New survey data reveals undercurrent of concern about the effects of legal euthanasia
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
21 November, 2024
OTTAWA – More than six in 10 Canadians worry that “financially or socially vulnerable people” might consider euthanasia “because they can’t access adequate, quality care.” That finding comes from a survey by the Angus Reid Institute in partnership with Cardus.
The same survey reveals that health care access can be especially difficult for Canadians with disabilities. Fully 57% of respondents with severe disabilities say they’ve faced discrimination in healthcare because of their impairments or limitations. Almost half of those with moderate disabilities say the same. These experiences include worse access and quality of care, as well as difficulty finding a primary care doctor, inaccessible treatment or testing locations. Those living with severe disabilities also report the strongest concerns with who might opt for medical assistance in dying, or MAiD, due to issues with care, compared to those without disabilities.
Furthermore, polling healthcare workers revealed concerns about access to timely, quality care for persons with disabilities, and 40% of these healthcare workers report feeling unequipped to support the needs of their patients living with disabilities.
“Disability advocates have long been raising the alarm about how MAiD has introduced increased risk to the lives of vulnerable Canadians, compounding existing issues and discrimination within society and within healthcare,” states Dr. Rebecca Vachon, health program director at Cardus. “And as recent MAiD reports from Ontario’s Chief Coroner have shown, alongside reporting on hundreds of compliance issues in Ontario, vulnerable Canadians are paying the price for failures in care.”
While the majority of Canadians remain broadly supportive of legal euthanasia, there are undercurrents of concern. One in five Canadians worries that euthanasia is being overused. Previous Cardus research found that by 2022, Canada’s euthanasia deaths had grown 13 times higher than they were in 2016, the year when the practice became legal. Euthanasia has now tied with strokes and other similar ailments as the fifth leading cause of death in the country. Restrictions that exist elsewhere in the world, such as requiring patients to raise the option of MAiD and prohibiting physicians from raising it unsolicited, are not found in Canada. As the poll shows, 6% of Canadians know a close friend or family member who had the option of MAiD raised to them unsolicited. And of those who received an unsolicited offer, 37% accepted it.
“Canada has the fastest-growing euthanasia program in the world, which should prompt pause and reflection rather than continued expansion,” continued Vachon. “The law is supposed to protect the vulnerable. It’s not doing its job.”
Full details on the survey data are available online.
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MEDIA INQUIRIES
Daniel Proussalidis
Cardus – Director of Communications
613-241-4500 x508
media@cardus.ca
Dave Korzinski
Angus Reid Institute – Research Director
205-899-0821
dave.korzinski@angusreid.org
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Cardus is a non-partisan think tank dedicated to clarifying and strengthening, through research and dialogue, the ways in which society’s institutions can work together for the common good.