FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 11, 2024
The 2023 Health Canada report on MAiD deaths reconfirms that Canada has one of the fastest growing euthanasia and assisted suicide programs in the world. 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.
The rise in euthanasia deaths is doubly alarming considering recent reports from Ontario’s chief coroner and others on hundreds of MAiD compliance problems. Meanwhile, recent polling suggests that more than six in 10 Canadians are worried about ‘financially or socially vulnerable people’ considering MAiD ‘because they can’t access adequate, quality care.’ The same survey reveals that health care access can be especially difficult for Canadians with disabilities.
Given the continued rise in euthanasia deaths, compliance problems, and the need to ensure equitable access to health care and other supports for Canadians it is inconceivable that Canada’s government would move toward further expanding eligibility for MAiD. Instead, Canada’s health minister should be leading the charge for real and effective improvements to the safeguards around euthanasia and assisted suicide.”
- Dr. Rebecca Vachon, Health Program Director at Cardus, a public policy think tank
MEDIA INQUIRIES
Daniel Proussalidis
Cardus – Director of Communications
613-899-5174
media@cardus.ca
Cardus – Imagination toward a thriving society
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.