'Unparalled growth' Canada's assisted dying laws in spotlight as expansion plan put on pause

When Canada's justice minister announced plans to legalise medically assisted dying nearly a decade ago, she acknowledged the proposed law might prove divisive.

- Leyland Cecco

"For some, medical assistance in dying will be troubling," Jody Wilson-Raybould said in 2016. "For others, this legislation will not go far enough." 

A fresh delay in expanding the scope of who can access a medically assisted death has once again put a spotlight on the Canadian system, seen as one of the most liberal in the world.

Medical assistance in dying (Maid) laws, crafted in response to a supreme court decision, initially permitted only terminally ill Canadians to be eligible for the procedure. But in 2019, a Quebec judge ruled that restricting access to those who had a "reasonably foreseeable death" was unconstitutional, forcing federal lawmakers to amend and expand the existing laws.

In the years since, Canada's experiment in physician-assisted death has made international headlines - including a feature article in the Atlantic magazine last year that investigated how the country's assisted dying laws "went wrong". In 2021, three UN human rights experts cautioned that an expansion to the law, which permitted people with chronic conditions to apply for assisted death, would create a "two-tiered system" and push people with disabilities towards suicide.

Government figures show that 13,102 people ended their lives under Maid in 2022 - an increase of 30% on the previous year.

In a survey of those 13,102 Canadians who ended their lives under Maid, the vast majority cited the "loss of ability to engage in meaningful life activities" as the reason for wanting to die. But other responses have troubled healthcare experts. More than one-third of respondents said their decision was, in part, informed by a feeling they were a perceived burden on family, friends or caregivers.

The rise means Canada has one of the highest rates of euthanasia in the world, with 4.1% of deaths aided by doctors.