While the number of assisted deaths in Canada is growing, the country still falls behind the Netherlands, where euthanasia accounted for around 5% of total deaths last year.
UK MPs voted late last month to pass a similar bill that gives terminally ill adults in England and Wales the right to have an assisted death, though it will face months of further scrutiny before it could become law.
As British MPs debated the legislation, Canada was cited by some as a cautionary tale due to its perceived lack of safeguards.
Like the UK, Canada initially only legalised assisted dying for those whose death was “reasonably foreseeable”.
However, Canada expanded access in 2021 to people who may not have a terminal diagnosis, but want to end their life because of a chronic, debilitating condition.
It was set to broaden access once again to people with mental illnesses earlier this year.
But that was delayed for the second time after concerns were raised by Canadian provinces, which oversee healthcare delivery, about whether the system could cope with such an expansion.
On Wednesday, Health Canada defended the procedure, saying that the criminal code sets out “strict eligibility” criteria.
But Cardus, a Christian think tank, said the latest figures were “alarming” and showed Canada has one of the fastest growing euthanasia programmes in the world.
A report released in October by Ontario – Canada’s most populous province – has since shed some light on controversial cases where people were granted assisted dying when they were not nearing their natural death.
One example included a woman in her 50s with a history of depression and suicidal thoughts who had a severe sensitivity to chemicals.
Her request for euthanasia was granted after she failed to secure housing that could have met her medical needs.
Another case made headlines in recent months of a Nova Scotia cancer patient who said she was asked if she was aware of assisted dying as an option twice as she underwent mastectomy surgeries.
The question “came up in completely inappropriate places”, she told the National Post.
Canadian news outlets have also reported on cases where people with disabilities have considered assisted dying due to lack of housing or disability benefits.
