Case reference: MAID-BC-2025-WV46 · Vancouver, British Columbia · Died by MAID · Recorded by the register as a MAID victim
Who he was
Kiano Vafaeian grew up in Ontario. He was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age four. His mother, Margaret Marsilla, tried to keep his childhood as normal as possible, with diabetes camps, soccer and Taekwondo. By about age 11, she says, he was struggling with emotions and anger that often overwhelmed him. He later developed diabetic retinopathy and lost the sight in one eye and much of the sight in the other, though his family says he could still get around on his own.
In the summer of 2025, his mother says, they were “coming together.” They went to therapy. She agreed to give him a furnished apartment, a live-in caregiver of his choosing, a gym membership, training sessions, a monthly allowance, and “all the organic food that he wanted.” She says he seemed optimistic.
What happened
In September 2022, when Kiano was 23, his sister found an email confirming he had been approved for MAID at a Toronto clinic, along with the date. His mother launched a public campaign and petition naming the doctor, who postponed and then withdrew the approval. Kiano was angry with her and said she had violated his right to choose.
Photo: Global News (source)
His family says Ontario later turned him down again. He then sought MAID in British Columbia, where he was assessed and approved by Dr. Ellen Wiebe, one of Canada’s best-known MAID providers. On 30 December 2025, Kiano died by MAID in a Vancouver funeral home. He was 26. His family learned of his death days later, when a law firm called. His medical certificate of death lists diabetes-related blindness, diabetes and severe peripheral neuropathy.
Why they were pushed toward MAID
In the family’s account, it was mental illness, not his physical conditions, that pushed Kiano toward MAID. MAID for mental illness alone is not yet legal in Canada. “He said everything the doctors needed to hear in order to approve him,” Marsilla told Global News. “Was he actually feeling that way? I strongly believe not.” She says that Dr. Wiebe “was coaching him in order for her to check off her own boxes to approve him,” and that his death was in effect approved “based on mental illness.”
Dr. Wiebe disputes this. She told Global News that every patient she has provided MAID to had a grievous and irremediable medical, not psychiatric, condition, was capable of consent, and went through Track 2 assessments of at least 90 days. No regulator or court has examined the family’s account.
What their family says
“Disgusting on every level,” Marsilla told The Telegraph. She has called her son’s case “a failure of ethics,” and she wants mandatory psychiatric and addiction assessments for MAID applicants with mental illness. She plans to seek accountability from the doctor. The family is calling for the law to change so that no other parent learns about their child’s death from a law firm.
What this case shows
Kiano Vafaeian’s mother saved him once. The second time, he crossed a provincial border and she found out afterward. His case shows how a young man whose family says his deepest suffering was mental illness can still be found eligible for MAID, and how families can be shut out of the process entirely.
Sources
- National Post: 26-year-old was denied euthanasia in Ontario, but died by MAID in BC
- Global News: Ontario family calls for changes after their 26-year-old son received MAID in B.C.
- The Independent: Canadian mom devastated after she says diabetic and blind son was euthanized under controversial law
- The Telegraph: Man, 26, euthanised in Canada because he was diabetic and blind
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