More than 13,000 Canadians chose a medically assisted death in 2022 — a 31 per cent increase over 2021 when 10,000 people chose MAID, a new report from Health Canada says.
Advocates for disabled people say they are concerned the increase is due, in part, to the requirement that death be “reasonably foreseeable” being removed in March 2021.
“We know that people with disabilities are suffering because they cannot get access to health care, mental health supports, safe housing or disability services they need to live in the community,” Kerri Joffe, a staff lawyer at ARCH Disability Law Centre, wrote in a statement.
“We are very concerned that the increasing number of MAID deaths is linked to this deep social and economic inequality.”
Disability is a condition of eligibility for MAID.
Last year, 463 people whose deaths were not reasonably foreseeable chose MAID, more than double the 223 in 2021.
People who chose MAID when their deaths were not reasonably foreseeable were younger than those whose deaths were reasonably foreseeable, the report says. Nearly half of deaths — 42 per cent — that weren’t reasonably foreseeable were people between the ages of 18 and 70, compared to 29 per cent of deaths that were reasonably foreseeable.
The average age of people who died was 77.
The number of deaths by MAID increased in all provinces and territories, except for the Yukon and Manitoba.
For context, 311,650 Canadians died in 2021, the most recent full-year data available, meaning MAID accounted for approximately three per cent of all deaths in 2021.
Loss of ability to participate
Cancer was listed as the main medical condition in 63 per cent of MAID deaths.
Most people who chose MAID — 86 per cent — listed the loss of ability to participate in meaningful activities as their cause of suffering. Other causes included the inability to do daily living tasks, inability to control pain, perceptions of being a burden on others and loneliness.
Overall interest in MAID in Canada has increased. There were 16,100 written requests for MAID in 2022, 27 per cent more than in 2021. According to the report, 2,150 people died of another cause after requesting MAID.
That number “raised questions,” Dying with Dignity Canada, an organization that supports increased access to MAID, said in a statement.
“We worry that this is due to a lack of access to MAID services in some regions of the country,” the statement says.
Physician-assisted suicide was made legal in 2016. At that time, the law restricted MAID to adults with a “grievous and irremediable” medical condition — an incurable illness, disease or disability — whose deaths were “reasonably foreseeable.”
This new report comes less than five months before Canada is set to allow MAID for adults whose only medical condition is mental illness.
Last week, a Conservative private member’s bill opposing this expansion was narrowly defeated in the House of Commons by a vote of 150-167, Canadian Affairs reported.
The Conservatives, New Democratic Party and Greens supported that bill, along with eight Liberals. Sixteen MPs — including 12 Liberals — abstained.
In a statement Wednesday, Health Canada said future reports will include additional information about the demographics of people who request MAID and more information about the palliative care and disability supports they received.
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