My spouse lived for years with a progressive neurodegenerative illness (Parkinson’s Disease). She was clear about how she wanted her life to end. Dignity, to her, meant deciding what level of suffering she would accept.

Months before she died, she lost decision-making capacity. From that point on, her previously expressed wishes could no longer be carried out. Because she could not confirm them at the end, they no longer counted.

In the final two weeks of her life, her brain no longer allowed awareness, recognition, or communication. Her eyes were open, but there was no presence behind them. The person who had once reasoned, chosen, and spoken was gone. During the final week of her life she became more and more unresponsive to her surroundings. I would describe her state as being that of someone in a coma. She was breathing on her own, her eyes were open but there was no response to any stimuli. The phrase “wither away and die” became very real to me.

Her body continued.

Apparently this was not rare or surprising. In advanced neurological disease, the mind often fails before the body does.

What followed was not meaningful life. It was prolonged biological function after consciousness and agency had already disappeared.

Advance requests for MAID are not permitted under current federal rules. Once capacity is lost, earlier instructions lose their force. For people with illnesses that predictably erase cognition, this creates a hard truth: the very decline they feared is what silences them.

No clinician failed us. Care was provided within existing limits. The outcome flowed from the structure itself.

Picture someone you love in a state with no awareness, no interaction, no self — yet breathing, sustained, continuing. Picture knowing they foresaw this and tried to prevent it. Picture being unable to honour that choice. That was me.

This is not hypothetical. It is foreseeable. It is happening.

Advance requests would not force anyone to choose MAID. They would allow capable individuals to decide, in advance, the point at which continued existence no longer reflects the life they consider dignified.

Without that option, disease dictates the ending.

If you believe prior, competent wishes should still matter after capacity is gone, speak up. Contact your elected officials. Raise the issue publicly. Policy changes only when people insist on it.

One day, but hopefully not, this may be personal.

The question is whether the law will respect the person — or only preserve the body.

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If you support advance requests, speak up. Get involved. Make your voice heard. We encourage you to write your MPP/MLA or even better, set up an in-person meeting or phone call, express your support for advance requests.