Earlier this month, the Office of the Chief Coroner for Ontario released new reports highlighting some of the reasons some Canadians have chosen medical assistance in dying (MAiD, which in Canada involves euthanasia — meaning medically-administered injection rather than self-administered — over 99.9 per cent of the time). The reports have received international attention for what they highlight, including patients being euthanized despite untreated mental illness and addictions, unclear medical diagnoses and suffering fuelled by housing insecurity, poverty and social marginalization.
Some are shocked by what these reports reveal , but none should be surprised. This is what happens when you let the foxes run the henhouse , as Canada has arguably done by allowing right-to-die advocacy to shape policy and replace evidence. Canada’s medical assistance in dying (MAiD) laws , introduced for those in terminal situations, were expanded by the Trudeau government in 2021 to allow death by MAiD via “Track 2” to Canadians struggling with disabilities who were not dying.
In 2023, Track 2 represented 2.6 per cent of the 4,644 MAiD deaths in Ontario, or 116 people. I am not a conscientious objector.
I am a psychiatrist and previously chaired my former hospital’s MAiD team. However, I believe we’ve experienced a bait and switch: laws initially intended to compassionately help Canadians avoid suffering a painful death have metastasized into policies facilitating suicides of othe.