Last year saw another double-digit increase in Canadian citizens opting to end their lives under the country’s far-reaching euthanasia/assisted suicide law. The figure now stands at over 15,000 as both demand for the procedure and the grounds for accessing it expand. Canada has seen the most rapid growth in euthanasia of any country in the world.
Health Canada’s fifth annual ‘Medical Assistance In Dying’ (MAID) report reveals that assisted suicide and euthanasia accounted for nearly 1 in 20 deaths in the country.
Government statistics indicated that 15,343 people were euthanized by medical officials in Canada in 2023, out of a total of just under 20,000 requests. Those numbers represent “an increase of 15.8%” over 2022, the report says, a drop from an average annual growth rate of about 31%.
Though the growth rate declined, it is “not yet possible to make reliable conclusions about whether or not these findings represent a stabilisation of growth rates over the longer term,” the report said.