Choosing a Gentle Death

In Canada, it has been legal to end your own life since 1972.  However, because we do not have medically-assisted dying, it can be difficult for individuals to achieve a peaceful death.

Provided you are a member and meet our eligibility criteria, Dying With Dignity can provide you with information and emotional support.

Once we have determined your eligibility for support, our first step  is to ensure you are aware of all of your end of life options. 

In a way, we think of ourselves as a suicide prevention service.  Many people contact us to explore ending their lives; once we've given them information about all their options, they often realize that hastening their death is not their best option.

If you are eligible for our support and after being made aware of all your choices, you still wish to hasten their death, we make sure you  have the information to do so peacefully and effectively.  If you wish, we can also be with you at your bedside when you die.

To be eligible for our full support you must be a mentally-competent adult with a medically-diagnosed terminal or a medically-diagnosed  incurable progressive physical illness and your suffering must be unbearable to you.

We will require written documentation of your diagnosis from your doctor as part of our admission process.

Members that do not clearly meet the eligibility criteria for admission to the full Client Support Program may still be eligible for support for hastening through voluntary stopping of eating and drinking (VSED).

Such support is available for individuals who otherwise meet our criteria but where there is some question of capacity (such as individuals experiencing symptoms of dementia). VSED is also available to individuals who do not meet our medical criteria but who are nevertheless experiencing intolerable and intractable suffering.

For more information on Voluntary Stopping of Eating and Drinking or to download a detailed fact sheet on this subject, please see our information on understanding all your end of life options.
 

We are not an emergency service.  If this is an emergency, please proceed to your nearest emergency department or call for an ambulance.

We will try and respond within two business days to any requests.  Note that it generally takes at least six weeks, and frequently longer, for an individual to complete all the requirements to be accepted as a full client of DWD.

We want our services to be available to everyone, regardless of their financial situation, so we do not charge for our Client Support Program. Most of the members and families who use the program do choose to make a charitable donation, either directly or from their estate, to cover the costs of the program and to ensure we’ll be here to help others in the future.

We do require that any potential client first becomes a member of DWD, however if you have financial concerns, you can join as a compassionate (pay-what-you-can) member.

We only support adults who are mentally competent.  Individual's with Alzheimer's Disease or other dementia related disorders generally lose their competence in stages, and can retain competence in some areas after they have lost it in others.  For example, in the early stages of Alzheimer's many people retain their competence to make personal health decisions even if they have lost their competence in other areas, such as financial decision making.

Where an individual has a dementia-related diagnosis, we require that they obtain a capacity assessment before they are admitted to the program.  Generally, we will support people in the early stages of Alzheimer's or other demential related disorders, but only through voluntary stopping of eating and drinking (VSED).  By putting this limitation in place, we ensure that we support only those who are  competent at the time of their hastening.

That said, you still have options.  If your mother wouldn't have wanted to be kept alive in this condition, you can certainly refuse any medical treatment (other than comfort care) on her behalf.  For example, if she developed an infection you could refuse any antibiotics.  Similarly, you could refuse a flu shot or other preventative treatment that might prolong her life.

To obtain further information, contact our Client Support Program at our National Office.  You can reach us at or by calling 1 800 495 6156.

Please note that our Client Support Program is a member-only program, you must join Dying With Dignity Canada to access our services.   (We will never turn you away because of inability to pay, if finances are a concern you can join as a compassionate member on a pay what you can basis).