Right to Live Launches $600K Campaign to Provide Competitive Alternatives to MAiD
- Eric Holmes
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Right to Live Launches $600K Campaign to Provide Competitive Alternatives to MAiD
SAULT STE. MARIE, ON – April 16, 2026 – Right to Live, a start-up non-profit corporation, has officially launched its Founding Capital Sponsorship Campaign. The corporation is raising funds to build Canada's first systemic infrastructure to provide competitive options for a liveable future to MAiD applicants in all cases. This universal infrastructure is designed to address Economic Euthanasia, defined as MAiD cases where a preferable, liveable alternative exists but is not achieved, and Economic Disability Euthanasia, a specific form of Economic Euthanasia driven by systemic poverty present in Canadian disability support programs. The infrastructure's comprehensive service window is designed to resolve this gap in every case, including the most acute systemic failures highlighted by widely publicized and egregious cases of poverty-driven and economic disability euthanasia. Right to Live aims to close this gap by facilitating access to that preferred future.
"The MAID safety system, as designed, requires the presence of external resources for medical assessors to refer patients to as the sole method of diversion for eligible yet inappropriate cases," says Eric Holmes, Founder and Executive Director of Right to Live. "In the absence of those resources, the safeguard fails to function properly. The current MAID system is incomplete as the required external resources do not exist for all referral scenarios. This leads to irreversible outcomes that contradict the program's intended functional design. Right to Live is building the exact external infrastructure the system is missing."
Regarding the overall mission of Right to Live, Eric spoke, “Choice can only exist in the presence of options. We aim to restore choice to MAiD by offering the most competitive options possible.”
The Solution: A Tripartite Design
To complete the MAiD program design via the creation of a service that identifies, offers, funds and executes the most competitive offers for a liveable future, Right to Live has developed a tripartite operational model:
National ‘Viable Alternative’ Assessment Service: Frontline professionals research and construct a bespoke, viable alternative proposal, including an executable plan and specific, achievable outcomes, in cooperation with the applicant.
1:1 Dedicated Case Navigation: Dedicated navigators take the generated plan and execute it, working directly with the individual to provide a liveable future.
Social Brokerage Service: Brokers execute trades to the open market for the outcomes of the anonymized proposals as productized social impact in Canadian euthanasia, akin to carbon credits, in exchange for the capital to underwprite them.
Cases in the News
In the few years since the legalization of MAiD for non-foreseeable deaths in 2021, there have been a number of cases that have been reported on that highlight the significance of the proposed solution. They highlight specific failure vectors stemming from gap points in current Canadian fabric:
Disability Poverty (“Sophia”): A 51-year-old woman completed MAiD in 2022 after two years of searching for affordable housing that would not trigger her medical condition. Having exhausted appeals to organizations, news outlets, and the government, she applied for MAiD. Even after her assessing physicians wrote to parliament pleading for emergency relocation to halt her death, the systemic void remained unresolved. She ended her life with MAiD on Feb 22, 2022. [1]
Veteran Physical Care (Christine Gauthier): A retired Paralympian was formally offered medically assisted death equipment in writing by Veterans Affairs as a proposed alternative for the home wheelchair lift she had requested. [2]
Veteran Mental Health Care (Multiple cases): An RCMP investigation confirmed multiple veterans seeking PTSD treatment were proactively offered MAID by caseworkers, in at least one case offering MAiD before other treatment options. [3]
COVID Crisis - Inflation, Cost of Living and Systemic Disability Poverty meets MAiD (Disability Community-wide): During the COVID-19 inflation crisis, ICU physicians documented a surge in poverty-driven MAID requests. Disabled Ontarians, mathematically unable to survive on a maximum ODSP income of $1,169 per month before the rapid onset of COVID-induced inflation and additional costs, reportedly utilized euthanasia alongside suicide as the alternative to suffering in destitution. [4][5]
Healthcare Gaps and Spousal Coercion ("Mrs. B"): Following surgical complications, an elderly woman attempted to withdraw her MAiD application in favor of in-patient palliative care, but was denied placement due to system capacity. Regardless, her caregiving husband urgently requested the assessment proceed. Despite the initial assessing physician formally flagging the "possibility of coercion” and denying the case, the system bypassed the warning, denied an objecting assessor's request for an independent reassessment without the husband’s presence, supplied a new assessor, and executed the euthanasia the same day. [6]
Citations: [1] CTV News, "Woman with chemical sensitivities chose medically-assisted death after failed bid to get better housing" (April 13, 2022). [2] CBC News, "Former paralympian tells MPs veterans department offered her assisted death" (December 1, 2022). [3] CBC News, "RCMP called to investigate multiple cases of veterans being offered medically assisted death" (November 24, 2022). [4] CityNews, "ODSP recipients calling for help, exploring assisted dying" (September 2, 2020). [5] NOW Toronto, "Op-ed: ODSP rates are killing people in Ontario" (June 30, 2022). [6] Chief Coroner of Ontario, "Medical Assistance in Dying Death Review Committee (MDRC) Report on Mrs. B" (January 2026).
The Founding Capital Campaign
Right to Live is launching its Founding Campaign and is seeking individual, corporate, and institutional sponsors to back the initialization of operations and execute a three-case pilot. The immediate goal of the campaign is to secure a minimum of $600,000.
Stretch goals include the development of an executable architectural blueprint and systems design for nation-scale service. This foundational roadmap will prepare the corporation to dynamically scale to support caseloads up to, and including, the MAID program's full annual throughput.
The initial funding will be utilized to:
Recruit core executive and operational personnel.
Establish essential operational infrastructure.
Execute a three-case pilot program to prove the model.
Upon completion, the core infrastructure established will be used to continue doing business, utilizing the success of the pilot program to spur market interest.
Right to Live also intends to use the pilot to fully disprove any economic rationalization of euthanasia for those with disabilities, addressing the investigation and concerns raised by the United Nations functionally and in principle. “By brokering the resolution of the driving issues behind systemic poverty-driven disability euthanasia to the open market, at or above the cost to resolve them, we economically prove that the fundamental issue is the absence of an efficient market connection mechanism, not a cost the market will not bear.” Said Eric Holmes.
Sponsorship Opportunities
Right to Live offers scalable, high-impact sponsorship opportunities for corporations and institutions looking to make a historic intervention in Canadian human rights, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and UN Sustainable Development Goals. Tiers range from Official ‘Founding Sponsor’ branding rights to elite Founding Partner status, which includes perpetual historical attribution and public association.
By underwriting this infrastructure, founding sponsors are securing a permanent legacy in transforming a national human rights liability into a benchmark for modern, humane societal design.
To learn more about the campaign, review the official pitch deck, or to inquire about becoming a founding sponsor, please visit www.righttolive.ca or contact the Right to Live sponsorship team.
Media & Sponsorship Contact:
Eric Holmes
Founder & Executive Director, Right to Live
Phone: +1 (647) 859-3441
Headquarters: 12 Parkdale Dr, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada, P6A 5P8
Website: www.righttolive.ca
About Right to Live:
Founded in 2023 and based in a nationwide remote office, Right to Live is a federally registered start-up non-profit corporation developing the missing referrable solution system for Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID). Right to Live directly addresses economic euthanasia—defined as voluntary euthanasia where an alternative was possible but not offered or delivered. Through its tripartite design of solution assessment, case navigation, and social brokerage, the corporation enables choice by providing the most competitive options for a liveable future.