Loneliness big factor in people choosing medically assisted death: Doctor
A Canadian physician at the forefront of providing medical assistance in dying (MAID) in the country will be in Sudbury on May 7 to talk about the lessons she learned along the way.
Dr. Jean Marmoreo, author of The Last Doctor: Lessons in Living from the Front Lines of Medical Assistance in Dying, is the guest speaker at the annual Celebrate Women event.
Johanna Schneller, a leading freelance journalist in Canada, co-authored the book, interviewing the families and patients that Marmoreo cared for during the early years of providing MAID.
“I picked out these eight people because I thought they all had lessons for me, in terms of doing this work,” Marmoreo said from her home in Toronto. “I wanted their stories told and that’s why I selected each person for a very specific reason, because of their own unique history.
"I didn’t want to use pseudonyms; I wanted to honour their memory and tell their story. I wanted to involve the entire family because my interaction with most people was two hours: one hour interview and one hour provision.”
Throughout the book, Marmoreo notices - and is bothered – by the role loneliness and isolation play in a person’s ability to persevere through pain and disease.
“If we didn’t lose our connections, people would carry on a lot longer,” said Marmoreo. “That isolation and loneliness, and withdrawal and time spent way too much on your own and alone, is very soul destroying for most people. That’s why that kind of kind of moment of connection, it kind of stunned me over and over again, of how magical that could be for patients. If someone just reaches out and grabs hold of them, and they turn in a different direction.”
Marmoreo said that she has seen patients change their minds about MAID and attempt pain management once human connection is re-established, whether through family, friends or a member of the health care team.
“It’s all about attention and the message that someone cares,” she said.
The Last Doctor was first published in 2022 but was recently re-released in paperback to include updates and the latest developments of MAID in Canada, including the country’s decision to delay MAID’s eligibility to people suffering solely from a mental illness for another three years.
“The main purpose of that paperback was because I really felt that the mental disorders as a sole underlying cause would become law and so that looking ahead at advanced requests and mental disorders was rewritten in that perspective for the second edition,” she said.
“The fact that mental disorders didn’t pass didn’t surprise me. I kind of felt the way the country divided itself into two camps here, and the way psychiatrists divided themselves into the pro and con camps in Canada, meant we would lose the public support. Once that happened, it became a political football.”
The idea that mental disorders would not considered an illness “boggles the mind,” said Marmoreo. “They still have the right to make decisions around their health care.”
She said patients who have treatment-resistant PTSD and depression, for example, are least likely to have access to alternate treatments like ketamine psychotherapy and psychedelic-assisted therapy, an area that Marmoreo is currently researching and exploring.
Marmoreo spoke on May 7 at Sudbury Secondary School at Celebrate Women, an annual Canadian Federation of University Women-Sudbury event that raises funds for post-secondary scholarships for women. Event partners include YWCA Sudbury and LEAF (Women's Legal and Action Fund).
The Local Journalism Initiative is made possible through funding from the federal government.
sud.editorial@sunmedia.ca
X: @SudburyStar
Laura Stradiotto, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Sudbury Star
