A disabled Canadian man is now celebrating his “deathaversary” after escaping being euthanized by his government over his crushing debts.
Amir Farsoud was due to be euthanized by the Canadian government’s “assisted suicide” program because he was struggling to pay off his financial debts.
Farsoud said he was booked into to be killed under Canada’s “Medical Assistance in Dying” (MAID) law after being faced with the grim choice of death or homelessness.
However, just before he was scheduled to be euthanized, people raised enough money to improve his financial situation and he narrowly avoided death.
A year and a half later, Farsoud is now raising the alarm about the MAID program.
He warns that he was railroaded into “assisted suicide” by government doctors because of his dire housing situation.
Farsoud told his story during an interview for a new BBC documentary called “Better Off Dead?”
In the film, Farsoud told actress and disability activist Liz Carr that he’s “thinking of having friends over and raising a glass” to celebrate being alive.
If it wasn’t for his story going viral and inspiring people to donate, he revealed, he would have died in November 2022.
“For the last almost eight years I’ve had the misfortune of being on the Ontario disability support program, which gives a maximum of just over $1,300 to a single adult monthly,” he recounted.
“As a frame of reference, the average one-bedroom apartment in this province costs almost twice what a person on disability makes.”
The 55-year-old was pushed into applying for MAID after the rooming house where he lives was put on the market.
“Literally after like four months of looking there was no place – there did not exist a place – that I could afford to live in,” he explained.
“At which point I decided – OK, I’m not going to be homeless.
“I’d been homeless before.”
Farsoud revealed that the winters there are “harsh” if you’re sleeping rough.
“Six, seven months of the year, having subzero temperatures 24 hours a day seven days a week,” he said.
“There’s people that try to keep warm with makeshift fires and then end up burning to death.
“There’s people that freeze to death.
“No matter what I knew that homelessness was off the table.”
Farsoud admitted he was all out of options, pending “miraculously finding a spot” to live.
He said the only option left was to end his own life via the Canadian government’s assisted death program.
Farsoud revealed that he would easily qualify for the program due to being classed as disabled.
However, he told Carr that he made it clear to medical professionals that he was only agreeing to move forward with “assisted suicide” due to his housing situation.
“I did tell my doctor right off the bat that while I qualify for medical reasons, the reason I’m asking is my socio-economic position at the moment,” he added.
The doctor booked Farsoud for euthanasia through MAID on the grounds of “unbearable suffering.”
From there, after a 90-day assessment and waiting period, he could be euthanized.
In contrast, waiting lists for social housing in Ontario can be over a decade.
“I was basically just waiting for the 90 days to be up,” he revealed.
“I was marking time.”
Farsoud felt like “the condemned guy who was waiting for his hour” when he got a call from a Toronto reporter who reached out for an interview.
But his story made headlines in Canada.
A GoFundMe page was then set up in his name by a stranger and ended up raising him over $60,000.
The funding was enough to get him new housing and enabled him to cancel his euthanasia.
“I don’t want to die but I don’t want to be homeless more than I don’t want to die,” he told City News.
“It’s not my first choice.”
With his chronic back pain – which leaves him debilitated – he said he would likely die on the streets anyway.
He said doctors had led him to believe that euthanasia was his only option.
“I know, in my present health condition, I wouldn’t survive it anyway,” he told the outlet.
“It wouldn’t be at all dignified waiting, so if that becomes my two options, it’s pretty much a no-brainer.”
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