Euthanasia rates are higher in one part of Canada than anywhere else. Why?

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC) reported a jump of more than 25% in euthanasia deaths in Saskatchewan over the past year. According to a post from EPC Executive Director Alex Schadenberg, the Saskatchewan Health Authority reported to EPC that there were 344 assisted deaths in 2023, up from 257 in 2022.

This rise follows a trend that can be seen across the country; EPC has also used data from Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, Manitoba, Alberta and Nova Scotia to estimate that there were 15,280 euthanasia deaths in 2023, a 15.4% increase from 2022. Quebec, the first province in Canada to legalize euthanasia, has the highest euthanasia rate in the world. To put this into perspective, the Canadian government does not quantify deaths by assisted suicide or euthanasia as medical aid in dying (MAiD), but instead lists the person’s underlying illness; if MAiD were a category, it would be the fifth leading cause of death in the nation.

The country can attribute some of these high rates to the fact that it has lax “safeguards” meant to deter people from seeking assisted death. For instance, it has removed the requirement that a person have a terminal illness, instead saying a person must have a “grievous and irremediable” condition, even if that condition is not expected to lead to an imminent death.

READ: ‘Faces of MAID’ social media campaign opposes Canada’s euthanasia program

The increase in Saskatchewan’s euthanasia numbers may also be linked to a rise in suicides outside of assisted death. In 2022, the province saw a record 243 suicides. This isn’t a coincidence; reports have shown that rising assisted death rates correlate to rising suicide rates.

Over the past several years, there have also been a number of stories of people who report being pressured to choose assisted death, even if those people do not have a terminal illness. A Saskatchewan woman with cerebral palsy has repeatedly been offered a MAiD death due to her disability. A Montreal woman with spina bifida was urged to choose assisted death while she received sub-par healthcare. A woman with cancer was told that treatment wasn’t worth it, and that she should choose MAiD instead.

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