Paul Tuns:
Health Canada released its Sixth Annual Report on Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada on Nov. 28, providing data regarding Canada’s euthanasia and assisted-suicide regime in 2024, the most recent year for which there is completed data. According to the report, 16,499 Canadians were killed by euthanasia, an increase of seven per cent compared to 2023 when there were 15,427 euthanasia deaths. In 2024 in Canada, more than one in 20 deaths in the country (5.1 per cent) is through Medical Assistance in Dying.
Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, notes that since euthanasia was legalized in June 2016 until Dec. 31, 2024, there has been a total of 76,475 euthanasia and assisted-suicide deaths in Canada. He estimates that the total including this year – assuming approximately the same number as last year – there have been at least 92,000 deaths through Canada’s MAiD program.
In February 2025, Schadenberg estimated that there were 16,500 MAiD deaths in Canada in 2024 based on data released in several provinces. His estimate was off by one death.
Quebec had the most euthanasia deaths at 5998, followed by Ontario (4944), B.C. (2997), Alberta (1117), Nova Scotia (445), Saskatchewan (341), New Brunswick (283), Manitoba, (186), Newfoundland and Labrador (108), P.E.I. (57), and Yukon (14).
Schadenberg observed that the federal numbers did not align with Quebec’s reports for 2024, when the province said there were 6058 euthanasia deaths. Schadenberg said, “I wonder why there is a discrepancy between the provincial and federal data?”
Track 2 deaths – patients who are not terminally ill but otherwise qualify for MAiD due to a “grievous and irremediable medical condition” – increased by 17 per cent, much higher than the 6.9 per cent increased in euthanasia numbers overall. In 2021, there were 224 Track 2 deaths, 469 in 2022, 625 in 2023, and 732 in 2024. Schadenberg said, “The increase in Track 2 euthanasia deaths is very concerning,” even though they account for just 4.4 per cent of euthanasia deaths. He said, “people who die by euthanasia based on a Track 2 approval tend to be younger, are more likely to be women, and far more likely to be living with a disability.”
The Sixth Annual Report also discloses the reasons for euthanasia. Patients can provide more than one reason for requesting to be killed, with the most common being loss of ability to engage in meaningful activities (about 95 per cent), loss of ability for perform activities of daily living (about 80 per cent), loss of independence (about three quarters), loss of dignity (about two-thirds), emotion distress (about three-fifths), and inadequate management of pain and suffering (just under three-fifths).
Schadenberg highlighted the social dimension of euthanasia, noting that 21.9 per cent of Track 1 (terminally ill) patients requesting euthanasia, and 44.7 per cent of Track 2 patients report loneliness and isolation as a primary reason for being killed. Schadenberg said that means at least 3800 people were killed, in part, because of loneliness and isolation. Schadenberg said, “People will state that their primary reason is related to their medical condition, but loneliness, isolation and mental health related conditions are often driving them to seek death while their medical condition is why they were approved to be killed.”
Schadenberg told Aleteia “Canada is becoming the world leader in killing its citizens. It is normalizing and medicalizing killing.” He said, “Canada’s euthanasia law is a warning to the world: don’t legalize medical homicide.”
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