A Canadian family is grappling with grief and outrage following the death of a 26-year-old blind man with diabetes through physician-assisted death. Margaret Marsilla had previously managed to prevent her son, Kiano Vafaeian, from undergoing this procedure under Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) program in 2022. Vafaeian, who was not suffering from any terminal illness, faced complications from type 1 diabetes and mental health struggles. However, on December 30, 2025, he was allowed physician-assisted death under Canadian law, which requires that patients demonstrate they have an ‘intolerable’ condition that cannot be relieved in a manner they find acceptable.

“Four years ago, we were able to stop this in Ontario and get him help,” Marsilla shared on Facebook, expressing her grief. “He was alive because people intervened when he was vulnerable—unable to make a final, irreversible decision.” She described her son’s assisted death as “disgusting on every level” and vowed to advocate for her son and other parents with children suffering from mental illnesses. “No parent should have to bury their child because the system and a doctor chose death over care or love,” she insisted. Canada legalized assisted dying in 2016, initially for terminally ill adults with foreseeable deaths.

In 2021, eligibility expanded to include individuals with chronic illnesses and disabilities, and soon, pending a parliamentary review, those with certain mental health conditions. Canada now has one of the highest rates of medically assisted deaths globally, with 5.1 percent, or 16,499 deaths in 2024, according to the latest data. The fastest-growing category in Canada’s MAiD statistics is a broad classification termed ‘other.’ Deaths under this category nearly doubled to 4,255 in 2023, representing 28 percent of all assisted deaths, as reported by Sonu Gaind, a psychiatry professor at the University of Toronto, to the Free Press. Vafaeian’s death falls into this category. Marsilla revealed that Vafaeian was severely impacted by a car accident at 17, never attended college, and frequently moved between family members. The situation worsened in April 2022 when he lost sight in one eye, leading to his first attempt at scheduling an assisted death procedure in Toronto that September.

But his plan was foiled when his mother accidentally found the email confirming the appointment and called the doctor, pretending to be a woman seeking MAiD. She recorded the conversation she had with the doctor and sent the tape to a reporter, after which the doctor postponed Vafaeian’s scheduled procedure, then said he wasn’t going through with it. When Vafaeian later found out what had happened, he was furious at his mother, saying she had violated his right as an adult to choose death, the Free Press reports. But Trudo Lemmens, a professor of law and bioethics at the University of Toronto, who met Vafaeian in 2022 said his mother saved his life. ‘The only reason that Kiano was alive when I met him is because his mother had the guts to go public, not because of the medical community that would’ve ended his life,’ he said. He then recounted how he thought Vafaeian’s plan was ‘dystopian.’ In the years since, Marsilla said she thought her relationship with her son was on the mend, as she set him up this past September with a fully-furnished condominium near her office in Toronto with a live-in caregiver.

Marsilla also drafted a written agreement promising Vafaeian $4,000 a month in financial support, and he talked to her about moving into the condo before the winter. He even texted his mother at one point, saying he was ‘looking forward to a new chapter,’ as he asked for her help to pay down his debts. He said he was trying to save money so that they could travel together, but then flew to New York City to buy a pair of newly-released Meta Ray-Ban sunglasses, which some have praised as a breakthrough technology for those who are blind. Marsilla told the Free Press she was uneasy about him traveling alone, but he texted her photos and videos of him with his new sunglasses. At one point, Vafaeian admitted he was afraid the new technology would not help him and was worried he had wasted his mother’s money. ‘God has sealed a great pair for you,’ she then responded. ‘I know God protects me,’ he wrote back. By October, Marsilla bought Vafaeian a gym membership and 30 personal training sessions, all of which he used. ‘He was so happy that he was working out and getting healthy,’ Marsilla said. Soon, though, he walked away from all of it, as his mother said ‘something snapped in his head.’

Vafaeian checked himself into a luxury resort in Mexico on December 15, sharing photos of himself posing with resort staff, before he checked out after just two nights and flew to Vancouver. Three days later, he texted his mother saying he was scheduled to die from physician assisted [self-murder] the following day. He then told his sister, Victoria, that if any family member wanted to be there for his final moments, they should catch the last flight out of Toronto. ‘We were obviously freaking out,’ Marsilla said, recounting how she criticized her son for ‘throwing this on us now – right before Christmas’ and asking him, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ Vafaeian then responded that he had asked for security to be present if his family showed up to the facility in Vancouver to try to stop him. But Marsilla said she took it as a sign her son was wavering about his decision to end his life, becoming more encouraged when Vafaeian told her the next day that his assisted [self-murder] had been postponed due to ‘paperwork.’ At that point, Marsilla said she urged him to return home to Toronto, offering to buy him a plane ticket and telling him he had Christmas gifts waiting for him. ‘No I’m staying here,’ he responded. ‘I’m going to get euthanized.’

It was Dr Ellen Wiebe (pictured) who ultimately performed the procedure. She dedicates half of her medical practice to MAiD and the other half to abortion, contraception care and delivering newborns. ‘I’ve brought more than 1,000 babies into the world and … I have helped more than 500 patients die,’ she told the Free Press with a laugh. Wiebe then described assisted [self-murder] as the ‘best work I’ve ever done.’ ‘I have a very strong, passionate desire for human rights,’ she explained. ‘I’m willing to take risks for human rights as I do for abortion.’ When she was then asked how she determines whether a patient is eligible for MAiD, she said they ‘have long, fascinating conversations about what makes their life worth living – and now you make the decision when it’s been enough.’ But shortly before he died, Vafaeian went to a law firm in Vancouver to sign his will, where he reportedly told the executioner he wanted the ‘world to know his story’ and to advocate that ‘young people with severe unrelenting pain and blindness should be able to access MAiD’ just as terminally ill patients can. Vafaeian’s death certificate now says his assisted [self-murder] was based on the ‘antecedent causes’ of blindness, severe peripheral neuropathy (damage to the nerves outside the brain and spinal cord that causes pain and numbness) and diabetes. An online obituary for the 26 year old now remembers him as a ‘cherished son and brother, whose presence meant more than words can express to those who knew and loved him.’ It said that in lieu of flowers, the family was requesting donations be made to organizations supporting diabetes care, vision loss and mental illness in Vafaeian’s name.