EXCLUSIVE The disabled woman battling euthanasia in Canada after nurses said she was 'selfish' for living 'You're not living, you're existing,' the Alberta nurse told Heather Hancock Hancock has been urged to get euthanasia three times since the 2016 law READ MORE: Canada's 'scary' double-digit jump in euthanasia deaths By James Reinl, Social Affairs Correspondent, For Dailymail.Com Published: 13:39, 12 July 2024 | Updated: 14:03, 12 July 2024 e-mail 5 View comments It was an odious encounter with a nurse in a remote Alberta hospital that persuaded Heather Hancock how Canada 's euthanasia system was coming badly off the rails. Hancock suffered from cerebral palsy since infancy and was used to bullying from her school days, but the treatment she got at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital was something else.
A nurse was helping her into the bathroom at night, during a lengthy bout of care for muscular spasms in 2019, when the carer crossed a line into the unthinkable. 'You should do the right thing and consider MAiD,' said the nurse, referring to the country's Medical Assistance in Dying program. 'You're being selfish.
You're not living, you're merely existing.' Heather Hancock, 56, says medical teams see her as a waste of healthcare dollars nowadays A nurse at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital in Alberta told her she was 'selfish' for taking up hospital resources Hancock, now 56, says she was 'gobsmacked' but stood her ground, telling the nurse that her life had value, even if she spe.