Alberta Father Fights to Save His Autistic Daughter From Canada’s MAiD System
When autism becomes a death sentence
In a heartbreaking and highly controversial case, an Alberta father is fighting to save his 28-year-old autistic daughter from Canada’s assisted suicide system — and losing.
Wade (a pseudonym due to a publication ban) was blindsided when his daughter, Marge, informed him she had been approved for Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD). Diagnosed only with autism and ADHD, Marge had no physical illness. Yet, within 24 hours of assessment, a family doctor practicing with Alberta Health Services (AHS) declared her terminally ill — a designation challenged by her neurologist and vigorously opposed by her parents.
Despite Wade’s desperate legal efforts, including a last-minute injunction and over $150,000 in legal fees, the courts ultimately deferred to doctors. A judge acknowledged concerns about improper assessments but ruled that only criminal prosecution after death could address possible errors. This decision underscores growing fears among disability advocates that Canada’s euthanasia laws are dangerously broad and lack safeguards, especially for vulnerable populations.
Since MAiD was legalized, Canada has widened access — from terminal illness to chronic disability, and by 2027, mental illness alone. Disability rights groups warn this is turning assisted suicide into a default path for those failed by support systems, not medical necessity.
Wade’s daughter has now been approved a third time. Her death could come at any moment — and her father can only wait, devastated and powerless, in what he calls a system “more committed to delivering death than protecting health.”
Sources:
Original article by Alexander Raikin, Unherd
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Blog
WATCH “A Canadian Culling” on The Highwire:
Angelina Ireland, Executive Director of the Delta Hospice Society and a cancer survivor, exposes the chilling expansion of Canada’s assisted suicide program, MAiD. She shares how her hospice was stripped of funding and property after refusing to offer euthanasia—what she calls a “culling” of the vulnerable, masked as compassion. Her powerful testimony reveals a system that fast-tracks death while denying basic care.
*************************************************************************************************