“One Hundred Twenty Nine Thousand Six Hundred Minutes”: A poem about MAID eligibility under the proposed Bill C-7

Ernest Frederiksen is an Alberta man who lives in chronic, excruciating pain from fibromyalgia. He is not eligible for MAID under Bill C-14 and has written a poem in response to the tabled assisted dying legislation. This poem responds to the part of Bill C-7 that would require those like him whose deaths are not reasonably foreseeable to go through a 90-day waiting period after the first assessment. You can read his other DWDC blog posts by clicking here and here.

One Hundred Twenty Nine Thousand Six Hundred Minutes

By Ernest Frederiksen

I’ve run out of time,
I’ve suffered enough,
Ninety torturous days is a crime,
A painless death need not be this tough.

The seconds seem like minutes,
The minutes stretch endlessly on,
No one can be pushed beyond human limits,
Two thousand one hundred sixty hours is an eon.

The clock hands move slower every day,
The torment grows worse every week,
For every action in pain I pay,
My every nerve emits a continuous shriek.

No one applies on a whim,
We apply as a last resort,
When the future is all to grim,
Bill C-7 simply comes up short.

Agony does not wait for the clock,
Pain waits for no calendar date,
I continue to suffer while politicians talk,
What right have you to delay my final fate?