'She did not consent': Family says Christian grandmother euthanized against her will

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, September 22, 2026

“I don’t want the death shot.”

Those were reportedly the words of 83-year-old Brigitte Stegemann, a Christian grandmother in Ontario, Canada, who repeatedly resisted medically assisted dying before her death in July.

Now, her granddaughter is demanding answers, alleging that Stegemann was forced to undergo medical assistance in dying (MAiD) despite repeatedly declaring that she was refusing that option.  

The Daily Mail reported details surrounding the circumstances of the death of Stegemann, an 83-year-old Christian woman who lived in Canifton. Brigitte Kranendonk, Stegemann’s granddaughter who shares the same name as her late grandmother, discussed how Stegemann had been diagnosed with stomach cancer in February and had seen her overall health decline. 

Kranendonk insisted to the publication that her grandmother had previously asserted “I don’t want that” when she brought up the option of medically assisted dying. The Daily Mail noted that Kranendonk attributed her grandmother’s opposition to MAiD to her “religiosity” and the “notion of displeasing God.” 

After doctors fitted her with a medical port ahead of the possibility of MAiD, Stegemann reportedly tore it out while screaming, "I don't want the death shot!"

Yet, on July 3, the assisted living facility where Stegemann lived called Kranendonk to inform her that they were planning to conduct a MAiD assessment for her grandmother. This prompted Kranendonk to reach out to a nurse, who raised the topic with the grieving granddaughter, describing her response as “very abrasive, very defensive.” 

“I truly believe that one nurse really saw us as an obstacle,” Kranendonk said. “We were getting in the way of her doing MAiD on my grandmother. I think she really, truly believes that MAiD is the best for people, and shame on me for trying to stop that.”

While the first MAiD consultation took place without Kranendonk in the room, she was present for the second meeting and suggested that the doctor misled Stegemann by using “really loose terms” and “never using the words death or dying.”

According to Kranendonk, “She explains MAiD to my grandmother by saying: ‘We’re going to give you medicine, you’re going to feel at peace. And I just want you to know that you won’t have a bowel movement.’”

The MAiD consultation also included a cognitive assessment, in which Stegemann answered every question incorrectly. Kranendonk expressed concern that the medical professionals conducting the cognitive assessment had no way to verify whether the answers were correct, since they asked personal questions, including how many siblings she had, rather than objectively verifiable questions such as who the prime minister was. 

Stegemann reportedly told the doctor she had no siblings, despite having 13, two of whom were still living — one of whom she had visited just six weeks earlier. Later that same day, the family says, she confused her own daughter's name with her granddaughter's.

“None of that is in her records,” Kranendonk stressed. After Kranendonk was asked to leave the room and wait outside, the doctor informed her that her grandmother consented to MAiD and that an appointment was scheduled for three days later, on July 10. 

While the nurse sought to make the MAiD appointment a day earlier, on July 9, Kranendonk rejected the request, citing concerns that her grandmother's pastor wouldn't be able to arrive in time and would therefore leave her unable to fulfill her wish of dying alongside her loved ones and in prayer. 

When Kranendonk sought to see the paperwork her grandmother supposedly signed authorizing MAiD, the assisted living facility refused to show it to her. “I don’t know who the witness was. I don’t know how they explained the paperwork to her. I don’t know what they said to her. I have no idea,” she lamented. 

Two days before the scheduled MAiD appointment, Kranendonk bluntly asked her grandmother, “Do you know that you’re going to die on Friday?” After hearing this, Stegemann became “inconsolable” and cried for 45 minutes. She insisted that she had made a mistake, to which Kranendonk responded: “You don’t have to do this.” 

Kranendonk and her grandmother enjoyed time together the day before the MAiD appointment, dancing to German polka music and eating ice cream. On the morning of the MAiD appointment, the pastor and other family members arrived and the nurse pressured Stegemann to begin the MAiD process before her scheduled appointment and before the doctor arrived. 

“She’s asking us to hand her things, to flush out the needle. So we’re now a part of this. She’s asking us to grab things for her, and to hold things for her,” Kranendonk recalled. “The nurse is not wearing gloves. There’s blood all over her hands, there’s blood all over the place.”

When the doctor arrived, she sought to ask Stegemann if she wanted to proceed with the MAiD process, but the elderly woman was unresponsive. She was pronounced dead 10 minutes later. Kranendonk wonders whether her grandmother died before the MAiD, during it or whether she was just in deep prayer. 

Kranendonk believes that her grandmother was taken advantage of and didn't want MAiD, noting how she told her: “If you don’t stop crying, I’m not going to sleep tonight.” This comment suggests that Stegemann intended to be alive in the evening, which she wouldn't have been if she had gone through with MAiD. 

“She did not consent the morning of the procedure,” Kranendonk explained. Kranendonk acknowledged that she was “flying blind” and not fully aware of the legal rights and requirements surrounding the MAiD process. 

As she continues to mourn the loss of her grandmother amid her insistence that the situation wasn't handled properly, Kranendonk told the Daily Mail that she has “settled into a lot of prayer.” She continues to seek answers about her grandmother’s death, appealing to the Chief Coroner’s Office in Ontario as well as the patient ombudsman and Belleville Police to get to the bottom of what happened. 

In a formal complaint filed with Ontario's Chief Coroner in August, the family requested a MAiD Death Review Team investigation on three specific grounds: that Stegemann lacked the mental capacity to consent, that her power of attorney was bypassed, and that no final, express consent was given before the procedure. The care home and the MAiD practitioners involved have not commented publicly. 

Belleville Police responded to the Daily Mail’s request for comment by acknowledging that “This incident is currently open and under investigation with our Criminal Investigations Division” while declining to “provide any additional information at this time.”  

A report compiled by the Canadian government found that in 2024, as many as 16,499 people ended their lives through MAiD. This accounted for 5% of the total deaths in Canada that year. The procedure has been legal in Canada since 2016.