‘Obituary’ by Sathya Dhara Kovac

Sathya Kovac died by medical assistance in dying (MAID) on October 3, 2022, at the age of 44. In this auto-obituary, Sathya thanks her loved ones for their support and encourages them to remember her through acts like petting dogs, looking at the sky, and treating each other well. She describes how she lived with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which had claimed the lives of her mother, uncle, and grandmother. Sathya calls for more awareness, research, and hope, so that fewer people might be lost to ALS. Her obituary includes a sharp rebuke of the societal supports that she was offered. She states that, ‘it was not a genetic disease that took me out, it was a system.’ She describes the system that offered her only inadequate care as a sickness and as the cause of her suffering. Sathya states that if she had had more help, she would have had more time.

Sathya’s obituary was published in the context of ongoing debates about how far eligibility for MAID would be extended in Canada. Her death occurred as Parliament was debating extending eligibility for MAID to people whose sole medical condition was a mental illness. As of March 2021, a person’s natural death no longer had to be reasonably foreseeable for them to be eligible for MAID because of the passing of Bill C-7. However, Parliament had excluded people whose sole medical condition was a mental illness from eligibility for MAID for two years, until March 2023. Debates ensued not only about MAID and mental illness, but also about the eligibility of mature minors, advance requests, mental illness, palliative care, and the protection of Canadians with disabilities. Throughout those debates, Sathya’s case has been used as an example of how protections for Canadians with disabilities are insufficient and have led people with disabilities to opt for MAID because of poverty and lack of supports. Since her death, Sathya’s friends have revealed that she concealed that a lack of adequate home care made her seek MAID so that her application would be approved. Further, they shared that the only avenue Sathya was offered for increased support was through institutionalization in a long-term care facility, which she refused. Those who raise Sathya’s case argue that she was offered dignity in death without being offered dignity in life. For them, deaths like Sathya’s will become more frequent as MAID is expanded unless additional safeguards are put in place that include support for people with disabilities.