Canadian mom, 57, diagnosed with aggressive stomach cancer was told to consider assisted suicide by doctors who said country’s universal healthcare system could not save her

A Canadian mother diagnosed with aggressive stomach cancer has criticized doctors who told her to view assisted suicide as “disgusting” after she found an alternative treatment in the US.

Allison Ducluzeau, 57, from Victoria, British Columbia, said Global news that advisers advised her to consider euthanasia, claiming the country's universal healthcare system would not be able to save her.

Canada legalized Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) in 2016. It has since expanded aggressively, and the country saw more than 10,000 assisted suicides in 2021.

Ducluzeau was faced with the horrific prospect when she was diagnosed with stage four abdominal cancer, called peritoneal carcinomatosis, late last year.

The Canadian's doctor said patients are normally treated with a high-dose chemotherapy treatment called HIPEC and referred her to a surgeon at the BC Cancer Agency.

Allison Ducluzeau, 57, from Victoria, British Columbia, told Global News that counselors advised her to consider euthanasia, claiming the country's universal health care system could not save her.

Canada on track to record around 13,500 physician-assisted suicides by 2022

But when she saw the consultant in January, she said they gave her the devastating news that she was not a candidate for the operation because chemo is 'not very effective' for the type of cancer.

Ducluzeau said they told her she had only two months to two years to live, and recommended she talk to her family about whether she wanted to pursue assisted suicide.

Shocked by the news, Ducluzeau said telling her children was “the hardest thing I've ever done.”

“That was honestly the worst day of my life,” she told Global News. “Just seeing how upset they were and having recently lost my own mother, and knowing what it was like, like going through life without a mother.”

Ducluzeau left the heartbreaking conversation feeling determined to find another way, and after months of research, she ultimately flew to Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland, for treatment she was denied in Canada.

She spent more than $200,000 on the surgery, chemotherapy, scans, travel and accommodation outside the comfort of a familiar environment.

“I would much rather have had this care at home, where I could have had the support of friends and family, and my husband too, because half the time I wasn't there,” she said.

“But he was there alone in a strange city, caring for someone and terrified for my well-being.”

Reflecting on her experience, she said, “I am so proud of where I live and being Canadian and living in Victoria, I never in a million years thought this would be my experience.

'I was disappointed and even disgusted by the way I was treated.'

The number of MAiD deaths in Canada has steadily increased each year by about a third from the previous year

Under Canada's assisted suicide laws, anyone over the age of 18 with a serious illness, disease or disability can apply for a MAiD procedure.

After the law was introduced, Quebec emerged as the world's hotspot for euthanasia as nearly 5,000 people in the city opted for assisted suicide last year.

Nearly eight percent of all deaths in Quebec are assisted suicide – much higher than in Canada's other provinces and even in countries like Belgium and the Netherlands, which have much older euthanasia laws.

Canada is on track to record about 13,500 state-sanctioned suicides in 2022, a 34 percent increase from the previous year, according to an analysis of official data by Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.

The country's path to allowing euthanasia began in 2015, when the Supreme Court declared that banning assisted suicide deprived people of their dignity and autonomy. It gave national leaders a year to draft legislation.

The resulting 2016 law legalized both euthanasia and assisted suicide for people aged 18 and over, provided they met certain conditions: they had to have a serious, advanced condition, disease or disability that caused suffering and threatened their death.

The law was later amended to allow people who are not terminally ill to choose death, significantly expanding the number of eligible people.

Critics say change would remove an important safeguard aimed at protecting people who may have decades to live.

Today, any adult with a serious illness, disease or disability can seek help in dying.

Euthanasia is legal in seven countries – Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Spain – plus several states in Australia. It is only available for children in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Other jurisdictions, including a growing number of U.S. states, allow physician-assisted suicide — in which patients take the drug themselves, typically crushing and drinking a lethal dose of pills prescribed by a doctor.

In Canada, both options are called MAiD, although more than 99.9 percent of such procedures are performed by a doctor. The number of MAiD deaths in Canada has steadily increased each year by about a third from the previous year.