Swiss chocolate.
“When he died, he simply folded softly,” said Price.
After a few minutes, one of the assistants of the installation approached the door, “and the curtains left, and she says:” There, her spirit is free, “he said.
“If I were writing the movie, I wouldn’t change that.”
He said the memory makes him cry today, although not for sadness. Cancer and treatment have excited him: the experience itself was beautiful.
“I wish my children to see my death as I did my mother’s,” he said. He wants his wife, Danielle, and his children are there for their final moments.
His children, Lane, Grayson and Jenna, live in Ontario. Everyone is busy, he said, so when it is correct, he will try to find an appointment that works for everyone.
For now, he is reading a lot.
“I will move on, day by day and enjoying my Danielle.”
Long road after 2010
The Carter family had a long way after Kay’s death in January 2010.
His eldest daughter Lee was the driving force behind taking the case to the Supreme Court, which issued a unanimous decision in early 2015 that annulled sections of the Criminal Code that made illegal help someone end their life.
In 2016, the Federal Government approved legislation that created the country’s regime for medical assistance in death and legalized it to people whose deaths were “reasonably predictable” to request an evaluation.
After a 2019 ruling in the Superior Court of Quebec determined that it was unconstitutional to restrict assisted death to people whose deaths were reasonably predictable, the liberal government updated the law in 2021.
This update included a controversial clause that would allow people suffering only from a mental disorder to be considered eligible for assisted death. The proposed change caused a generalized concern between the provinces and some mental health professionals, and has now been delayed until March 2027.
Meanwhile, Health Canada has been studying what Canadians think of allowing people to request medical assistance to die through an early request.
Applications for anticipation would allow people with Alzheimer’s, dementia or other degenerative conditions to make the application and decide when they would like to finish their lives.
Price said the change “is so simple to do.”
“We are excluding a large number of Canadians from a maid option because they can have dementia and they will not be able to make that decision in three or four or two years. How scary, how anxiety inductor would be that,” he said.
He admitted to feel frustrated by the rhythm of change, although he said that he knows that his attitude of “Laissez-Faire” towards death is rare.
The federal government says that it will not interfere with the new Quebec law, which allows people to make early medical assistance applications (maid), although some doctors in the province oppose.
Helen Long, the president of Dying With Dignity Canada, said that numerous federal consultations have shown that there is broad support, which dates back to 2016, for early applications.
“We continue to advocate and ask our new government … to legalize the early requests for Canadians,” he said.
Quebec has approved legislation to allow people with serious and incurable diseases to request a medically assisted death in case they are incapacitated through an early request.
Marjorie Michel, who was recently appointed Minister of Health in the new government of Prime Minister Mark Carly, said in an interview that it is a matter of balance.
“It is very personal for people, and I think in some provinces they are not there yet,” he said.
But when asked if the government plans to allow early requests, she postponed her colleague in the Department of Justice. A spokesman for Justice, Sean Fraser, said Michel would be better positioned to respond.
Health Canada will publish a report with the key findings of your consultations on the matter this spring.
Medical assistance in death is becoming more common in Canada. In 2023, the last year for which national statistics are available, 19,660 people requested the procedure and just over 15,300 people were approved.
More than 95 percent of them were people whose deaths were considered reasonably predictable.
Price Carter said he wants to talk about his condition because he wants Canadians to talk about death, as uncomfortable as it is.
“The more conversations we can generate cooking tables, the better,” he said.
“We are all going to die. It is part of the condition of life. And yet we ignore this, for our danger.”
