It now emerges that the Canadian doctor we featured in last week’s edition of the Vital Signs newsletter for conducting a euthanasia assessment outside a coffee shop has also been disciplined by his provincial medical regulator after a patient who had been pronounced dead woke up following a botched euthanasia attempt.
Right to Life UK reports that Dr James MacLean faced two complaints connected to cases under Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) system.
In the latest case to emerge, MacLean reportedly administered an anaesthetic to a 67-year-old cancer patient instead of the drug typically used in euthanasia procedures after being unable to locate the medication. After pronouncing the patient dead and leaving the home, the patient began breathing again. MacLean returned, administered further drugs – and later declared the patient dead a second time.
The incident, together with the previously reported coffee shop assessment case, prompted a broader review by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario.
Regulators concluded MacLean demonstrated poor judgment, maintained inadequate records and engaged with patients in ways that “raised a risk of perceived coercion”. The College further found his conduct “exposes or is likely to expose patients to harm or injury in five out of twenty [patient] charts reviewed”.
MacLean received a formal caution and agreed to conditions on his practice, including at least six months of clinical supervision and unannounced inspections of records and practice locations.
Alarmingly, despite all the findings against MacLean, the cases were never referred to Ontario’s Physicians and Surgeons Discipline Tribunal.