B.C. government lawyer warns against 'abrupt' ruling in assisted dying lawsuit

Mother of Samantha O’Neill, Gaye O’Neill speaks before the start of the B.C. Supreme Court trial involving the IRO (Institutional Religious Obstruction) lawsuit in Vancouver, on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns

A lawyer for the British Columbia government has warned a court against a “sudden and abrupt” ruling in a lawsuit aimed at expanding access to medical assistance in dying in Catholic-run hospitals, saying it would be a “tragic irony” if such a decision disrupted patient care instead.

Arguments continued Thursday in B.C. Supreme Court where the family of Samantha O’Neill is challenging the right of faith-based health-care institutions to refuse assisted dying services based on religious beliefs.

O’Neill sought MAID in 2023 while suffering from cervical cancer, but could not access it at St. Paul’s Hospital, operated by Providence Health Care, and was sedated and transferred to another hospital in what her mother calls an “unbearably painful” experience at the end of her life.

Government lawyer Alison Brown says the province allows faith-based care providers to opt out of services against their religious beliefs, and MAID was a “red line” for Providence Health Care.

She says the “decision-maker” for Providence is the Archbishop of Vancouver, who “cannot accept potentially ending a human life within a facility” Providence operates.

Brown says the province has gone beyond what the Constitution requires with “carefully crafted” policies to meet patient needs, warning the court against a ruling that would interfere with the government’s “legislative objective.”

“It would be tragic irony if, in a case that aimed to expand access for patients, a remedy was so sudden and abrupt that patients might actually be harmed, that care might be disrupted,” she said.

Brown said that if any aspect of the claim by O’Neill’s family is successful, the judge should “at minimum” suspend any findings of constitutional invalidity to allow time for the parties to come back to court for “targeted submissions” on what remedy the court should grant.

David Bell, a lawyer for Vancouver Coastal Health, said its MAID policy scheme “appropriately balances the rights and interests of patients with those of the organizations that choose not to deliver a service based on their sincerely held religious beliefs.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 16, 2026.