Claire Brosseau has travelled the world doing stand-up comedy and acting in television shows, films and plays. She has also been struggling with diabilitating mental illness from a young age, and has been treated by psychiatrists in four major North American cities over three decades.<\/p>\n
Brosseau has tried nearly every treatment available to people like herself with bipolar disorder and PTSD, she said, from behavioural therapy and medication to electric shocks to the brain.<\/p>\n
Nothing has worked for the 49-year-old Toronto woman, who described herself as “functionally terminal”, no longer able to work, leave the house or speak with her loved ones. She is now enrolled in a psychiatric care programme at a local hospital that, she said, is designed to support people with severe and persistent mental illness who have exhausted all treatment options.<\/p>\n
“There’s nothing left to try, and I’m at the end of my life,” she told the BBC.<\/p>\n
Brosseau wants to die by medically assisted dying, also known as euthanasia and in Canada, under the acronym MAID. While it is legal in Canada, it is not currently available to those whose sole condition is mental illness.<\/p>\n
“I open my eyes every morning and I feel immediate dread and anxiety,” Brosseau said, adding: “I want a safe death. I don’t want to have to do something horrific.”<\/p>\n
Canada has been planning to expand the law to people with severe, treatment-resistant mental illness, but has delayed doing so twice – most recently to next year – over concerns the healthcare system is not prepared. Now, Ottawa is weighing whether to move forward at all.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, Brosseau said her illness is worsening and she cannot afford to wait any longer. She has asked an Ontario court to exempt her from the current law and grant her access to medically assisted dying.<\/p>\n