Thunder Bay, Ont. mom looks for loopholes in Canada's assisted dying legislation for her son

Superior Morning11:21Sandra Brown - Assisted Death

How would you decide when it's time to die? We'll meet the Thunder Bay woman who is helping her adoptive son navigate Canada's new assisted dying legislation.

A 50-year-old man from Toronto with primary progressive multiple sclerosis says Canada's assisted dying legislation is blocking his desire to "die gently."

Colin Anthony says the "least understood and most virulent" form of MS has taken him from being an active dancer, poet, musician and composerin 2012 to being 99 per cent bedridden now.

"There's no cure and there's no known treatment so the best thing is just to make peace with things," Anthony told CBC News in an interview on a rare day in September when he was capable of speaking clearly.

• Only 1 in 10 requests for a medically assisted death granted, Toronto doctor says
• More than 100 Canadians have opted for assisted death since law passed
• Assisted-dying legislation faces new legal challenge in B.C.

"The trick for me is doing it legally," the father of threesaid. "You don't die from MS. The disease itself won't kill you."

That means Anthony does not meet the legal test of being near death, required by Canada's new assisted dying legislation passed into law in June.

But the MS-weakened muscles in his throat put him at great risk of a painful death by choking.

'Die laughing'

"I could choke to death from laughing and in my obituary, it would not say that I died from MS.It would say that I died laughing," he said. "That would be funny to see on paper, but it wouldn't be fun. So the trick for me is to make sure I die gently."

A Thunder Bay woman who calls herself Anthony's surrogate mom is helping Anthony, whom she has known since he was 14, with his desire to die.

Sandra Brown says after consulting with assisted death groups such as End of Life Canada and Dying with Dignity, Anthony has decided his best course of action is to withdraw from food and water when he is ready to die.

That way a doctor can determine someone is neardeath from starvation and provide medical assistance with the death.

"It's really hardemotionally, sometimes I just want to get sick," Brown said. "But on the other hand, it makes you reallylook at death and dying."

Canada's assisted dying legislation is wrong because it treats "a compassionate death the same as suicide from depression," she said. "It's not the same."

Anthony said three things will determine when he decides to die:

1. If he loses the use of his right hand, since his left is already immobilized
2. If he begins to experience significant pain that reduces his already limited quality of life
3. If he becomes blind

He expects at least one of those things to happen within the next month.

"I realize more and more that I don't need much," he said of his days spent in stillness."It really is just realizing what you have and appreciating it, not begging for more."