After having been pronounced dead, a patient woke up after a botched euthanasia attempt, leading to his doctor being placed under supervision by the province’s physicians’ regulator due to repeated failures to adhere to protocols and procedures.
Dr James MacLean was the subject of two complaints relating to two cases involving Canada’s euthanasia and assisted suicide regime, known as Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD).
In one case, one of MacLean’s patients who wished to end their life resumed breathing after being declared dead due to the improper application of the fatal mix of substances. MacLean gave a 67-year-old cancer patient an anaesthetic, rather than the neuromuscular-blocking medication normally used in euthanasia cases, because he could not find where he had put it.
The doctor pronounced the patient, who has not been named, dead; however, shortly after he left the patient’s home, he resumed breathing. MacLean returned to the patient’s home, gave him additional substances, including the neuromuscular-blocking medication, and shortly thereafter pronounced him dead for the second time.
After this, and another case where one of his patients had his euthanasia assessment conducted outside a doughnut shop, MacLean’s general conduct was reviewed by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, and it was determined that MacLean displayed a lack of judgment in his decisions, dealt with patients in a way that “raised a risk of perceived coercion”, and kept inadequate records.
The College found that MacLean’s conduct “exposes or is likely to expose patients to harm or injury in five out of twenty [patient] charts reviewed”. They gave MacLean a caution, and agreed to several conditions relating to his practise, including a minimum six-month clinical supervision and unannounced inspections of his practice locations and patient records.
None of these concerns regarding MacLean’s conduct were escalated to the Ontario Physicians and Surgeons Discipline Tribunal, where allegations of professional misconduct or incompetence are adjudicated.
Canada beset by controversies regarding its rapidly expanding euthanasia law
There have been a total of 76,475 instances of euthanasia and assisted suicide from when they were made legal in Canada in 2016 until the end of 2024.
The eligibility criteria for Canada’s assisted suicide and euthanasia programme have rapidly expanded since the original legislation was passed in 2016. In 2021, the Canadian Parliament repealed the requirement that the natural death of those applying for assisted suicide be “reasonably foreseeable”. In 2024, legislation was introduced so that euthanasia and assisted suicide would be legal on the grounds of mental health alone in March 2027.
There have been many recent high-profile scandals and controversies regarding the state-assisted death regime there.
In one recent case, a Canadian priest was twice offered an assisted death while recovering from a hip fracture, despite being known to be opposed to euthanasia.
According to reports, the 79-year-old priest, Father Larry Holland from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, said he was not dying then or now, but that medical professionals raised the prospect of ending his life by euthanasia on more than one occasion.
In another recent case, a Canadian man who was hospitalised due to repeated alcohol-related falls had his life ended by assisted dying the day after having virtual eligibility assessments, despite no clinical investigations and no terminal diagnosis.
An official report by the Chief Coroner of Ontario’s Medical Assistance in Dying Death Review Committee (MDRC) highlighted that the man, known as Mr A, had previously been found ineligible to end his life under Canada’s euthanasia and assisted suicide regime because he did not have a “grievous and irremediable condition”.
In yet another recent high-profile case, a Canadian man who had seasonal depression had his life ended by euthanasia by notorious doctor, Ellen Wiebe, who is personally responsible for ending the lives of over 400 of her patients.
The 26-year-old Canadian, Kiano Vafaeian, who had partial vision loss and lived with Type 1 diabetes, faced mental health struggles, which often became worse in the winter, as a result of a car accident when he was 17. After losing vision in one of his eyes in 2022, Vafaeian became “obsessed” with ending his life by assisted dying, according to his mother, Margaret Marsilla.
Vafaeian had previously attempted to end his life on Canada’s assisted suicide and euthanasia programme several times but had been rejected by several doctors, with one doctor saying, “This patient does not have terminal illness and/or reasonably foreseeable natural death”. Vafaeian had his life ended by euthanasia on 30 December 2025.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “It is appalling that such carelessness was taken with regard to this individual’s life, that this euthanasia doctor decided not to follow the correct procedures, leading to a botched euthanasia attempt and what surely amounted to a traumatic end of life for the patient”.
“Safeguards on paper do not mean much if doctors simply ignore them, and it seems that Dr MacLean has had little more than a slap on the wrist for his gross conduct. Of course, even if Dr MacLean had acted in accordance with procedure, his actions would still have been reprehensible”.
“Canada is an example of what will likely happen if assisted dying is made legal, and why it should not be. MPs who may be considering bringing assisted suicide legislation forward should seriously think again”.
