Home / Health / B.C. Court Hears Faith Hospital MAID Transfer Case
B.C. Court Hears Faith Hospital MAID Transfer Case
31 Jan
Summary
- A B.C. Supreme Court trial centers on patient transfers for medical assistance in dying.
- Faith-based facilities are challenged for requiring patients to move for MAID.
- Adjacent spaces for MAID are being created to resolve facility access issues.
A legal challenge is underway in the B.C. Supreme Court concerning patients' final hours and transfers from faith-based facilities to access medically assisted dying (MAID).
Key to the trial is the distance patients must travel for MAID if their chosen facility prohibits it. For instance, in April 2023, Samantha O'Neill's mother was transferred by ambulance from St. Paul's Hospital to a Vancouver Coastal Health hospice 25 minutes away because St. Paul's, operated by Providence Health Care, does not allow MAID.
Subsequent to these events, the B.C. Ministry of Health directed Providence to transfer leasehold interests for lands adjacent to St. Paul's. This enabled Vancouver Coastal Health to construct a dedicated MAID facility, known as the Shoreline Space, connected to the hospital by a corridor at a cost of $2.75 million.
In 2025, 27 patients at St. Paul's received MAID in the Shoreline Space. Vancouver Coastal Health has also established similar adjacent MAID spaces at two Providence-run hospices, St. John Hospice and May's Place. Provincewide data from 2023 and 2024 indicates over 80 percent of MAID transfers due to facility policies occurred within the Vancouver Coastal Health region.
MAID transfers also occur in other health regions, though less frequently. Fraser Health reported 33 transfers between 2019 and 2025, with St. Michael's Centre requiring residents to transfer out for MAID. Island Health recorded 26 transfers between 2017 and 2025 from its five faith-based facilities, none of which allow MAID on-site and lack adjacent spaces.
Interior Health has no owned faith-based facilities but contracts sites for end-of-life care and reported a small number of transfers. Northern Health has no faith-based end-of-life care institutions.
