If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts or actions, please call the National Suicide Hotline at 988
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you → know → 988
Canadian widower, who lost his beloved wife to suicide, is calling on the government to offer people like her assisted suicide.
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who → lose → suicide
Diane McDowell, 71, took her own life on October 25 after dealing with severe depression for decades.
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McDowell → take → decades
A month and a half beforehand, she had told her husband, David Slater: 'I don’t want to die, but I don’t want to live like this,' he recalled to The Canadian Press.
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he → tell → Press
McDowell was not eligible to apply for Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID), as mental illness is not among the approved list of conditions.
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illness → apply → conditions
However, Slater said it should be, and that he would have supported his wife's decision to end her own life with dignity.
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he → say → dignity
'The fact that I couldn’t sit and talk to her about that on her deathbed.
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I → sit → deathbed
You know?
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You → know → ?
That’s wrong,' he told The Canadian Press.
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he → ’ → Press
Slater said he and his wife could have talked about one of their favorite cafes in Paris, where they would end up for ice cream and coffee at 2am on their visits to the city.
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they → say → city
Or even their other travels, as the childless couple often visited new places.
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couple → visit → places
'When things really started to look poor, she did talk about MAID.
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she → start → MAID
I would have supported her in that,' he told the outlet.
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he → support → outlet
'I told her I would.'
David Slater is still mourning the loss of his wife, Diane McDowell, who took her own life on October 25 after suffering from depression for decades
'
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who → tell → decades
When things really started to look poor, she did talk about MAID.
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she → start → MAID
I would have supported her in that,' he told the outlet.
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he → support → outlet
'I told her I would.'
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I → tell → her
McDowell was not eligible for MAID
Slater said his wife's life would have ended either way, but MAID would have let her die with the 'dignity with which she lived her life.'
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she → say → life
Canadian officials have previously considered expanding MAID for those with severe mental health conditions and it was scheduled to go into effect.
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it → consider → effect
However, in October, the government introduced legislation to stop the mental health expansion.
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government → introduce → expansion
Justice Minister Sean Fraser, who introduced the legislation to block the MAID expansion, has read McDowell's obituary and told The Canadian Press that it moved him.
'And you do your best to, in the presence of a wide range of opinions, take decisions that have the potential to preserve life where possible, without being inconsiderate towards people who don't see a path for themselves,' he told the outlet.
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he → introduce → themselves
Fraser said he had spoken with people who wouldn't be here today if MAID had allowed them to die.
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them → say → people
He also spoke with medical personnel, who told him that it would be extremely difficult to say with certainty a person's life couldn't get better with treatment.
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life → speak → treatment
'I'm not blind to the struggle that people have when they live with mental illness with deadly consequences,' he told the outlet.
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he → have → outlet
He had recently lost a close childhood friend, who had been battling mental illness for more than 20 years, to suicide.
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who → lose → suicide
'And they tried everything, too,' he said.
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he → try → everything
Parliament member, Robert Oliphant, who has lived next door to Slater for 16 years, attended McDowell's funeral.
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who → live → funeral
Canadian officials are gearing up to vote on whether or not MAID should include mental health patients.
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MAID → gear → patients
Slater believes it should.
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it → believe → ?
Slater said his wife's life would have ended either way, but MAID would have let her die with the 'dignity with which she lived her life'
Oliphant has been gearing up to vote on another MAID expansion, which would allow dementia patients to consent before the disease progressed too much, among other conditions.
He said McDowell's death made the vote 'personal' to him.
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vote → say → him
'Maybe it does take the death of an innocent person to spark us to say, no, we have to help this to not happen to another person,' he said.
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he → take → person
Prior to her death, McDowell had been hospitalized twice for mental health, spending a month at Toronto General Hospital and later three months under intense supervision.
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McDowell → hospitalize → supervision
McDowell also went to an outpatient program at the Homewood Health Centre, a mental health facility.
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McDowell → go → Centre
She had even considered flying to Switzerland to participate in an end-of-life program, Slater said.
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Slater → consider → program
Eventually, Slater said, he realized his wife's condition was going to be fatal.
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condition → say → ?
'It took me a long time to understand.
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It → take → time
I knew she was ill and, you know, you’ve heard the old: "Oh, just snap out of it."
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you → know → it
Well, there’s no snapping out of it,' he told The Canadian Press.
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he → ’ → Press
Prior to her death, McDowell had been hospitalized twice for mental health.
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McDowell → hospitalize → health
Eventually, Slater said, he realized his wife's condition was going to be fatal
'
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condition → say → ?
…and 18 more, not listed.
The Aporia
