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Why an Ontario couple is leading a court battle to change MAID in B.C.
The O'Neills seek to end policies allowing faith-based facilities to refuse medical assistance in dying, citing their daughter’s painful transfer and sedation before death in 2023.
- On Jan. 13, 2026, Gaye and Jim O'Neill, Ontario couple and plaintiffs, joined a Charter challenge before the B.C. Supreme Court seeking to end so-called 'forced transfers' in medical assistance in dying .
- Sam O'Neill, who was diagnosed roughly a year before her death, died with medical assistance at age 34 after her condition worsened in March–April 2023.
- Family members say Sam O'Neill's final hours were agonizing as transfer logistics impeded goodbyes; Gaye and Jim O'Neill recall finding her on a commode wrapped in a sheet, heavily sedated for the transfer to St. Paul’s Hospital and not waking again.
- Because Providence does not permit MAID in its hospitals, Sam was transferred to St. John Hospice, Vancouver, where MAID is allowed in a room run by Vancouver Coastal Health Authority.
- University of Ottawa law professor Daphne Gilbert recruited the family, and supported by Dying With Dignity Canada and Dr. Jyothi Jayaraman, the case challenges whether institutions share Charter freedom-of-religion rights and may reach the Supreme Court of Canada.
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Total News Sources4
Leaning Left1Leaning Right0Center3Last UpdatedBias Distribution75% Center
Bias Distribution
- 75% of the sources are Center
75% Center
L 25%
C 75%
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