48-year-old Claire Brosseau, a successful Canadian actress and comedian, with a loving family, friends and a dog, has applied for assisted suicide, claiming that all therapies that she tried did little to improve her mental illness. Claire was diagnosed with manic depression when she was 14 years old. She was suffered from anxiety, chronic suicidal ideation, an eating disorder, a personality disorder, substance abuse disorder, PTSD, and a slew of other mental health conditions.The New York Times reported that the actor is suing for the right to die through Canada’s Medical Aid in Dying program. She said she tried over two dozen medications, several types of behavioral, talk, and art therapies, and electroconvulsive therapy over the years Claire does not have a partner or children but has a loving family and a small dog.She said she first decided she would apply for euthanasia under Canada’s MAID program in 2021, which allows patients suffering from a “grievous and irremediable medical condition” to end their lives under a doctor’s assistance. But she won’t be eligible as mental health-related issues are not listed for the program. The mental health exclusion was set to end in March 2023, but has been delayed twice, meaning that Brosseau may not have access to MAiD until 2027. Now she has joined a lawsuit with the advocacy organization Dying With Dignity Canada to argue that the exclusion of people with mental illnesses from the MAID is discriminatory.
‘I believe she can get well’
One of her psychiatrists, Dr Mark Fefergrad, told NYT that he believes that she can get well and MAID is not the best or the only choice for her. “I would love her to change her mind,” her other psychiatrist, Dr Gail Robinson, told NYT. “I would hope that she would not have to do this. But I will support her.”