Distraught Family Blasts Canada For Euthanising Son, 26, Who Suffered From ‘Seasonal Depression’

The family of Kiano Vafaeian, a 26-year-old man from Ontario, has spoken out against Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) program after he was euthanised following a bout of ‘seasonal depression.’

Vafaeian lived with Type 1 diabetes and was blind in one eye, which must have sucked tremendously, but he did not have a terminal illness which is why he was was repeatedly denied MAID in Ontario. He had became ‘obsessed’ with the assisted-suicide program ever since losing vision in one eye in 2022.

He eventually traveled to British Columbia, where he was approved and the procedure was administered by Dr. Ellen Wiebe.

Dr. Wiebe approved him under “Track 2,” which allows for assisted death for individuals whose natural deaths are not “reasonably imminent”, but who have a serious and incurable conditions that cause intolerable suffering.

His death certificate cited blindness, diabetes and severe peripheral neuropathy as the underlying causes. His parents say his medical records did not back up the claim that ‘severe peripheral neuropathy’ was a qualifying factor for his assisted suicide. 

Vafaeian’s mum, Margaret Marsilla, reckons that Dr. Wiebe was ‘coaching’ her son on how to qualify for euthanasia, and is campaigning to stop this sort of thing happening again.

She told Fox News: ‘We believe that she was coaching him on how to deteriorate his body and what she can possibly approve him for and what she can get away with approving him for.

‘We never thought there would be a chance that any doctor would approve a 22- or 23-year-old for MAID because of diabetes or blindness.’

She claims her son would actually put the effort in to enjoy life during spring and summer, but would take a downward turn with the weather as he suffered from ‘seasonal depression.’

‘He tried his best when he was in one of those good highs of life. Then winter, fall started coming around, he started changing and then everything that we had worked for from spring and summertime just disappeared… he would start talking about MAID again.’

It’s a tricky one really. Despite enjoying life at times, it sounds like Kiano Vafaeian ultimately wanted his suffering to end, having spent years researching and trying to get it approved. It’s not really up to the rest of us to decide whether he should carry on living with all the health issues he had going on, and it’s not up to his family to make that decision either.

Even still, someone should probably look into how “easy” it is to get approved for assisted dying in Canada. The country has one of the highest rates of medically assisted deaths in the world, 5.1 percent, or a total of 16,499 deaths in 2024.

RIP Kiano – let’s hope he’s finally at peace.