Trudeau government's assisted suicide program increasingly requested by Canada's poorest citizens

A recent report from the Ontario Coroner’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) Death Review Committee has apparently confirmed what critics of the Trudeau government’s euthanasia program have said would happen: poor people are increasingly being offered MAID even if they are not in chronic pain from an incurable disease.

The program divides its recipients into two categories, the National Post reports: Track 1 (“for those whose death is reasonably foreseeable") and Track 2 (“for those whose death is not reasonably foreseeable”). The report found that 48.6 percent of those eligible for MAID under Track 2 are living in the poorest parts of Ontario, while 41.8 percent of those under Track 1 were from poorer sections of the province. Other studies of MAID recipients within cities have found comparable results.

A closer analysis of the Death Review Committee’s report accounting for "age and labour-force participation" as "measures of disadvantage" reveals that 57 percent of Track 2 MAID requests came from the poorest in society, while 42 percent of Track 1 requests were from the same sector.

This is a phenomenon, the Post notes, that seems almost unique to Canada, especially when evaluating data from other countries where assisted suicide is legal. In the Netherlands, for instance, “the overall rates of assisted dying were somewhat higher for people (living in areas) of higher socioeconomic status,” the Post noted.

In Canada, euthanasia has become a more probable choice for the dispossessed. The Post notes the case of “Sophia,” a 51-year-old woman who became a MAID candidate because of chemical sensitivities. She opted for assisted suicide because she found her apartment unbearable. “The government sees me as expendable trash, a complainer, useless and a pain in the ass,” Sophia explained.

Mr. A (so described by the committee) was offered assisted suicide because he not only had inflammatory bowel disease but a history of “mental illness, previous episodes of suicidality, and ongoing alcohol and opioid misuse.” The criteria would suggest that mental illness is already being considered as a factor in deciding who is eligible for MAID.

But the Post is more concerned about how many people are streamlined into euthanasia because of poverty. As commentator Chris Selley notes, “What Sophia received wasn’t medical assistance in dying at all. Death is no more appropriate a prescription for multiple chemical sensitivities — or for the mental conditions that likely explain it — than chemotherapy or a hip replacement.”

The parameters of MAID continue to expand. Quebec has authorized its doctors to issue “advance directives” if patients are unresponsive or suffering from dementia. A previous written request will suffice as permission to proceed with assisted suicide.

Trudeau's Health Minister has already announced that the Liberal government plans to expand MAID for the mentally ill, now scheduled in 2027. "On February 29, 2024, legislation to extend the temporary exclusion of eligibility to receive MAID in circumstances where a person's sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness received royal assent and immediately came into effect. The eligibility date for persons suffering solely from a mental illness is now March 17, 2027," the Canadian government states.

An investigation into private online posts revealed that Canadian doctors are feeling uneasy or even guilty about their participation in the MAID program. Patients are sometimes offered euthanasia in lieu of medical treatment. Canadian cancer patient Allison Ducluzeau revealed in November 2023 how doctors offered her euthanasia before an operation for her abdominal cancer. She decided to go to Ohio for surgery and save her life.