The family of a Christian grandmother who was euthanized, allegedly without her consent, has filed a complaint to the Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario.
Brigette Stegemann previously refused so-called Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) on the grounds that it violated her Christian faith, and died by a lethal injection on July 10 without providing a final verbal confirmation of consent, the family says. She lived in a long-term care facility near Belleville, Ontario, for about two years, before her death there.
Stegemann’s granddaughter—also named Brigitte—had power of attorney over her. For more than 12 years, she was her primary caregiver and advocate, and facility staff came to her for decisions regarding treatments, daily care and medications.
In her formal request for an investigation by the MAiD Death Review Team, Brigitte claims that The Pearl, the care facility Stegemann lived in, euthanized her without a final express consent and with bypassed power of attorney while Stegemann was without mental capacity to make such a decision.
Five months early, Stegemann, who had dementia, had been diagnosed with untreatable Stage IV stomach cancer. About two months before she was euthanized, she “clearly stated that she did not wish to pursue it,” the family said in a public statement. Stegemann explicitly declined a doctor’s suggestion for her to consider euthanasia because it violated her Christian faith, the family said.
The family was left “shocked and distressed” after the granddaughter Brigitte came back from a 10-day vacation. While she was gone, the facility staff spoke to Stegemann about considering assisted suicide in multiple discussions, without notifying or including the granddaughter, though they had contacted her for other routine decisions while she was away. The staff reportedly never clarified who initiated the conversations.
The staff assessed Stegemann for MAiD on July 6 and 7, during which Stegemann’s daughter, her son-in-law, and Brigitte attended.
During the discussion, they noted that she answered basic questions about her life incorrectly when the physician asked. Stegemann said she had no siblings, though she had 13 siblings. She also said all her siblings had died, though she’d spoken with one of her living siblings the previous week. The family reported that she was disoriented and at one point cried, expressing that she had “forgot about her grandkids,” though it was her living siblings that she had forgotten. Stegemann had severe hearing impairment, as she only had very limited hearing in one ear, the other completely deaf. Stegemann often faced recurrent episodes of lethargy and unresponsiveness.
The family statement says that they “remain appalled by the assessment of GG’s [Stegemann’s] decision-making capacity,” as she “lived with a lifelong, apparent cognitive impairment.”
“The safeguards built into the MAiD program are legally mandated to protect vulnerable individuals from outside pressure,” they said. “Instead, the facility acted as the initiator, the facilitator, and the witness to the legal request, intentionally keeping her designated Power of Attorney in the dark.”
The family reports that the physicians used misleading language to describe euthanasia, using words such as “receiving medication, feeling peace, falling asleep” and that she would not “lose control over her bowels” taking the “medication.”
“For an elderly individual of GG’s demographic background and cognitive capacity, ‘medication’ was a term conceptually linked entirely to healing, care, and relief,” the family said. “Describing a lethal injection as merely receiving medication—while focusing intensely on her specific, everyday fears of physical indignity—exploited her vulnerability, making it impossible for her to truly grasp that she was consenting to the active termination of her life.”
The family was eventually ordered to leave the room, and the physician refused the granddaughter’s request to stay, though she had power of attorney.
The family left, and when the physician returned, she told the family that she had consented to MAiD, and the procedure was set for July 10.
Her appointment was rescheduled for Friday due to a physician’s opening. When Brigitte visited her grandmother again, she asked if she was completely sure she wanted to be euthanized. Stegemann “appeared confused and visibly distressed,” says the family.
“She responded with words to the effect of, ‘I’m going to die Friday? They’re going to kill me Friday?’ She wept for an extended period, repeatedly stating that she had made a mistake. Brigitte comforted her and reassured her that if she had changed her mind, she had the absolute right to tell the medical team on Friday that she did not want to proceed,” the statement said.
The family pushed the physicians to change the date back to July 10, which was granted, and during the final moments before her death, she was silently clasping her hands together, in a prayer position. As part of the final confirmation process, staff asked Stegemann whether she still consented to the procedure. But she remained silent and did not verbally confirm.
The granddaughter was relieved, believing that without a verbal confirmation the doctors would not go through with the euthanasia, as the family “had been strictly assured that GG would be asked for a final, explicit verbal confirmation on the day of the procedure to ensure she still wished to proceed.”
But the team ignored her silence, and Stegemann died that morning.
“One of our greatest ethical concerns is that GG had explicitly declined MAiD, stating it violated her Christian faith,” the family said. “Once a vulnerable patient explicitly declines this path, the facility should never have targeted her for re-evaluation behind closed doors while her primary advocate was away—especially when the facility had no trouble contacting Brigitte daily for minor, routine care decisions.”
Kelsi Sheren, a Canadian anti-MAiD activist, warned that “What happens next isn’t a test of this family” but “a test of whether Canadian oversight of assisted death can do anything at all when someone walks in with a timeline, a Power of Attorney, and a name.”
Assisted suicide, which was legalized in June 2016, has become a leading cause of death in Canada with its yearly total more than all other countries combined.
