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This doctor has helped more than 400 patients die. How many assisted deaths are too many?
At 72, Dr. Ellen Wiebe devotes half her practice to medical aid in dying. It’s the last work she’s prepared to give up.
Dr. Ellen Wiebe has never shied away from speaking publicly about the act of ending someone’s life.
For Wiebe, medical assistance in dying (MAID) is “incredibly rewarding” work. She hasn’t faced nearly the same sort of stigma she once faced as an abortion provider and says that while she and her MAID colleagues “all work within the law,” she’s also not as “conservative” as some.
What she isn’t prepared to share publicly is how often she has administered a fatal substance upon a patient’s request.
“I know the exact number,” the Vancouver doctor said, “but I don’t want to do that, no. It’s become a weird thing, people talking about their numbers, or criticizing people who talk about their numbers.”
“Hundreds is good,” she said. About 430 as of May 2022 alone, as she then testified before a special parliamentary committee on medical assistance in dying, or MAID.
