Adam Maier-Clayton was a 27-year-old man who was diagnosed with a mental condition that caused his body to suffer agonizing physical pain. He did not want to live in pain anymore so there was no other option than for him to take his own life.
In 2016 Canada passed the C-14 bill which legalized medically-assisted suicide for people who cannot be cured and where death is reasonably foreseeable. Unfortunately, it excluded people with Mental illness. This was reported by the BBC following an interview with the heartbroken family of Adam.
The problems leading up to Adam's suicide.
Growing up, Adam battled anxiety, mood swings, and OCD. BBC news reported that when Adam was 23-years-old he developed ongoing severe pain all over his body and doctors could not explain what was wrong. A friend that was close to him said, "You would often have no idea there was something wrong with him at all. There were often-times no physical representation of it."
Eventually, he was diagnosed with Somatic Symptom Disorder which is a mental condition where the brain can cause the body to feel severe physical pain. Adam himself said, "It's like my whole body is being burned from the inside by acid." He then went on to say that it was behind his eyes, in his forehead, through his head and neck, in his chest and all down his back.
It was just an agonizing pain where he felt like he was being burned alive. That sounds just as bad as normal ongoing physical pain, so why do those who suffer from mental illness not deserve to die with legalized medical assistants?
Adam knew that he was not going to get better. He had tried all the medication and treatments possible but nothing was working.
He even listed it all on his Facebook page. His mother told the BBC, "Over four years Adam's pain got progressively worse despite trying the many mainstream treatments and experimental treatments."
He said on his Youtube channel, that one moment he would be bored out of his mind and he would feel little to no pain and then he would start reading a book and five minutes later the pain would get so severe that he would have to stop reading and take deep breaths.
Adam fought for others that were also affected by the C-14 bill
Adam stated that "The legislation forces people to kill themselves in a undignified matter. Alone without their family beside them." He fought to do it for others not only for himself because he knew that he would be dead, he told his father. When the C-14 bill was passed and excluded mental illnesses, that is when Adam used his Vlog to campaign.
Adam was in pain and he couldn't live like that anymore. So on April 13, 2017, he took his own life at just 27-years-old. He snuck out during the night and drove to a motel where he was all on his own with no family or friends, according to his mother who described the horrific night. Suicide was his only option.
Adam Maier- Clayton died with no one beside him just because having a mental illness isn't considered as bad as having actual physical pain.
People are constantly brushing off the severity of mental illnesses and telling those who suffer from one that they must just get over it. When will people realise that having a mental illness can be just as bad and maybe even worse than a physical injury or disability?
