B.C. health authority wins in court against husband’s ‘death plan’ for sick wife

The B.C. Supreme Court has ordered the husband of a woman with Alzheimer’s disease removed as her representative over a “death plan” he decided to carry out if his wife became ineligible for medical assistance in dying.

The Vancouver Island Health Authority petitioned the court for “declaratory relief and orders to enable it to provide protection to a vulnerable woman against the likelihood of death at the hands of her husband,” the ruling says.

The woman, who is only identified by her initials in the ruling, is 77 years old, has advanced Alzheimer’s and lives in a long-term care home operated by the health authority.

The authority went to court to remove the woman’s husband as her representative after it said he revealed a “death plan” for his wife, who “never expressed agreement” with the plan.

The ruling handed down last week says the man is a strong advocate for medical assistance in dying, and “overtly and repeatedly” told family, friends and authority staff that he would end his wife’s life, then his own, if she was found ineligible for the procedure.

The decision out of Nanaimo, B.C., says the woman was assessed in 2020 and was deemed eligible for MAID, but was found unable to consent a year later after a doctor decided she “no longer had sufficient insight into her dementia.”

The husband, the ruling says, told Island Health nurses that he had “actively” made plans for their deaths, including paying for funeral services and grave sites, selling assets, preparing obituaries and making “memorabilia as part of their collective legacy.”

The ruling says the health authority intervened after a doctor reported that the woman was incapable of consenting to MAID and that her husband planned to carry out the “death plan, which he referred to as ‘dignicide.'”

An investigation by the authority found “there was imminent risk of death or grievous bodily injury” to both the husband and wife, and the woman was removed from their home in January 2022.

The health authority disqualified the husband as his wife’s “substitute decision-maker” because of the death plan, setting off the legal wrangling in B.C. provincial court as the husband tried to have his wife returned home.

The man had written a “script” for his wife to read in court in December 2024, the decision from Justice Bradford Smith says.

“She did not know she was attending a hearing about her, and it was not even clear if she knew she was in a courtroom,” it says.

The provincial court allowed Island Health to continue caring for the woman in its facility, but concerns for her safety in her husband’s care “have not abated,” the B.C. Supreme Court ruling says.

The husband, the ruling says, “consistently” refused or didn’t acknowledge his wife’s mental and physical limitations, and dressed her in “tattered clothing,” including a worn-out pair of men’s work boots.

The ruling says he would reject staff attempts to give advice about weather appropriate clothing for his wife.

“More recently, when the worn-out men’s work boots broke, and facility staff asked (the man) to provide (her) with new shoes, he refused and instead took the boots home and brought them back repaired with padding and duct tape,” the ruling says.

The care home’s staff, the ruling says, reported that the woman would become upset after her husband’s visits, where he claimed she’d been “jailed” and would confront and conflict with staff members.

The ruling says the man accused the staff of elder abuse while being aggressive and confrontational with facility workers.

“(The husband) has admitted under oath in court to these behaviours, but feels justified in engaging in them based on his view that he has been wronged by Island Health and its employees,” the ruling says.

The man, the court found, had also “unlawfully” published his wife’s personal health information online and other information violating a court-ordered publication ban.

Smith ruled that the only “currently tenable solution” to protect the woman from death or grievous harm was to remove her husband as her personal representative, and give that authority to her daughter and granddaughter.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 22, 2025.