Funeral homes pivot to offer rooms for medically assisted deaths

As the COVID-19 pandemic began to take hold in the spring of 2020,  London, Ont., funeral home owner Paul Needham started to receive a new kind of service request from families. 

At first it was a few calls, but then as the lock downs and restrictions on gatherings grew, it became a frequent ask at the Northview Funeral Chapel: Can you provide a quiet, comfortable room where a loved one can have a medically assisted death?

"A lot of times the families were in a bind," said Needham. "They wanted the procedure, but had no place to go. Nobody was willing to accommodate them due to the shut down." 

Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) has been legal in Canada since 2016. 

Since then, the number of MAID deaths has grown steadily. In 2016 just over 1,000 were reported in Canada. In 2020 that number grew to just under 7,600. 

Almost half of MAID deaths (46.7 per cent in 2020) happen at home while hospitals (28 per cent) and palliative care facilities like hospices (17 per cent) are also common settings. 

But Needham noticed that some clients who didn't want to end their life in a clinical setting also wanted to avoid having the death happen at home. 

"Sometimes they'd say things like 'Every time I look at that bed or every time I walk into that room I would be re-living it.' I think they just felt there would be a stigma there afterward and they wanted to avoid that," he said. 

Other clients expressed discomfort at going into a hospital or hospice as COVID forced them to deal with all kinds of access restrictions, Needham said. 

Wanting to meet a growing need, Needham began to offer rooms for rent at his funeral home where MAID procedures could take place. 

Since early 2020, Needham has provided rooms for 23 medically assisted deaths.

"Family members can be right there with their loved ones," he said. "I suggest they can make it how they want it, bring some of your favourite music, bring flowers, bring some food or if you like, bring a bottle of wine. This is this person's last day on Earth. You want to take everything into account and consider as many things as possible."

David Mullen, owner of A. Millard George Funeral Home, has also noticed the trend. He's working to set up a room  where families can have a medically assisted death at his funeral home in Old South. 

"Phone calls for the service started in 2018," he said. "They continued to increase through COVID-19. We put a lot of thought into it and we felt this was something we could offer that would help the families we serve."