Quebec advocate for medically assisted death has died

Nicole Gladu fought for years for the right to have a medically assisted death but, in the end, chose to let nature take its course, a close friend says.

Gladu, 76, died on Sunday after spending much of her life living with the effects of a childhood brush with polio.

"She was someone who deeply loved life," said friend Micheline Raymond. "She must have sensed the end was coming. It was as though she decided to savour every last minute of life, even though she wasn't well. She was suffering."

That Gladu lived as long as she did was considered somewhat of a medical miracle.

"I survived polio with half a functioning lung," Gladu said in a 2018 interview with Radio-Canada. "Doctors back then said I wasn't supposed to be still alive, medically speaking."

In 1992, she was diagnosed with post-polio syndrome. The gradual muscle loss made her reliant on a wheelchair.

But since her death was not considered "reasonably foreseeable," Gladu did not qualify for medical aid in dying.

She and another advocate, Jean Truchon, went to court to fight for the rights of people with degenerative diseases to have access to medically assisted death.

"Nicole was always someone who pushed hard, and despite all the energy it took, she fought to the end and won," said Micheline Raymond, a friend.