Assisted suicide was responsible for killing one in 20 Canadians last year, according to newly released data.
The federal government released its fifth annual Medical Assistance in Dying report which revealed that of the 19,660 applications received by Health Canada last year, 15,343 individuals were approved for assisted suicide.
“The remaining cases were requests for MAID that did not result in MAID being provided (2,906 died before receiving MAID, 915 individuals were deemed ineligible and 496 individuals withdrew their request),” reads the report.
That figure accounts for 4.7% of all 326,471 deaths in Canada in 2023.
Since the program’s inception in 2016, 60,301 people have now resorted to assisted suicide through the taxpayer-funded program.
The annual number of deaths has taken a sharp incline in recent years as the Trudeau government continues to broaden the scope of the program’s eligibility, which offers people a lethal cocktail to be administered either orally or intravenously.
While only 1,018 people received assisted suicide under the program in 2016, nearly 20,000 people applied for it in 2023, with an approval rating of over 80.5%.
Initially, it was only made available to adults whose natural death was “reasonably foreseeable” but it was expanded to those whose natural death is not “reasonably foreseeable” in 2021, such as people with non-terminal illnesses and disabilities.
However, the Liberals aren’t stopping there, having already expressed plans to further expand program eligibility to those suffering solely from mental illness by 2027.
This target has been met with strong pushback from many Canadians and scrutinized by others outside the country as well.
Still, many Canadians have already received assisted suicide for much lesser things than a terminal illness, such as Alan Nichols, who was euthanized at the age of 51 because he suffered from “hearing loss.”
Another incident involved a 54-year-old man named Amir Farsoud, who applied for MAID in 2022 because he was unable to work due to chronic pain and feared he would soon be homeless.
Fortunately, good Samaritans raised enough money for him to change his mind before his assisted suicide could occur.
According to the report, men are slightly more likely to receive MAID than women overall, however, the data differs in terms of track assessment.
Track 1 recipients were slightly more likely to be male at 51.2%, with women at 48.8%. Whereas women were more likely to receive MAID for Track 2 than men, at 58.5% and 41.5%, respectively.
“These findings are consistent with overall population health trends. Women are more likely to experience long-term chronic conditions, such as osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, dementia, asthma and rheumatoid arthritis.” reads the report. “While such conditions can cause enduring suffering, they would not typically make a person’s death reasonably foreseeable. In contrast, men experience higher rates of heart disease and the most severe forms of cancer, which have a higher mortality burden.”
The newly released data also broke down the assisted suicide deaths by race with the overwhelming majority of recipients being caucasian.
“A total of 9,619 people of the 15,343 who received MAID responded to this question, the vast majority of whom (95.8%) identified as Caucasian (White),” it reads. “The second most commonly reported racial, ethnic or cultural identity was East Asian (1.8%).”
Wait times for assisted suicide applicants vary depending on whether they are considered Track 1 or Track 2 individuals.
“For individuals assessed as Track 1, there is no minimum specified period of time that must pass between completion of the eligibility assessment and MAID provision,” reads the report.
The median number of days between the MAID request and MAID provision for this cohort was 13 days last year.
“For individuals assessed as Track 2, the legislation requires practitioners to ensure there are at least 90 clear days between the date the first assessment began and the day on which MAID is provided,” it said.
Private residences were the most common locations for people to receive assisted suicide, accounting for 37.8%, followed by hospitals at 32.7%. Palliative care facilities, residential care facilities, funeral homes and community-based settings accounted for the rest.
“Consistent with previous years, the majority of MAID provisions occurred in Quebec (36.5%), Ontario (30.3%) and British Columbia (18.0%) in 2023, with these three provinces accounting for nearly 85% of all MAID provisions,” reads the report.
“The number of MAID provisions increased in most jurisdictions, except for Prince Edward Island where the number remained the same as in 2022, and in the Yukon and Newfoundland and Labrador where the number decreased.”