The Canadian government this month released the annual report on its euthanasia program, Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID), revealing that 16,499 people were killed via the program in 2024 — a 6.9% increase from 2023.
The government granted nearly 75% of all requests for euthanasia in 2024, according to the Sixth Annual Report. In total, 22,535 people requested MAID, 1,327 people were deemed “ineligible,” 4,017 died of another cause, and 692 people withdrew their request.
The rest had their request granted and were killed.
The 2024 report states, “While the total number of MAID provisions increased in 2024, the rate of growth decreased substantially,” noting that between 2019 and 2020 there was a 36.8% annual growth rate in MAID provisions.
“These findings seem to suggest that the number of annual MAID provisions is beginning to stabilize. However, it will take several more years before long-term trends can be conclusively identified,” the report notes.
Amanda Achtman, a Catholic Canadian anti-MAID activist, commented in a Nov. 28 X thread about the report.
“While the Government is trying to assuage concerns by saying rates are ‘stabilizing,’” she wrote, “MAID continues to represent a significant death toll and betrays a deeper cultural crisis of meaning and care.”
Of the people who were approved to be euthanized, 4.4% did not have a terminal diagnosis or reasonably foreseeable death. “Track 2” refers to people who request MAID without a terminal diagnosis but have a “grievous and irremediable medical condition,” and “Track 1” is for those who request MAID and have a terminal diagnosis or reasonably foreseeable death. Of the MAID requests that were determined ineligible, nearly one-fifth were from Track 2.
Those who were euthanised under Track 2 tended to be women, a little younger, and people who had suffered from their illness for a substantially longer period of time.
The average age of people who died by MAID under Track 1 was 78, and 60.9% were over 75. The most frequently reported underlying medical condition for those on Track 1 was cancer (63.6% of cases), according to the report. A slight majority of people on Track 1 were men (52.2%).
For those who were on Track 2, the average age was 75.9 years old and 53.5% were older than 75. About 57% of the people on Track 2 were women.
For those who were euthanized on Track 2, the most commonly cited underlying medical conditions were neurological conditions and “other” conditions such as diabetes, frailty, chronic pain, and autoimmune conditions, according to the report.
In 2024, of the 15,927 people who were euthanized who responded to self-identification questions on race and Indigenous identity, 95.6% identified as Caucasian, and 1.6% identified as East Asian, according to the report. Most of the remaining people were Native Americans; 102 people self-identified as First Nations, 57 identified as Métis, and seven identified as Inuit.
Of the 16,104 people who were euthanized who responded to the self-identification question on disability, 5,295 self-identified as having a disability, according to the report.
Almost 85% of all deaths by MAID occurred in the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia (36.4%, 30.0%, and 18.2%).
In June 2024, the government of Quebec adopted a law enabling people to “consent” in advance to euthanasia if they have been diagnosed with an illness such as dementia. The law went into effect in October that year.
In April, Dr. Ramona Coelho, MDCM, CCFP, a member of Ontario’s MAID Death Review Committee, warned in April that Canada is “rushing to death” through quick approvals of MAID requests, CatholicVote previously reported.
Euthanasia is now the fourth leading cause of death in Canada, according to Alexander Raikin, a visiting fellow in bioethics and American democracy at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.
Achtman noted in her X thread that the annual report stated that 55 people who withdrew their request for death by MAID did so “because they had someone in their life who they considered important who does not support MAID.”
Achtman urged readers to fight back against the culture of euthanasia by being “this person” who shows those considering euthanasia the value of their life.
“Be the one,” she wrote, “who tells someone to stay!”