Canada
Euthanasia and assisted suicide have been legal since 2016, with the fastest growing number of deaths in the world.
2024 update: See Cardus Research Report. Since 2016, the number of people dying via euthanasia or assisted suicide has risen thirteenfold to 13,241 in 2022 (most recent data available), tying with cerebrovascular disease as the fifth leading cause of death in Canada.
2020-2021: Bill C-7—to remove safeguards for obtaining lethal drugs—was introduced in 2020, in response to a Superior Court of Québec decision in Truchon v. Attorney General of Canada, but failed. It passed on March 17, 2021, going beyond the requirements of Truchon, implementing, among other things (see link for additional history):
(a) repeal the provision that requires a person’s natural death be reasonably foreseeable in order for them to be eligible for lethal drugs (for persons not terminally ill, a 90-day waiting period is required before receiving lethal drugs, and the waiting period is removed for those that are terminally ill);
(b) specify that persons whose sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness are not eligible for medical assistance in dying (however, an amendment was passed that specified that this provision would be eliminated after 18 months, allowing persons with a mental illness to qualify for euthanasia, but this elimination date has been deferred to 2027—see p. 9 of Cardus Report);
(c) create two sets of safeguards (one for those that have a terminal illness, and another for those that do not) that must be respected before lethal drugs may be provided to a person;
(d) permit lethal drugs to be provided to an eligible person whose natural death is reasonably foreseeable and who has lost the capacity to consent before lethal drugs are provided, on the basis of a prior agreement with medical practitioners; and
(e) permit euthanasia to be provided to a person who has lost the capacity to consent and cannot complete self-administration of prescribed lethal drugs. (See full text of Bill C-7 here.)
2019: Truchon v Canada—on September 11, the Superior Court of Québec declared unconstitutional the “reasonable foreseeability of natural death” eligibility criterion contained in the federal “MAID” legislation, and the “end of life” eligibility criterion contained in Quebec’s Act “Respecting End-of-Life Care.” The ruling, which only applies in Quebec, was not appealed by the Attorney General of Canada or the Attorney General of Quebec.
2016: Bill C-14, “Medical Assistance in Dying” (MAID) was passed on June 17, legalizing physician- or nurse practitioner-assisted suicide and euthanasia with a 10-day waiting period for capable adults who have a “grievous and irremediable medical condition” meeting the following criteria:
(a) they have a serious and incurable illness, disease or disability;
(b) they are in an advanced state of irreversible decline in capability;
(c) that illness, disease or disability or that state of decline causes them enduring physical or psychological suffering that is intolerable to them and that cannot be relieved under conditions that they consider acceptable; and
(d) their natural death has become reasonably foreseeable, taking into account all of their medical circumstances, without a prognosis necessarily having been made as to the specific length of time that they have remaining.
2015: Carter v Canada—Supreme Court of Canada unanimously struck down the absolute prohibition on physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia. Prior to this decision, the law made it illegal for anyone to assist another person in the taking of their own life under section 241 of the Criminal Code. Carter v Canada declared these sections unconstitutional “to the extent that they prohibit physician-assisted death for a competent adult person who (1) clearly consents to the termination of life and (2) has a grievous and irremediable medical condition (including an illness, disease or disability) that causes enduring suffering that is intolerable to the individual in the circumstances of his or her condition.”
