The grieving parents of a 26-year-old man are speaking out against Canada’s Aid to Dying (MAID) laws, arguing the system failed to protect their “vulnerable” son from being euthanized despite his history of mental illness.
Kiano Vafaeian was euthanized on December 30, 2025 in British Columbia. His family said he developed type 1 diabetes at age 4 and began struggling with mental health after a car accident at age 17.
His mother, Margaret Marsilla of Ontario, said his depression was often seasonal, but after losing sight in one eye in 2022 he became “obsessed” with MAID.
“He insisted on how to get approval,” Marsilla told Fox News Digital. “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.”
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MAID was legalized in Canada in June 2016. The law allows patients with “severe and irreversible” medical conditions to request a physician or self-administer lethal drug to end their life.
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In 2022, after a Toronto doctor initially granted Wafeian’s request, the family launched a public pressure campaign on social media to oppose them. Outrage made the doctor withdraw approval. While Wafeyan was angry at first, his family said he showed signs of improvement over the next year, even going with them in 2024.
“He did his best when he was at one of those good highs in life,” said Marcella. “Then the winter, the fall, he starts to change and then everything that we worked on during the spring and summer disappears … he starts talking about MAID again.”
British Columbia’s leading MAID provider Dr. The family said Wafeian was rejected by several Ontario doctors before finding Ellen Wiebe. Marcilla believes that Wiebe has “coached” her son in what she calls criteria for “Track 2” patients — those who are not reasonably close to a natural death.
A Canadian man has been charged with unlawfully aiding and abetting suicide.
(Getty Images)
Despite Catholic opposition, Pritzker eventually approved physician-assisted suicide legislation for the terminally ill.
“We believe that she’s coaching him…how to spoil his body and what she can approve of and what she can get away with,” Marsilla said. “Because if he had spoken in 2024, and he was a good candidate for MAID approval, she would have done it immediately, but she didn’t.”
Vafaeian’s parents said they were not informed of the acceptance and learned of his death only days after it happened. They noted that her medical records did not substantiate the “severe peripheral neuropathy” listed on her death certificate as a qualifying factor.
“This whole process came as a shock to us,” said Joseph Caprara, Wafeyan’s stepfather.
In 2021, eligibility for MAID was expanded to include applicants with “severe and irreversible conditions” whose death is not reasonably foreseeable. The family is now advocating for the repeal of this “Track 2” provision and the passage of Bill C-218, a legislative attempt to restrict MAID for patients whose only underlying issue is mental illness.
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“Essentially, protections for patients will extend to their family members, giving them a whole bunch of different treatment options,” Marsilla said. Instead, she claims the current system allows doctors to approve and euthanize patients in Track 2 within 90 days.
“How is it safe for patients?” she asked.
Marsilla shared her son’s story on social media, describing the situation as “abhorrent on every level”.
“No parent should bury their child because a system and doctors choose death over care, help or love,” she wrote on Facebook.
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Caprara said the family hopes sharing their story will highlight the risks these laws pose to the “weak and disempowered” and stop states and other countries from enacting similar laws.
“We don’t want to see another family member suffer, or see any country introduce a piece of legislation that kills the disabled or vulnerable without a proper treatment plan that could save their life,” he said.
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In a statement to Fox News Digital, Dr. Wiebe said, “Like my colleagues, every patient I approve for Track 2 has intolerable pain from a serious and unavoidable medical condition (not psychiatric) with an advanced stage of diminished capacity and consents to fully inform MAID about treatment to alleviate the pain.”
New York Gov. Cathy Hochul signed an assisted suicide bill on Monday, making New York the 13th state and the District of Columbia to legalize physicians to assist terminally ill adults who die by suicide. The law will come into force after six months.
Original article source: Grieving parents have demanded changes after their 26-year-old son died under the controversial law
