Selected quotations from participants about judgment
| Major themes | Quotation |
|---|---|
| From relatives | “His girlfriend, longterm girlfriend, … they’d been together for 25 years, she didn’t want him to do it, you know. And I’m sure she had conversations with him trying to convince him otherwise.” (Interview 5) “It [MAiD] created a total rift with my sister and I, really for a year and a half to 2 years. And the only way to try to repair the relationship is to avoid any discussion of MAiD and my mother. Not possible.” (Interview 23) “So, suddenly, like my mom was quite unwell and I talked to her and she asked again if she couldn’t have assisted dying. So that’s when I picked up the ball. Because I’m not a practising Catholic and I believe in and support MAiD. … I … found out the paperwork that was required and sent it along to my mom and my sister. And that’s when I discovered that my mom, she couldn’t use her technology anymore so, she wasn’t able to be able to print anything. And my sister was not invested in helping her. So, like, nothing happened because my sister wouldn’t print the paperwork and get my mom to sign it.” (Interview 24) |
| From religious people | “If it wasn’t me and my sister and my daughter and my niece there supporting Mom, like if it was anybody else in her family … they would be imposing their [religious] views on her. … that would have been a very uncomfortable … challenging … situation for my mom to be in.” (Interview 6) “He said, ‘Oh, I heard your wife died.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, she had an assisted death.’ And he just looked at me and said, ‘She’s going to burn in hell fire forever.’” (Interview 11) “They are very Catholic … . They think that you should just suffer for those last 3 days and be unconscious and go through all that and … . Like instead of doing it [MAID]. ‘Cause in the church, you’re not allowed to kill yourself in any way.” (Interview 30) “It was like ‘I don’t believe in that [MAiD], you’re not gonna go to heaven.’ You know. ‘God brings you in, God takes you out.’ We got lots of those comments.” (Interview 41) |
| From health care professionals/ organizations | “One other frustrating aspect was the hospice nurse was of Catholic origin and she was very, she was trying to persuade Dad a lot about not receiving it. Like even the day before he died she was talking about, ‘Oh well, this isn’t my belief and blah blah blah blah blah.’ So, I wasn’t too excited with that and stood guard.” (Interview 33) “The hospice that she was in was the [religious organization] hospice, so they would not permit her to have MAiD there. She still had her own home so we were able to transport her back to her own home.” (Interview 35) “I do recall her saying that there was some initial pushback from her GP. And you know, she’s a strong, like I said, [she] knew what she wanted, told him how it was and found her workaround.” (Interview 36) |
| From others (e.g., friend, coworker, neighbour) | “One woman [neighbour] said to me, ‘Oh, what’s wrong with him? There’s nothing wrong with him.’ Because they might see him out[side] doing some little thing, right. And as long as he could get up and move, he would go out and try to do stuff.” (Interview 2) “Who gives a shit what they think.” (Interview 12) “Mostly very supportive, they understand. I’ve heard no condemnation. I think perhaps because the people that I know and that I relate with … understand the process and they understand why it took place.” (Interview 15) “The only comment I ever had was someone I didn’t really know very well, but she had my husband for a doctor so, thought he was wonderful. She said to me, ‘I couldn’t do that to my dog, and you did it to your husband,’ and she walked away.” (Interview 29) “I told my friend as this was happening and they were entirely supportive. The first people I told, was my oldest friend when we were 8 years old, and I knew what her reaction would be and it was not good. … but she said … when the new legislation got approved … ‘I just cannot fathom anybody doing that.’” (Interview 42) |
Note: GP = general practitioner, MAiD = medical assistance in dying.