The number of people who died using the federal government’s euthanasia program increased once again in 2023.
According to Health Canada, 15,343 people were helped to die through Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID), a 15.8 per cent increase on 2022.
That’s a slower rate of growth compared with 2019–2022, however, which saw an average increase of 31 per cent.
But Health Canada’s report said “it is not yet possible to make reliable conclusions about whether or not these findings represent a stabilization of growth rates over the longer term.”
Still, the 15,343 MAID deaths represented 4.7 per cent of all deaths in Canada last year. Since 2016, about 60,000 people have died using MAID.
Health Canada said 19,660 MAID requests were submitted in 2023, but 2,906 applicants died before they received the service, 915 were deemed ineligible and 496 withdrew their requests.
The most common reason for a MAID request to be refused was that the person was found not “capable of making decisions with respect to their health”
The largest proportion of MAID deaths occurred in Quebec (36.5 per cent) and Ontario (30.3 per cent).
In British Columbia, there were 2,759 MAID deaths in 2023, representing 18 per cent of the total.
BC represents about 13.5 per cent of Canada’s population, meaning the province is responsible for a disproportionate amount of MAID deaths. Quebec (23 per cent of Canada’s population) recorded an even larger disproportion in the number of deaths, while Ontario (38.5 per cent) recorded a disproportionately smaller amount.
Health Canada’s report also showed that:
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The average age of MAID recipients was 77.6
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More men (51.2 per cent) than women (48.8 per cent) received MAID
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Cancer was the most common reason for MAID requests
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Despite making up less than 70 per cent of the population, 95.8 per cent of MAID recipients were white; 1.8 per cent were East Asian
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80 people identifying as First Nations received MAID
MAID has been legal since 2015. It consists of two “tracks” – those whose death is “reasonably foreseeable,” and those whose death isn't “reasonably foreseeable.”
Only 4.1 per cent, or 622 people, of 2023’s MAID deaths were the latter track.
The program was set to expand earlier this year to include people with mental illnesses.
Health Minister Mark Holland, however, pushed the expansion back to 2027 amid complaints federally and from the provinces that Canada wasn’t ready for the change.
But Holland said then: “We accept equivalency in the suffering of mental suffering and physical suffering.”
MAID has proved controversial since its introduction, with some opponents of the policy highlighting examples where people have been offered unsolicited advice about MAID while being treated by health care providers.
Responding to the new report from Health Canada, Dr. Rebecca Vachon from the Christian think tank Cardus said the increase in MAID deaths is “alarming.”
The report shows MAID is “one of the fastest-growing euthanasia and assisted suicide programs in the world,” she said. She added: “The dramatic rise in MAID deaths since 2016 is far faster than the federal government, the courts, or pro-euthanasia activists ever publicly predicted before or since legalization.”
Dr. Vachon also said it is “inconceivable” that the federal government would move forward with plans to expand the service.
In a separate statement from Cardus and Dr. Vachon, the think tank pointed to a new survey showing 40 per cent of Canadians think doctors “shouldn’t be allowed to mention MAID until the patient asks for it.”
“MAID is not just another care option and should not be presented as such,” Dr. Vachon said.
The Liberals, meanwhile, have defended MAID as a necessary and compassionate service that allows people to die with dignity on their own terms.
