Medically-assisted deaths in Canada accounted for nearly 1 in 20 deaths last year, reaching a record high, according to new data released by Health Canada on Wednesday.
The report revealed that 15,343 people, or 4.7% of all deaths in Canada, used the country’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) program in 2023.
This represents a 15.8% increase compared to 2022 when 13,241 Canadians accessed the program. Since the legalization of MAID in 2016, the program has overseen the deaths of 60,301 individuals.
A total of 19,660 Canadians requested MAID in 2023, but not all requests resulted in medically assisted deaths. In prior years, the number of people accessing MAID grew by an average of 31% annually. However, growth slowed last year but still rose by 15.8%.
MAID allows eligible individuals to receive medical assistance to end their lives through the use of lethal substances administered either orally or intravenously.
Health Canada describes the program as a health service for those experiencing “grievous and irremediable” suffering.
Canada’s figures place it among the countries with the highest rates of medically assisted deaths.
The Netherlands continues to lead globally, with 5.4% of all deaths—9,068 in total—occurring through assisted dying in 2023. The practice in the Netherlands has been legal for 22 years and continues to grow at an annual rate of about 8%.
In 2018, bioethicists in Canada proposed the legalization of child euthanasia, allowing minors to access MAID without parental approval.
Published in the Journal of Medical Ethics, the proposal argued MAID should be treated like other end-of-life decisions, with confidentiality upheld if a child opts to exclude their parents.
If, however, a capable [child] patient explicitly indicates that they do not want their family members involved in their decision-making, although healthcare providers may encourage the patient to reconsider and involve their family, ultimately the wishes of capable patients with respect to confidentiality must be respected. If we regard MAID as practically and ethically equivalent to other medical decisions that result in the end of life, then confidentiality regarding MAID should be managed in this same way.
The essay proposes safeguarding the identities of medical staff who provide assisted suicide for children, stating, “The names of healthcare providers at The Hospital for Sick Children who have volunteered to provide MAID will not be made public, nor will the full list of individuals in our working group be disclosed.”
We will, however, as an institution, publicly discuss the provision of MAID in an effort to normalise this procedure and reduce social stigma for everyone involved. It is right and appropriate for this duty to fall to a well-resourced institution rather than rest on the shoulders of individual patients and providers.
If euthanasia is extended beyond adults, it is likely only a matter of time before it is no longer limited to the “terminally ill” or the “suffering.” Instead, it could be expanded to include individuals facing a range of quality-of-life issues.
We know this because it’s already happening in the Netherlands, which has seen doctors euthanising an elderly woman against her will, a man being euthanised because he was an alcoholic, two women euthanised due to traumatic childhood memories, a woman euthanised because she had a pathological fear of germs, and a 34-year-old mother euthanised due to depression.
People don’t usually choose to end their life while in the right state of mind. They only ever reach that point because they believe the lie of “euthanasia.”
Death is the final indignity, no matter what form it takes. But the message of “assisted suicide” deceptively suggests otherwise.
Euthanasia, the “good death,” cannot be preached without falsely portraying suicide as a solution for some. It is to tell vulnerable people, who may have otherwise recovered, that suicide just may be the best option. But there is no such thing as a “good death.”
