The daughter of a "depressed" B.C. woman "fast-tracked" for euthanasia after she "starved herself" cried as she told a BBC audience she had 48-hours' notice that her mother was going to die.

Alicia Duncan spoke to Liz Carr for a recent BBC documentary, Better Off Dead?

Donna Duncan, 61, from Abbotsford, had a concussion from a minor car accident. Her health declined in later months that followed, but the exact cause remained a mystery.

However, she was not terminal, nor was she facing imminent death, Alicia said.

"My mom speculated that she had something called central sensitivity syndrome that the car accident had triggered," she recalled.

"What we we didn't know was that she was restricting her diet. She would say that it would hurt to eat solid foods so she was pureeing everything, having soups"

Alicia said she and her sister grew increasingly worried about "completely uncharacteristic" behaviour from her mother, who "was a highly educated psychiatric nurse."

"She was very paranoid, she worried that if she left the house, she might be shot by a sniper at any moment.

"And I think that's when we really started becoming extremely concerned that this might be a mental health issue."

Alicia tearfully recalled hearing the news her mom was seeking medical assistance in dying (MAiD).

"I received a text message from my mom's common-law partner he wanted us to know that my mom was in the beginning stages of looking into MAiD," she told the BBC.

"We just thought there was no way — there was no way — she would be approved.

"And my sister went to go see her and asked, 'how did the assessment go'. And she said, 'Do you want to know?'. And my sister said 'Yes,' and she said 'I've been approved.'"

"So we had less than 48 hours' notice that my mom was going to die."

"The second assessment, it was done over the phone," she added. "He never saw my mom.

"And her general practitioner, who had been her GP for 20 years, would not approve her to die."

Alicia said she felt "guilt for not fighting harder," or "kidnapping and taking her into the woods and keeping her safe."

In 2021, police in Abbotsford investigated Donna's MAiD death, which happened in October 2021. Her daughters requested the probe and argued doctors should have treated her mental health instead of approving MAiD. However, the investigation concluded without arrests.

Donna was approved for the "fast track" for MAiD on the grounds that her condition was terminal.

She and her sister managed to then "gather enough evidence to have Donna taken into custody under the Mental Health Act".

Alicia "pleaded with a doctor" because "her mom was a psychiatric nurse who knew all of the right things to say."

"At the end of the 48 hour hold they did another assessment," she recalled. "We received a text message from my mom's partner that evening that my mom was dead and her body had been taken to a crematorium."

Alicia insists that her mother "wasn't terminal and she wasn't facing imminent death."

"However, if you're depressed, and you starve yourself to the point that you are malnourished they can bump you up to track one and you can die right away."

Alicia said that her mother had been approved by the head of the MAiD programme and a nurse practitioner.

The documentary on assisted suicide was authored by actress and disability rights activist Liz Carr.

According to the Daily Mail, Carr suffers from rare genetic condition arthrogryposis multiplex congenita, which affects the joints and muscles, and has used a wheelchair since the age of seven.

On BBC Radio 4's Woman’s Hour, Carr claimed "as long as there's inequality, it is not safe to legalize" assisted suicide.

"No amount of safeguards will prevent us from mistakes and abuse and coercion, that's my belief."

She told the program, "On an everyday basis, disabled people are dealing with a lower expectation and people actually saying to their faces: 'Gosh, surely it's better to be dead than be you?'"

Image 2021-07-21 at 12.30 PM

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