Euthanasia Now Responsible for Nearly 5% of Deaths in Canada

Voluntary euthanasia in Canada led to more than 15,000 deaths in 2023, according to a government report.

The procedures made up 4.7 percent of deaths in Canada last year, new government data shows, according to the BBC.

The report put the mean age of those who died via assisted suicide at just above 77.

About 96 percent of patients had what the report called “reasonably foreseeable” deaths due to cancer or other conditions.

The report noted that patients in a minority of cases wanted to die after a long illness they believed impacted their quality of life.

Canada legalized assisted death in 2016. Australia, New Zealand, Spain and Austria also have laws allowing people to partake in medically assisted suicide.

Canada requires two independent healthcare providers to support a patient’s request to die.

Quebec, which is home to about 22 percent of the Canadian population, accounted for about 37 percent of voluntary euthanasia deaths nationwide.

Canada created the medically assisted dying process for the terminally ill, but expanded the program to include people who believe their quality of life is severely impacted by an illness. They were planning to include the mentally ill this year, but delayed that step amid concerns about the scope of the expansion.

In October, a government committee showed that what was termed an “unmet social need” led to some deaths, according to the Associated Press.

“To finally have a government report that recognizes these cases of concern is extremely important,” Dr. Ramona Coelho, a member of the committee, said. “We’ve been gaslit for so many years when we raised fears about people getting MAiD because they were poor, disabled or socially isolated.”

The committee cited the case of an unemployed man in his 40s with bowel disease whose background included substance abuse and mental health issues. The man was called “socially vulnerable and isolated,” yet a psychiatrist suggested euthanasia as an option as part of a mental health assessment, raising eyebrows among panel members.

Trudo Lemmens, a professor of health law and policy at the University of Toronto, said Canadian medical and judicial authorities appeared “unwilling to curtail practices that appear ethically problematic.”

“Either the law is too broad, or the professional guidance not precise enough,” Lemmens remarked. “Or it is simply not seen as a priority to protect some of our most vulnerable citizens.”

Support for a ban on doctors proactively offering euthanasia or assisted suicide to patients is almost evenly split in Canada, finds survey by @angusreidorg in partnership with @cardusca. https://t.co/9xT8L7ItfM #healthcare #MAiD pic.twitter.com/MMLqNcXtgT

— Cardus (@cardusca) December 12, 2024

The group Cardus, which opposes voluntary euthanasia, said that voluntary euthanasia has become the fifth-leading cause of death in Canada.

“Assisted dying was not meant to become a routine way of dying,” the group wrote in a report on the rise in assisted deaths.

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