The Right to Die: A Complex Issue and Individual Case

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NANCY VICKERS: I'm ready. I'm ready to go, so please let me go. It's just like the knot is getting looser. And just untie the knot and let me drift away. Please let me go.

HOST: That is Nancy Vickers. She was 64 years old when we met her, a free spirit who said she'd lived a good life. But then she was diagnosed with Parkinson's and slowly became a prisoner in her own body. She decided she wanted to die on her own terms. And she's one of more than 2,500 Canadians who have chosen a medically assisted death, not an easy decision, and just as difficult for some as finding a doctor willing to help. Kass Roussy has Nancy's Story.

[CHATTER]

JANE WATANABE: Let's come and eat.

NANCY VICKERS: Amazing, huh?

KAS ROUSSEY: There's a party going on in apartment 401.

JANE WATANABE: Fantastic. Nancy, [? Mark ?] the lobster's come.

[LAUGHTER]

NANCY VICKERS: A celebration of a life well lived. The guest of honor is Nancy Vickers.

FRIEND 1: Mm, I love Nancy. Nancy's been my friend since we were in our early, early 20s. We've shared many adventures and many memories. [LAUGHS]

DALIL KABBAGE: How would I describe Nancy? Classic but wild, a pure product of the '70s.

JANE WATANABE: [LAUGHING]

KAS ROUSSEY: The gathering is small but intimate. In just a few hours, Nancy will say her goodbyes, and with the help of a physician, will slip into a coma and die.

[FAN WHIRRING]

NANCY VICKERS: I was a beautiful young woman. I traveled a lot. See the design on the horses and their--

KAS ROUSSEY: Now 64, Nancy has lived an unconventional and colorful life. Who is this now?

NANCY VICKERS: That is me with my Moroccan boyfriend. That was in Marrakesh.

KAS ROUSSEY: You traveled a lot.

NANCY VICKERS: I've lived a good life. Look how fat I am.

KAS ROUSSEY: That's you?

NANCY VICKERS: Yes. [CHUCKLES]

KAS ROUSSEY: Whose tattoo is that?

NANCY VICKERS: That's mine. That's my bum.

KAS ROUSSEY: You're kidding.

NANCY VICKERS: No. That's when it was new. I don't know what it'll say now. [LAUGHING]

KAS ROUSSEY: Do you remember telling me-- over a decade ago, Nancy was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Is it hard for you to look at these photos?

NANCY VICKERS: Not at all. Parkinson's takes away your life, chisels it away, day by day, bit by bit. I loved cooking. Cooking was my thing. I can't even stand in the kitchen now and slice a cucumber.

KAS ROUSSEY: Alone in her small apartment with her beloved cats, Nancy's life is mostly confined to her sofa. She has few relatives.

JANE WATANABE: OK, Nancy.

NANCY VICKERS: Thank you, my sweet.

KAS ROUSSEY: But a cousin, Jane Watanabe, checks in on her every month or so and helps out with the chores.

NANCY VICKERS: This is delicious. Thank you, Jane.

JANE WATANABE: You're welcome.

KAS ROUSSEY: Ending her life on her own terms has always been her wish. So when medically assisted dying became law in Canada in 2016, she thinks she could get what she wants.

NANCY VICKERS: I've had such a full life. I mean, I am so lucky that I've been able to travel and have wonderful friends around the world and eat great food and drink great wines. I don't want to become the drooling vegetable mass that I sometimes do become already.

KAS ROUSSEY: With her condition worsening, Nancy needs a doctor who can help her. The first obvious choice was her family physician, Dr. Paul Cramer.

PAUL CRAMER: It was late last winter. She called me and asked me what I thought about it. And I said, I agree, and would I help her.

KAS ROUSSEY: But after consulting with a malpractice lawyer, he's told that her illness doesn't fit the new law's criteria that a death has to be reasonably foreseeable. So you believe Nancy has the right to die?

PAUL CRAMER: Legally, no, but morally, yes.

NANCY VICKERS: I'm not hurting anybody. I just want my peace and my quiet. And I want to stop this in this body that I don't recognize anymore.

KAS ROUSSEY: Without Dr. Cramer's help, Nancy has to find another doctor who will. With her cousin Jane, they begin to navigate through a bureaucratic provincial health care system and a medical community uncertain about their duty to their patients.

JANE WATANABE: I know for a lot of doctors right now, there has been this fear of litigation. It's all so new. It's so new.

NANCY VICKERS: Good to see you.

JANE WATANABE: Mm, you, too.

KAS ROUSSEY: Several phone calls to the provincial Ministry of Health finally gets Nancy the results she was looking for.

[ELEVATOR DINGS]

[DOOR OPENS]

DOCTOR: Good Morning, good morning. How are you feeling this morning?

NANCY VICKERS: I'm tired.

DOCTOR: You're looking tired.

NANCY VICKERS: I wish it was last month and not next month.

DOCTOR: Mm, yes.

NANCY VICKERS: I really do.

KAS ROUSSEY: This Toronto doctor helps people die. But his family is deeply religious and doesn't know what he does. For this reason, we're not identifying him.

DOCTOR: I met Nancy through the Provincial Care Coordination Service. And when I first met her, I saw someone who was frail, who could hardly walk to their own washroom, was confined basically to the spaces of her own apartment.

KAS ROUSSEY: Nancy's story highlights the dilemma. Why does one doctor say, yes, and another say no?

PAUL CRAMER: It puts a degree of pressure on the doctor himself to sort of have to predict when a patient's going to die. I would need some assurance that I would be not arrested and sent to jail.

DOCTOR: How are you feeling about going ahead with this? I think Nancy's family doctor had the best of intentions when he tried to actually find out if this was someone who qualified. You know, of course, you can change your mind at any time. It doesn't affect any of the medical care that you get. But, of course, it's up to you.

NANCY VICKERS: I'm just happy that you're going to be there.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

FRIEND 2: The way the flying is like Peter Pan [INAUDIBLE] enthusiast.

NANCY VICKERS: I have been the manager for longer than I'd like to [INAUDIBLE] away.

JANE WATANABE: Kidnapped you.

FRIEND 2: [LAUGHING]

NANCY VICKERS: We honestly did.

FRIEND 2: I love you, Nancy.

KAS ROUSSEY: It's Nancy's final day.

FRIEND 2: I love that. That's wonderful.

NANCY VICKERS: [LAUGHING]

FRIEND 2: It's so nice.

KAS ROUSSEY: The doctor has arrived.

DOCTOR: Hello.

FRIEND 2: Hello.

DOCTOR: Hi, everyone. And I see you've got the music on and everything.

NANCY VICKERS: So it's just a little Pavarotti.

DOCTOR: Lovely, lovely. We'll get you to sign one last consent form. And then I'll tell you--

NANCY VICKERS: Off to the stars.

DOCTOR: --and we'll take things from there.

NANCY VICKERS: OK.

DALIL KABBAGE: Just crazy to see that her mind is 100%. But she's in so much pain, she needs to go. [GASPS UNCONTROLLABLY]

DOCTOR: All right, everyone, we're all gathered around?

NANCY VICKERS: OK, let's go.

DOCTOR: All right, we'll get this show on the road. We're going to get you off to sleep, OK?

JANE WATANABE: Have a good, good sleep, my love.

NANCY VICKERS: [INDISTINCT SPEECH]

DOCTOR: Are you starting to feel a little sleepy there, Nancy?

NANCY VICKERS: [INDISTINCT SPEECH]

DOCTOR: OK, Nancy, I'm going to start giving you the propofol. This is going to put you into a really, really deep coma, OK? Off we go.

JANE WATANABE: Sleep sweetly.

DOCTOR: It's OK. You can let go.

FRIENDS: [SOBBING]

DOCTOR: OK. Nancy, I'm going to move on to the next medicine now. I'm going to just have a listen to Nancy's heart and lungs.

FRIENDS: [SNIFFLING]

DALIL KABBAGE: Oh, Jesus. [SOBBING QUIETLY]

DOCTOR: She's gone.

JANE WATANABE: Bless your heart, my love.

[MUSIC PLAYING]