Grieving Canadian parents are calling for urgent reforms to Canada's medical assistance in dying (MAID) law after their 26-year-old son, Kiano Vafaeian, was euthanized in British Columbia late last year.
Kiano, an Ontario resident, died on Dec. 30, 2025, after being approved for MAID under "Track 2," which applies to people whose natural death is not considered reasonably foreseeable.
His parents say he had Type 1 diabetes, diagnosed when he was four, and long‑standing mental health struggles that worsened after a serious car crash at age 17, according to Yahoo News. They argue that these conditions made him vulnerable and that the system should have offered stronger protections and more treatment, not a medically assisted death.
His mother, Margaret Marsilla, says the family only learned that Kiano had died days after the procedure. She says they were never told he had been formally approved and were not given a chance to intervene or even say goodbye. "No parent should ever have to bury their child because a system, and a doctor, chose death over care, help, or love," she wrote in a social media post that has drawn growing attention.
According to the family, Kiano first sought MAID several years ago in Ontario but was turned down by multiple doctors who did not believe he met the legal standard of a "grievous and irremediable" condition with intolerable suffering.
In 2022, one Toronto doctor initially approved his request, but withdrew it after a public outcry sparked by the family's campaign to stop the procedure. His parents say that after that decision, he appeared to improve and even moved back in with them in 2024, raising their hopes that he was stabilizing.
The family says Kiano later traveled to British Columbia, where he was assessed by Vancouver physician Ellen Wiebe, a well‑known MAID provider, Fox News reported.
Marsilla alleges that Wiebe "coached" her son on how to describe his symptoms to fit Track 2 criteria, a charge the family wants regulators to investigate. They also question the listing of "severe peripheral neuropathy" as a key condition on his death documents, saying his records did not support that diagnosis.
MAID has been legal in Canada since 2016, and the law was expanded in 2021 to allow assisted death for patients whose natural death is not imminent, provided strict safeguards are met. Parliament has delayed opening MAID to people whose sole condition is mental illness until March 2027, citing concerns about safety and assessment.
Kiano's case is now fueling fresh debate about whether current safeguards are enough for people who live with both physical illness and serious psychiatric conditions.
Marsilla and her partner are urging federal and provincial governments to tighten MAID eligibility rules, require better mental health evaluations, and ensure families are notified before approvals are granted. They say they will keep speaking out so that, in their words, "no other family has to suffer like this again," as per WFMD.
