Audrey Parker remembered as Nova Scotia changes assisted-dying law | Globalnews.ca

Audrey Parker’s parting words to the world nearly four years ago have changed the way Canadians perceive medically assisted death, and how they can access it in her home province of Nova Scotia.

Parker was diagnosed in 2016 with Stage 4 breast cancer.

Being terminally ill, Parker wanted to receive a medically assisted death (MAID), but the law at the time required the consent of MAID recipients right up until the moment of their death, regardless of whether their illness caused them to lose consciousness or mental cognition.

Parker died with MAID on Nov. 1, 2018 — sooner than she wanted to, because she feared she wouldn’t be able to give late-stage consent.

Kim King, a close friend of Parker, said it wasn’t an easy process.

“We’ll never know how long Audrey would have had. But it was so important for her to be able to use MAID that she made that difficult decision,” King said.

“The cancer was moving to the lining of her brain; she knew that she could lose capacity at any time.”

In her last message to the public, through a video posted three days before her death, Parker said: “My last wish is that you, my fellow Canadians, that you will help people who have been assessed and approved (for medically assisted dying) to live without fear of their rights being taken away.”

Parker said she did not want to lose her “choice of a beautiful, peaceful and, best of all, pain-free death.”

Now, her dying wish is officially part of Nova Scotia’s updated MAID policy.

The province announced on Tuesday that it is removing the requirement that someone’s natural death be “reasonably foreseeable” before they can access MAID. It also said it is adopting Audrey’s Amendment, eliminating the requirement that patients be completely conscious to provide consent at the time of death.

Parker’s legacy continues to inspire people across Canada who choose to pursue MAID. One of them is Nova Scotian Ron Posno, who lives with dementia.

“I don’t want to have to take it early like Audrey did,” Posno said.

“I want to take it when I’m no longer lucid, when I’m no longer rational, when I no longer recognize my wife that happens to be in the room with me.”

Nova Scotia Health’s MAID clinical lead Dr. Gord Gubitz said the new policy includes “a waiver of final consent.”

Audrey’s Amendment was federally legislated in 2021, though Nova Scotia just adopted it.

“In 2021 we had just over 500 referrals for consideration of medical assistance in dying, and we’re on track to eclipse that number again this year,” said Gubitz.

“I think the advantage is that it really leaves the person making the decision — the patient — in the driver seat for all of this and not be afraid that they will be denied having a medically assisted death, should their suffering reach a point where they require it.”

— with files from The Canadian Press.