Canada’s assisted suicide policies are nothing to emulate, scholars tell UK

Scholars reportedly used Canada as an example to warn about the potential harms of pro-physician assisted suicide laws on Tuesday as the United Kingdom’s parliament weighed the issue. 

“I would say Canada is a warning sign for countries that contemplate legalising medical assistance in dying or assisted suicide and euthanasia,” Canadian professor Trudo Lemmens told lawmakers, according to PA News Agency.

Both he and Dr. Scott Kim of the University of Michigan told lawmakers that the tactic was not being used as a last resort despite what advocates often claim. Lemmens went so far as to describe Canada as “the most open-ended system in the world.”

The country’s assisted suicide program – known as Medical Assistance in Dying or MAID – has reportedly been criticized for a lack of safeguards and purportedly discriminatory impact on disabled people. The nation also reportedly leads the world in assisted suicide for prisoners.

Their testimony came amid criticism of the Canadian system and news of people seeking assisted suicide for concerns like homelessness, lack of medical care access, and hearing loss. The government is set to expand MAID in 2024 to include those suffering with a mental disorder. It’s possible MAID access could expand, with a special committee in the nation’s parliament suggesting the practice for minors. Ethicists’ have also controversially suggested MAID for individuals facing unjust social conditions.

Kim, who agreed with the “warning sign” assessment, said: “The law itself says this doesn’t have to be last resort, which means that a person could genuinely lack access to disability services, to outpatient psychiatric treatment, which is common in Canada. Those people would still qualify. And I think that’s a very disturbing societal norm.”

Earlier this year, an op-ed pointed out that Canada’s assisted suicide rate was a shocking 22 times higher than that of the U.S. The author compared California, which had 3,344 such deaths between 2016 and 2021, to Canada, which had 31,664 during the same time period.

Canada’s health ministry reported that in 2021, the country saw 10,064 reported MAID provisions. That represented 3.3% of all deaths in Canada and a 32.4% increase since 2020. Of the 12,286 written requests for MAID, 81% (9,950) resulted in the administration of the service. Just 487 individuals (4% of requests) were deemed ineligible for MAID in 2021 with the most common reason (33.1%) being that the individual was not capable of making decisions about their health. The percentage ineligible for 2021 was slightly lower than in 2020 (6.1%) and 2019 (7.9%).

Lemmens, who’s on the faculty of the University of Toronto law school, said he supported legalization but argued the system had become a form of “harm reduction.”

“I would confirm that one of the concerns that people like me have who have supported actually the initial legislation is that originally there was a denial of the fact that we had cases of people who were asking for Maid [medical assistance in dying] because they lacked adequate support,” he said.

“There is now an explicit admission of some of the strong advocates for broader access to MaID that these cases are happening, that they’re a solution to a worse-off situation. So it has been defended even as a form of harm reduction, to offer MAID when people don’t have adequate access to social support and care. So I think that’s a serious concern.”

Their comments came as multiple jurisdictions weigh assisted suicide policies. Canada has reportedly been used as a cautionary tale in Scotland as well.

Both Kim and Lemmens were testifying in front of the Health and Social Care Committee, which is expected to release a report on the issue at the end of the year. The committee’s activity has prompted bold input from both sides of the debate. 

As Live Action News previously noted, former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey broke with his church and backed legalization as both “profoundly Christian” and an “act of love.” 

Dr. James Downar, a University of Toronto professor and palliative care physician, reportedly pushed back on Kim’s criticism of Canada on Tuesday. 

“I would say there definitely are issues of access to services in parts of this country, that is absolutely true,” he said.

“I would simply state that what we know of the individuals who are receiving Maid that, you know, 96% received or had good access to disability supports, 98% received or had access to palliative care supports. That’s not just a self-report. That was corroborated by coroners’ reports in Ontario for the first 3,000 cases. I published work on that.”

“Again, it’s important to distinguish that, you know, while there are access issues broadly in Canada, in the UK, in the US – this is a very, very true statement – that those access issues very much do not seem like they are driving MAID decisions to any substantial degree at all.”

Regardless, the debate raises questions about how society views human life and ethical responses to suffering.  The Suicide Act of 1961 currently criminalizes assisting another person’s suicide in England and Wales, punishing them with 14 years in prison. In December, Parliament announced it was launching a committee for reviewing evidence on the issue – including from places like Oregon and Canada. Assisted suicide has seen support in polling and from celebrities such as Prue Leith, a host of The Great British Bake Off, but it faces staunch opposition from faith leaders in the Anglican and Catholic churches. 

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