Federal law sets out basic eligibility criteria for euthanasia under the Criminal Code. But these criteria are inadequate to screen out vulnerable patients who feel pressured to consider MAID, or to seek MAID due to economic or psychosocial factors. The courts have been clear that both federal and provincial governments have authority to enact MAID safeguards. Provinces cannot criminalize MAID, but they can set in place additional safeguards to protect vulnerable patients. Alberta and Quebec have both passed their own provincial MAID legislation.  

Patients are being euthanized whose suffering could be relieved in other ways, over time. Provincial safeguards should seek to protect vulnerable patients from dying by MAID when there are other options available. For example, some patients in crisis have been offered MAID instead of help to live well. Others have requested MAID despite unaddressed mental illness, economic vulnerability, housing insecurity, or lack of social support.  

Our organization’s concern for the vulnerable is rooted in our Christian faith, but religious and non-religious Canadians across the political spectrum have raised serious concerns about MAID in Canada. Last year, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities said it was “extremely concerned” and recommended repealing MAID for people who are not nearing natural death. Disability rights advocates across the country have condemned offering MAID to Canadians with disabilities who are not dying.  

MAID is the 4^th leading cause of death in Canada, and we have the fastest growing rate of MAID in the world.  Over 100,000 Canadians have died by MAID in just 10 years. In 2024, 16,499 Canadians died by MAID. California, by contrast, had only 1,032 assisted suicide deaths the same year, despite having a population roughly equivalent to Canada’s. Reports from the Ontario Coroner’s office have revealed that MAID is often offered as a solution for suffering rather than a last resort, that medical professionals sometimes fail to follow existing safeguards, and that patients with unresolved mental illness, addiction, and other concerns receive MAID instead of the help they need. Nearly 50% of those who die by MAID feel like a burden on loved ones, and nearly 45% of those who received MAID but were not dying suffered from isolation and loneliness.  

Doctors and nurses should never start a conversation about MAID with a patient. Instead, they should only discuss MAID when asked about it.

MAID should never be offered for mental illness or disability. Rather, provinces should only permit MAID where a patient’s prognosis of natural death is six months or less. 

There should also be better procedures to detect external pressures that may be affecting someone’s decision to choose MAID. For example, including family members and ensuring a patient’s previous doctors have been consulted.

Finally, provinces should respect the freedom of health care professionals and institutions not to provide or facilitate MAID.