[UPDATE: Adam has successfully escaped!] 'My life is a nightmare': Windsor man, 27, wants legally assisted death

[Suppressed]

'My life is a nightmare': Windsor man, 27, wants legally assisted death
Adam Maier-Clayton suffers from extreme and constant pain, but he can't legally end his life
By Lisa Xing, CBC News Posted: Oct 31, 2016 7:25 PM ET Last Updated: Nov 01, 2016 12:56 PM ET
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/assisted-dying-mentally-ill-1.3829839



Adam Maier-Clayton lives in constant pain and wants to die.

The 27-year-old business school graduate has battled anxiety, mood disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder since he was a child.

He says his debilitating pain feels like parts of his body are being burned by acid. Despite a host of treatments, some of them experimental, his agony has only worsened in recent years.

Fed up with the torment, Maier-Clayton wants doctors to help him end his life. But Canada's assisted dying laws, which came into effect last summer, do not apply to people with mental illness.

Maier-Clayton says the pain is constant, but it worsens with any kind of cognitive activity, including reading and speaking.

"I can't get through three pages of a book," he said. "Just to get through the first two would leave me with six hours of pain. I can't read, I can't write."

Doctors have not been able to determine the physical cause of his pain, so they believe it must be linked to his mental conditions.

Maier-Clayton has tried a variety of medications, including antidepressant and anticonvulsant drugs. He's also had extensive therapy and counselling.

Most recently, he has tried the experimental ketamine infusion therapy. Nothing has helped.

Quality of life

After graduating with honours in business from Algonquin College, Maier-Clayton left Ottawa and moved home to Windsor to live with his dad. The pain was just too much, and he needed help.

Graham Clayton will often use hand signals and gestures to communicate with his son, just to reduce the amount of time he spends talking.

"It's hard. I raised my son pretty much by myself," said Clayton. "You keep hoping the doctors will find something, come up with something. There's hope after hope, then your hopes are dashed."

Because both Maier-Clayton and his dad see no other solution, they want the federal government to legalize doctor-assisted dying for those with mental illness.

"Non-existence is better than this. Non-existence is better than having my father go down my banking history to make sure everything is in check," he said. "The real reason for someone like me wanting the right to die is simple: Once there's no quality of life, life is akin to a meaningless existence."

Maier-Clayton said the current law does not protect people like him.

"If someone is suffering for years and years like myself, then what are you protecting them from?" he said. "You're not protecting them. You're confining them to pain."

...

'Incredibly surreal'

Maier-Clayton continues to push for his cause, through Youtube videos and written posts on social media. He acknowledges his illnesses are worsening and does not know how much longer he can fight.

"It's incredibly surreal," he said. "At this point in my life, I always thought I'd be on Bay Street or trying to get to Singapore to live in a commerce hub. I personally love life. I don't want to leave. If I could snap my fingers and all these illnesses could be cured, we wouldn't be sitting here today."

The government says the current law protects people with mental illness, but Maier-Clayton disagrees. If the law does not change anytime soon, he says he's considering taking his own life.

"I'm a lot closer than I'd like to be. I'm relatively close," he said. "I don't self harm, I've never cut myself, I've never had a suicide attempt. But I know as every day passes, I've had more and more of enough."

His dad understands that.

"I don't want it. I can't change it," said Clayton. "That comment, that statement may never come to me. Maybe over the telephone or maybe one morning he's just left. Hope as I might, I think it might be inevitable and I can't change that."

Excerpt.  Read more at http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/assisted-dying-mentally-ill-1.3829839


He successfully took his life yesterday.  He had to break the law to illegally obtain the drug he used.

[geronl]

assisted suicide is just murder.

The executioner should never be called a doctor.

escaped? That is a frightening euphemism.

[Applewood]

I'm on the fence about assisted suicide.  Who knows what it's like for someone to suffer and there is no relief.  On the other hand, there are those who choose this route because they cannot or will not be helped in other ways.  They are either too stupid or too lazy to avail themselves of effective treatment.  And how do we know that there aren't outside forces encouraging a person to take the easy way out? 

I'm trying to wrap my head around this young man's supposed pain.  Seems to me he had mental health issues that were treatable. Where does the physical pain come from?  Maybe someone can explain that to me. 

What worries me is that the concept of assisted suicide can be used by some nefarious people to off someone because they don't like the person or that person becomes too much of a burden.  Making assisted suicide legal is a slippery slope that I'm not sure we should be on. 

[Gefn]

I'm bookmarking this.

It's a fascinating subject. I'm on the fence about it too. I personally know someone who was in end stage prostrate cancer and was begging his doctor to help him end his life. The doctor sympathized but said all hospice could do is make him comfortable.

He ended up committing suicide in hospice - and it was sad because he would have died shortly anyway but I guess the pain was too much for him to bear.

As for depression- I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. As a society I think we need more understanding towards those who suffer from it and compassion, and less clinical bullshit from the DSM 5.

[Suppressed]

assisted suicide is just murder.

What a cutesie little quote from the Catherine MacKinnon school, where consent is irrelevant.  Sex is rape, indeed.

The executioner should never be called a doctor.

You're conflating involuntary euthanasia with assisted suicide.

escaped? That is a frightening euphemism.

It's not a euphemism at all.  The key thing he was seeking was escape, whether by successful treatment, if possible, or death, if needed.  He achieved that.  Sadly, it was via death, as treatment wasn't successful.  Somatic illnesses don't often have a good prognosis.

[Suppressed]

@Applewood

I'm on the fence about assisted suicide.  Who knows what it's like for someone to suffer and there is no relief.  On the other hand, there are those who choose this route because they cannot or will not be helped in other ways.  They are either too stupid or too lazy to avail themselves of effective treatment.  And how do we know that there aren't outside forces encouraging a person to take the easy way out?

Even if there are outside forces encouraging a person, do we say, "Guns can be misused, so let's just remove peoples' rights to them"?  No, we recognize that individuals have rights to make their own decisions.

I'm trying to wrap my head around this young man's supposed pain.  Seems to me he had mental health issues that were treatable. Where does the physical pain come from?  Maybe someone can explain that to me.

He had tried unsuccessfully for treatment, and that particular illness is difficult to treat.

Physical pain comes from neurological impulses that are manifest in the brain.  So psychosomatism is just as real, as it's pain in the brain.
 

What worries me is that the concept of assisted suicide can be used by some nefarious people to off someone because they don't like the person or that person becomes too much of a burden.  Making assisted suicide legal is a slippery slope that I'm not sure we should be on.

Not allowing assisted suicide is a slippery slope of saying The State has more right to decide our lives than we do.

[Suppressed]

I'm bookmarking this.

It's a fascinating subject. I'm on the fence about it too. I personally know someone who was in end stage prostrate cancer and was begging his doctor to help him end his life. The doctor sympathized but said all hospice could do is make him comfortable.

He ended up committing suicide in hospice - and it was sad because he would have died shortly anyway but I guess the pain was too much for him to bear.

It could also be a statement of control...his last ability to have control over his life.  I've heard people better in psychology than I say that can be a factor.

As for depression- I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. As a society I think we need more understanding towards those who suffer from it and compassion, and less clinical bullshit from the DSM 5.

Well said.

@Freya

[Cripplecreek]

I'm on the fence about assisted suicide.  Who knows what it's like for someone to suffer and there is no relief.  On the other hand, there are those who choose this route because they cannot or will not be helped in other ways.  They are either too stupid or too lazy to avail themselves of effective treatment.  And how do we know that there aren't outside forces encouraging a person to take the easy way out? 

I'm trying to wrap my head around this young man's supposed pain.  Seems to me he had mental health issues that were treatable. Where does the physical pain come from?  Maybe someone can explain that to me. 

What worries me is that the concept of assisted suicide can be used by some nefarious people to off someone because they don't like the person or that person becomes too much of a burden.  Making assisted suicide legal is a slippery slope that I'm not sure we should be on.

I'm not sure the guy was competent to make the decision. Its like the people who decide that they want to have a perfectly fine limb amputated.

Some things simply scream mental illness like transsexualism and the illness needs to be treated not indulged.

[Suppressed]

I'm not sure the guy was competent to make the decision. Its like the people who decide that they want to have a perfectly fine limb amputated.

Some things simply scream mental illness like transsexualism and the illness needs to be treated not indulged.

If treatment is unsuccessful, and a person is in extreme pain, then I think they are the best one to make the decision.

[XenaLee]

I'm bookmarking this.

It's a fascinating subject. I'm on the fence about it too. I personally know someone who was in end stage prostrate cancer and was begging his doctor to help him end his life. The doctor sympathized but said all hospice could do is make him comfortable.

He ended up committing suicide in hospice - and it was sad because he would have died shortly anyway but I guess the pain was too much for him to bear.

As for depression- I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. As a society I think we need more understanding towards those who suffer from it and compassion, and less clinical bullshit from the DSM 5.

I truly believe that God will not punish people (damn them to Hell) for committing suicide if they can't bear the physical pain they are in.   If they have lived their lives according to God's word, the scales will be balanced in their favor. 

I know someone that is currently asking members of his family for help to commit suicide.   He is tired of it all and just wants to leave this earth.  His pain is more mental than physical, so I am more than a little concerned for his soul.  Can mental pain be equated to physical pain with God?  I have no idea.  All I can do is pray for him.
 

[Fishrrman]

If one has to do it, I would prefer "a solution" akin to that which was portrayed in the film "Soylent Green". To me, that would be preferable to dying in pain in a hospice.

I believe the movie's "Going Home" centers were an adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's concept of "ethical suicide parlors" in his short story "Welcome to the Monkey House". You can find that posted online with a google search.

[Oceander]

I'm going to be a little hard on this guy:  he's a coward and wants someone to make the final decision for him.  He simply doesn't have the guts to take his own life, no matter what he says.  If he wasn't a coward and really wanted to end it all, then he would, and the lack of right-to-die laws be damned.

He's a coward who's just looking for his 15 minutes of fame and wants to abuse other people's natural sympathy to get it. 

[Suppressed]

I'm going to be a little hard on this guy:  he's a coward and wants someone to make the final decision for him.  He simply doesn't have the guts to take his own life, no matter what he says.  If he wasn't a coward and really wanted to end it all, then he would, and the lack of right-to-die laws be damned.

He's a coward who's just looking for his 15 minutes of fame and wants to abuse other people's natural sympathy to get it.

@Oceander, perhaps you didn't see what I put in bold in the original post.

He managed to obtain medications illegally and ended his own life the day before yesterday.   Perhaps you would like to revise your assessment.

[Oceander]

@Oceander, perhaps you didn't see what I put in bold in the original post.

He managed to obtain medications illegally and ended his own life the day before yesterday.   Perhaps you would like to revise your assessment.

Not really.  He got his 15 minutes of fame, and now in his sick and twisted mind he could go out a martyr.

I have little sympathy for twits like this.  And no, it's not because I'm not sympathetic to people who have mental issues like depression, or worse.  I have a very, shall we say, intimate understanding of these things.

[Gefn]

If one has to do it, I would prefer "a solution" akin to that which was portrayed in the film "Soylent Green". To me, that would be preferable to dying in pain in a hospice.

I believe the movie's "Going Home" centers were an adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's concept of "ethical suicide parlors" in his short story "Welcome to the Monkey House". You can find that posted online with a google search.

I remember Kurt Vonnegut's suicide parlors. They were if I recall, Howard Johnsons restaurants for your last meal. And you got a buxom nurse to hook you up to an iv

Or you could always go with the suicide telephone booth from Futureama.

Dying like in soylent green would be nice - I just don't want to be turned into soylent green.