VANCOUVER (CCN) — The head of one of Canada’s leading anti-euthanasia organizations is accusing the B.C. government of deliberately placing a non-descript MAiD facility beside a Vancouver dialysis clinic as a quiet reminder to patients that ending their lives is an available option.
“I don’t think I’m being too extreme about it,” Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, said in an interview. “I think putting [the MAiD clinic] beside a dialysis clinic is intentional.”
Both Schadenberg and The B.C. Catholic received a tip about the existence of a standalone MAiD clinic at a building that houses a dialysis clinic and offices of the provincial-government-directed Vancouver Coastal Health authority.
What the location of a euthanasia facility so close to a dialysis clinic would mean, Schadenberg said, is that “if you’re very down” about the thrice-weekly routine of undergoing dialysis, “here’s another option.”
He said the apparent opening of a MAiD clinic that is not associated with a hospital or hospice setting is consistent with the B.C. government’s record of strong support for medical assistance in dying.
“Unlike in Ontario, for example, the government in B.C. is leading the way,” Schadenberg said. “This clinic shows they are intentionally in the business of killing people, not just providing a legally mandated service. It’s a big concern. The government is directly involved in promoting death.”
The B.C. Catholic emailed and phoned Vancouver Coastal, which operates 120 facilities serving 1.25 million people, in an attempt to confirm the existence of the facility, but the health authority did not provide answers to questions about the purported clinic’s origins, cost, or even whether it actually existed.
However, a B.C. Catholic visit to the location at 520 West 6th Ave. in Vancouver found evidence to support the tip.
The building is a five-storey structure primarily housing offices and facilities of Vancouver Coastal. The main entrance opens into a lobby area. To the right is a dialysis clinic operated by Providence Health Care. To the left is a clinic-like area behind frosted glass.
That clinic’s entrance door is labelled “Vancouver Coastal Health, Horizon Space.” No one answered a reporter’s repeated knocking at the locked door.
Vancouver Coastal does not have any record of Horizon Space on its website. The building’s directory, next to its elevators, does not list the space.
In response to B.C. Catholic questions about Horizon and other locations at which Vancouver Coastal offers MAiD, a spokesman for Vancouver Coastal provided only a vague answer.
“There is no designated location for patients requesting MAiD,” he said in part. “Patients will have their requests addressed, assessments performed and, if eligible, receive an assisted death in the care location consistent with their care needs and wishes.”
After he failed to answer follow-up questions about Horizon Space, The B.C. Catholic filed a freedom-of-information application with Vancouver Coastal seeking confirmation of Horizon’s existence and intended use.
Schadenberg said Vancouver Coastal’s silence on Horizon’s existence serves only to confirm the insider’s tip that the government had opened a secret MAiD facility.
If so, Vancouver family doctor Will Johnston, a member of Physicians for Life, said in an interview that such a clinic might have its uses.
Johnston, who also heads the Euthanasia Resistance Coalition of B.C., said that any move to take euthanasia out of medical settings such as palliative care wards and hospices “shows that this shameful behaviour can be separated from the hospital system.”
A “death space” does not need to be part of actual health care, Dr. Johnston said. “And, in fact, it doesn’t even have to be staffed by doctors and nurses. It’s really simple to kill people.”
He said anyone can be trained to administer the drug cocktail used to kill euthanasia patients.
“I’m just saying that, as a long-term, aspirational project, having this free-standing facility separate from the health-care system, per se, means that maybe we can work towards making sure the staff are separate from the health-care system as well,” he said.
The B.C. government reported that the province recorded exactly 3,000 MAiD deaths in 2024, 633 (21.1 per cent) of which were in the Vancouver Coastal region.
According to government data, the most common location for MAiD to be performed in B.C. was in a private residence (40.2 per cent), followed by hospital, excluding palliative care beds (26.9 per cent), hospice (12.9 per cent), and palliative care facility (8.9 per cent). Other locations included community care facility, residential care facility, and medical clinic or ambulatory setting.
