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Children’s author Robert Munsch approved for assisted death in Canada after dementia diagnosis

The Canadian storyteller who gave the world ‘Love You Forever’ has been approved for assisted death in Canada.

Beloved Canadian children's author Robert Munsch, has chosen assisted death

Robert Munsch, the author who taught us love and resilience, chooses a medically assisted death as he faces dementia. (Source: littlebooklounge.easy.co)

Beloved Canadian children’s author Robert Munsch, whose stories such as Love You Forever and The Paper Bag Princess have been bedtime staples for generations, has been approved for a medically assisted death. For the 80-year-old storyteller, this decision is a final act of personal agency in the face of illnesses that are steadily diminishing him.

Munsch, who was diagnosed with dementia in 2021 and also lives with Parkinson’s disease, has been clear that he will not act on the approval immediately. Instead, he is faced with a difficult timing—he must choose a moment while he is still mentally capable of making the request himself.

“I have to pick the moment when I can still ask for it,” Munsch told the National Post. The diseases have already stripped away the abilities that once defined his daily life: “I can’t drive, I can’t ride a bicycle, I can’t write.”

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Legal and personal tightrope

A collection of children books by Robert Munsch

Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) law was legalised in 2016 and expanded in 2021. While the law allows for a “waiver of final consent” for those who risk losing capacity after approval, it mandates that any sign of resistance—a word, gesture, or sound—at the time of the procedure nullifies the agreement.

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This places dementia patients such as Munsch in a race against time, forcing them to make the choice to end their lives before they lose the mental competence to consent, lest they become trapped in a state they wished to avoid.

Munsch’s books, known for their boundless imagination and deep understanding of a child’s world, have sold tens of millions of copies. Love You Forever, with its iconic refrain, has become a cultural touchstone, a book passed down through families to express a love that endures.