Ian Shearer had had enough of the pain and wanted a quick, peaceful end, his life marred by multiple afflictions. But the Vancouver man’s family says his last day alive became an excruciating ordeal after the Catholic-run hospital caring for him rebuffed his request for a doctor-assisted death, forcing him to transfer to another hospital. But under a policy finalized this summer, he said, the Catholic organization arranges to transfer patients as comfortably as possible when they express a desire for assisted death. He spent about three weeks at St. Paul’s, the closest hospital to where he lived in Vancouver, said the Calgary woman. physician who has carried out several assisted deaths, provided the service for Shearer, one of three patients from St. Paul’s she has seen for the same reason.

Source: National Post September 28, 2016 00:22 UTC