A record 16,499 people died by euthanasia in Canada in 2024, accounting for 5.1% of all deaths in the country.
According to the latest report on “medical assistance in dying” (MAiD) from Health Canada released at the end of last month, there was a 6.9% increase in state-assisted deaths in Canada in 2024.
In 2024, although assisted suicide is permitted, in which the person who wishes to end their own life self-administers the lethal substance, there was not a single case of assisted suicide. Instead, every single person who died under Canada’s MAiD programme died by euthanasia. In 2023, there were fewer than five instances of assisted suicide.
There have been a total of 76,475 instances of euthanasia and assisted suicide since they were made legal in Canada in 2016.
Among the factors recorded by medical practitioners as part of a person’s application for euthanasia in 2024, 75.5% of people cited “loss of independence”, a significant increase from 2023, when 52.2% cited “loss of independence”. 48.5% of all those who died by euthanasia cited being a “perceived burden on family, friends or caregivers”. Among those whose natural death was not reasonably foreseeable (Track 2), over half (50.3%) were concerned about being a burden.
Additionally, 58.1% of those who died by euthanasia in Canada in 2024 cited emotional “distress/anxiety/fear/existential suffering”, a 19.8 percentage point increase on the number of people who cited this end-of-life concern in 2023.
Over a fifth of people (22.9%) who died by euthanasia in Canada in 2024 had “isolation or loneliness” recorded by a medical practitioner in their application for euthanasia. Significantly, 44.7% of those on Track 2, whose deaths were not reasonably foreseeable, experienced isolation or loneliness.
Deaths not reasonably foreseeable
In Canada, euthanasia and assisted suicide are permitted under two separate Tracks, 1 and 2, where the former includes people whose deaths were “reasonably foreseeable”, and the latter includes people whose deaths were not “reasonably foreseeable”.
The total number of people who died by euthanasia under Track 2 increased by 17.12% from 625 in 2023 to 732 in 2024.
There were a total of 732 Track 2 deaths by euthanasia, and these deaths included diabetes, frailty, autoimmune conditions and chronic pain among some of the most commonly cited underlying medical conditions. 56.7% of Track 2 deaths were female compared to 43.3% male.
Of those who died by euthanasia and who responded to the question about whether they self-identified as having a disability (16,104 of the 16,499, 97%), 61.5% of those whose deaths were not reasonably foreseeable self-identified as having a disability, compared to just 31.6% of those whose deaths were reasonably foreseeable.
Legislation was introduced in February 2024 so that euthanasia and assisted suicide would become legal on the grounds of mental health alone in March 2027.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “It is shocking that almost two-thirds of those who died by euthanasia and whose death was not reasonably foreseeable self-identified as disabled”.
“As we see time and again in Canada and other jurisdictions that record the reasons that people opt for euthanasia and assisted suicide, the end-of-life concerns are predominantly non-medical. ‘Isolation and loneliness’, ‘existential suffering’, being a burden – none of these are medical. Rather, they are psychological, emotional, familial and even spiritual in nature, and the state should not be assisting such people to end their lives to escape this normal part of the human condition”.
“Instead, people experiencing these hardships need support and love, not despair and an early grave. MPs and MSPs in the UK would do well to reflect on the experiences of Canada and understand that we have a chance not to make the same mistakes here”.
