Parents sue St. Paul’s hospital for moving daughter for assisted death

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The family of a woman who was denied the chance last year to have a medically assisted death in her hospital room is suing the province and health officials, alleging a Catholic hospital’s ban on the practice deprived their daughter of her constitutional rights.

Gaye O’Neill filed the lawsuit on behalf of Samantha O’Neill, who at age 34 chose MAID during her struggle against terminal cervical cancer but was denied the opportunity to have a medically assisted death in her hospital room, according to the claim in B.C. Supreme Court.

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In April 2024, she requested the procedure in her room at St. Paul’s Hospital, a faith-based hospital that prohibits MAID in its hospitals and long-term care homes, but was instead transferred by ambulance to St. John’s Hospice, a faith-based palliative care home also run by Providence Health Care Society, the claim said.

Before the trip, O’Neill was sedated but during the trip, she was “writhing and moaning in pain and needed a further injection of pain relief,” the claim said.

She never regained consciousness after sedation for the ambulance trip and was therefore denied the chance to say goodbye to family and loved ones, it said.

“The circumstances surrounding the forced transfer and Ms. O’Neill’s access to MAID caused and exacerbated Ms. O’Neill’s egregious physical and psychological suffering, and denied her a dignified death,” according to the claim.

The province’s MAID policy requires health authorities to avoid transferring patients, but a facility run by a faith-based organization is exempt.

Samantha’s mother, Gaye, and father, Jim, who live in Ontario, called the transfer of their daughter “cruel.”

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“They can’t go on hurting people,” said Gaye O’Neill on Monday. “They violated her choice of religion” by imposing Catholic beliefs on her.

“It hurts us,” said Jim. “Fourteen months later, we keep reliving that awful day.”

After Samantha’s experience, Providence Health reached a deal with the provincial Health Ministry to allow patients at St. Paul’s who want to access to MAID to be discharged by Providence Health and transferred to the care of Vancouver Coastal Health in a purpose-built clinical space, according to Health Minister Adrian Dix at the time of the announcement.

The O’Neills say that doesn’t solve the problem of having to physically move an ailing patient from a hospital room to the nearby facility and notes the province has promised to build this dedicated space at only one of several health facilities run by Providence Health.

Dying with Dignity Canada, which is named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit, says the new space has not yet been built and if it had been built during Samantha’s hospital stay, it wouldn’t have made a difference for her case because she still would have had to be placed on a stretcher and moved to the other facility — a move that would have caused Samantha pain, according to its vice chair, Daphne Gilbert, a University of Ottawa law professor.

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She also said moving a patient who requests MAID in a faith-based facility “stigmatizes” the patient because “you’re being told what you’re requesting is sinful.”

Gilbert said she believes the patient’s right to MAID in her room isn’t a matter of competing Charter rights between two groups because Charter rights can’t be claimed by institutions, only individuals.

None of the allegations have been proven in court. Requests for comments from the health minister, Vancouver Coastal Health authority and Providence Health Care Society weren’t returned before the end of the day on Monday.

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