© Margaret Marsilla / InstagramHis family has accused Canada's laws of 'killing the disabled and vulnerable' with the program
Kiano Vafaeian, a 26-year-old blind man with Type 1 diabetes, died in December using Canada's Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) program, which allows patients with 'grievous and irremediable' medical conditions to request a lethal drug.
Eligibility was expanded in 2021 to include people with chronic illnesses, disabilities and, pending parliamentary review, potentially individuals with certain mental health conditions.
Vafaeian faced mental health struggles stemming from a car accident at 17, and according to his mother, his depression often flared during the winter months.
For years, the family had successfully prevented their son from using the program. Last year, however, Dr Ellen Wiebe, a MAID provider in British Columbia, approved Vafaeian's death - news the family only learned about days later.
Vafaeian's mother, Margaret Marsilla of Ontario, alleged that Wiebe was 'coaching' her son on how to qualify as a Track 2 patient - those whose natural deaths aren't deemed 'reasonably imminent,' according to Fox News Digital.
'We believe that she was coaching him on how to deteriorate his body and what she can possibly approve him for and what she can get away with approving him for,' Marsilla told the outlet.
Marsilla has since been battling fiercely to undo the Track 2 modification and to support Bill C-218, a legislative effort intended to restrict MAID for those whose only condition is a mental illness.
© Facebook / Justice for KianoKiano Vafaeian (pictured), a 26-year-old blind man with Type 1 diabetes and mental health struggles, died in December using Canada's Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) program
At 17, a severe car accident derailed Vafaeian's college plans, and he spent years moving between family members' homes, his mother said.
It all came to a head in 2022: after losing vision in one eye, he became 'obsessed' with the assisted-suicide program.
'He kept on emphasizing about how he could get approved,' Marsilla told the outlet.
'We never thought there would be a chance that any doctor would approve a 22- or 23-year-old at that time for MAID because of diabetes or blindness.'
That year, Vafaeian attempted to die under the program for the first time after being approved, even going so far as to schedule a time, date and location for the procedure in Toronto.
But the plan unraveled when his mother accidentally discovered the appointment email and called the doctor, posing as a woman inquiring about MAID. She also took to social media to publicly voice her opposition.
She taped the conversation with the doctor and sent it to a reporter. The doctor then postponed the procedure over the outcry and decided not to go through with it.
© Dying with DignityDr Ellen Wiebe (pictured), a MAID provider in British Columbia, approved Vafaeian's death. His mother, Margaret Marsilla of Ontario, alleged that Wiebe was 'coaching' her son on how to qualify as a Track 2 patient
'He tried his best when he was in one of those good highs of life,' she told the outlet.
'Then winter, fall started coming around, he started changing and then everything that we had worked for from spring and summertime just disappeared... he would start talking about MAID again.'
Nevertheless, Marsilla said her relationship with her son had been improving, and in September she moved him into a fully furnished Toronto condo with a live-in caregiver.
Vafaeian texted his mother that he was 'looking forward to a new chapter,' explaining that he was trying to save money so they could travel together. By October, he'd joined a gym and completed 30 personal training sessions.
Soon, however, he walked away from it all, with his mother saying that 'something snapped in his head.'
Vafaeian checked into a luxury Mexican resort on December 15, posting photos with staff. Two nights later, he flew to Vancouver - and three days after that, he texted his mother that his physician-assisted suicide was scheduled for the next day.
He ultimately turned to Dr Wiebe after being rejected by several other doctors. She divides her medical practice between MAID and reproductive care, including abortion, contraception and delivering newborns.
© Facebook / Justice For KianoHis death certificate lists the 'antecedent causes' of his assisted suicide as blindness, severe peripheral neuropathy. His parents said his medical records did not back up the claim that 'severe peripheral neuropathy' was a qualifying factor (Pictured: the rejection letter)
'This whole process came to us as a shock,' Joseph Caprara, Vafaeian's stepfather, told the outlet.
Vafaeian's death certificate now lists the 'antecedent causes' of his assisted suicide as blindness, severe peripheral neuropathy - nerve damage outside the brain and spinal cord that causes pain and numbness - and diabetes.
But his parents said his medical records did not back up the claim that 'severe peripheral neuropathy' was a qualifying factor for his assisted suicide.
'Realistically, safeguards for patients would be reaching out to their family members, giving them a whole bunch of different treatment options,' Marsilla told Fox.
She argued that doctors can approve and carry out euthanasia on Track 2 patients in just 90 days under the current system.
'How is that safe for patients?' she added.
Following her son's death, Marsilla took to social media to recount his story, calling the situation 'disgusting on every level.'
© Statista / Health CanadaCanada has one of the highest rates of medically assisted deaths in the world, 5.1 percent, or a total of 16,499 deaths in 2024
'He was alive because people stepped in when he was vulnerable and not capable of making a final, irreversible decision,' she added.
'This is not healthcare. This is a failure of ethics, accountability, and humanity. No parent should ever have to bury their child because a system - and a doctor - chose death over care, help or love.'
In an interview with the Free Press, Wiebe joked that she had brought more than 1,000 babies into the world while also helping 'more than 500 patients die.'
She also described assisted suicide as 'the best work I've ever done.'
'I have a very strong, passionate desire for human rights,' Wiebe explained. 'I'm willing to take risks for human rights as I do for abortion.'
When she was then asked how she determines whether a patient is eligible for MAID, she said they 'have long, fascinating conversations about what makes their life worth living - and now you make the decision when it's been enough.'
On Monday, Governor Kathy Hochul signed a bill legalizing physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill adults, making New York the 13th state, plus D.C., to enact such a law. The legislation will go into effect in six months.
Canada has one of the highest rates of medically assisted deaths in the world, 5.1 percent, or a total of 16,499 deaths in 2024.
Daily Mail has reached out to Dr Ellen Wiebe for comment.
Reader Comments
Espescially when you consider that Type 1 is a new phenomenon. You get it already as child and not later in life when your metabolic health becomes worse, as with Type 2.
I lived in an apartment building in Calgary decades ago, with a blind man as my neighbor. Nice guy, could pick your pocket while standing in line at the convenience store, but he was desperately lonely. One night he took a header over his balcony to end it all.
That being said, any government that allows suicide is going against the laws of God.
Good to see you. Hope you're doing well.
Moc rรกd tฤ tu vidรญm, doufรกm, ลพe se mรกลก dobลe
The way it looks to me is that it is her right eye is a little smaller than her left eye. And I don't take that that makes her a hybrid. She is a loathsome creature for sure, though. Also, my left eye has a droopy eyelid and makes the eye look smaller. Does that make me a hybrid? I feel confident to say that I am not.
I do think that she could certainly be a psychopath.
[Link] Bill Gates [Link] Pseudo-doctor Fauci and others [Link] Trump
I know what you mean about these parasitic human-looking critters. Sometimes I feel like I am living inside the 'They live' movie. We can detect them who they are, but they also can sense that there is some kind of threat coming out of us. I mentioned in the past that my cousin got cancer from the Covid jabs a few years ago. Well, the cancer spread to his brain, so I think this will be his last year in this reality. He had a surgery in Praha, and the stupid doctors left an opened hole in his skull. His wife had to take him back to the hospital because it freaked her out staring into his brain. Unbelievable.
Dr. Merrit has found that as Dr. Hulda Clark found way back in the 70s, that all cancers are parasites, or maybe a more correctly is; all have a parasite at their center.
She recommends Fenbenzadole over Mebenz. Fenbenz is veterinarian grade and is the same except for the inclusion of sulphur/sulfur. Research keeps warning me that it's not been tested on humans, but I think after all these years we'd hear something if it was 'dangerous'. Sulphur is necessary for our wellbeing and is why onions, garlic, broccoli so on are recommended. Oh, and it's well cheap.
Dr. Peter McCullough has a protocol. Dr. Makkis too and he says it's saved many stage 4 patients. Both on Substack.
The video with Merrit, the Medical Rebel: [Link]
At this point in my life, I don't care anymore. I am so tired trying to help people who do not want to be helped.
I just have to accept like I did for my father in law decades ago that no matter what I knew or believed, they will still go with what the oncologists say to preserve my own sanity. Now I struggling with my sister's slow decline with body wide inflammation. Fortunately she is a tiny bit more open. I did take her a bottle of DMSO, N-AC and one of Bromelian months ago, but she handed them back saying she was going to chase her own health regimen and then went on a course of steroids. I shuddered, already knowing what I do about that toxic stuff and just to confirm it, this turned up in my inbox: [Link]
A couple of days ago I visited and spotted packets of Bromelian with NAD. (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) which I've read nicotine is very good at neutralising the spike protein, so is pine needle tea, I suspect it's the pine turpentine that's also good for negating some cancers.
Nicotine is made by Big Pharma. Detoxing the body is crucial, otherwise the body will not be able to heal. What I heard is that pine turpentine and shilajit do an excellent job in detoxification, even for spike protein, if there is such a thing. I don't know if this works, I didn't take the Covid BS garbage so I have no need to detox my body of the toxins that are inside any vaccines, not just in the Covid one. I don't even believe that viruses exist. The pseudo-scientists said that Covid virus was so deadly that everyone needed to take the shot. If it was deadly then I should be dead because I allowed myself to be exposed to the imaginary 'extremely deadly' virus without any protection the pseudo-doctors suggested. I prefer to be a conspiracy theorist rather than follow the herd; that's just me.
People who took the shots need to experiment with natural remedies. Some people claim that their cancers disappeared after taking Fenbendazole. Anyone who gets cancer should consider trying Fenben and other things, instead of chemo-torture.
Decades and decades, maybe centuries, of fighting against the idea of suicide, to end in "If you want to kill yourself, do it using our system ".