The majority of Canadians who take MAiD (Medical Assistance in Dying) are “white and privileged,” a Trudeau Foundation fellow said, while the program becomes a global leader in the organ donation market. Assisted suicide became legal in Canada in 2016, as one of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s top priorities after he gained office the year prior. It originally required the applicant’s death to be “reasonably foreseeable,” but was amended to allow those who are in chronic pain without a foreseeable death. It was scheduled to expand to include people with mental illness March 17, 2023. However, after a massive pushback, former justice minister David Lametti announced there would be a pause while the new eligibility rules were reviewedTrudeau Foundation fellow and medical ethicist Dr. Jocelyn Downie, who has been vocal in her support of the expansion of assisted suicide to include those with mental illnesses, pressed the House of Commons Nov. 21 to green light the legislation, which is currency set to go into effect March 17, 2024. On Friday, Downie, a professor emeritus at the Dalhousie University Schulich School of Law, as well as a member of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation’s Covid-19 Impact Committee, as per True North, addressed the issue in the House of Commons again, revealing information on who is seeking MAiD in Canada. Though one of the criticisms about MAiD is that it could be offered as a solution to those who can’t access social services, Downie denied this was the case — and said the primary demographic seeking assisted suicide is privileged white people. “When you’re answering your constituents, you need to be able to tell them those are not the drivers of MAID,” Downie said. “People getting MAID are actually very privileged. They’re white. They’re well off. They’re highly educated. They’re not in institutions. They have families.”“The picture is one of privilege,” Downie continued, adding that just because this is the case, everybody else should still be able to easily access MAiD too. “That doesn’t mean we don’t want to look after the people who are vulnerable."In an article she wrote in Impact Ethics, Downie criticized a “dissenting report” from the Conservative government laying out reasons why the legislation is a dangerous choice. She did not address the arguments, rather called it a “partisan diatribe filled with hyperbolic rhetoric,” complaining the word “Liberal” was used 29 times in the 10-page report. .The 2022 MAID Report from Health Canada, released in October after a delay of several months, shows 13,241 died from the “deathcare” program in total, and of that, 463 people did not have a reasonably foreseeable death on the horizon. “In 2022, 3.5% of the total number of MAID provisions (463 individuals), were individuals whose natural deaths were not reasonably foreseeable.,” the report states.Conservative MP and deputy opposition leader Leslyn Lewis pointed out November 27 that the number works out to 36 people dying under the government-run program every day, “which is the highest in the world.”Statistics Canada curiously does not document MAiD deaths as such when it comes to cause of mortality, rather the underlying illness. If the assisted suicide program was included, it is estimated it would show MAiD is the sixth leading cause of death in Canada. “In the database, the underlying cause of death is defined as the disease or injury that initiated the train of morbid events leading directly to death,” Stats Canada wrote on Twitter (“X”). “As such, MAID deaths are coded to the underlying condition for which MAID was requested.”.While a substantial portion of its population is dying from assisted suicide, Canada leads the world in organ procurement, per CTV News. The publication demonstrated how MAiD has contributed to the high number of organ transplants. An international review on the topic, conducted in 2021 and published December 2022, found Canada does more organ transplants from MAiD patients than any of the other countries studied that offer assisted suicide, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Spain — combined. Of the four countries, the organs of 286 assisted-suicide patients provided life-saving translplants for 837 patients in 2021 and prior. Of the 286, 137 were Canadians. “Pointing to data published in 2022 showing more than 35% of Canadians who died by assisted suicide in the year prior felt they were “a burden on family, friends or caregivers,” health law and policy professor at the University of Toronto Trudo Lemmens said he is “concerned that people who struggle with a lack of self-esteem and self-worth may be pushed to see this as an opportunity to mean something.”.The Trudeau Liberal government is getting pushback about the proposed legislation expansion from more than just the Canadian opposition party — the United Nation (UN) is demanding advocates for the disabled are included in the MAiD discussions, many of which are opposed to the fast track to death for people with mental illness. Doctors internationally call for ongoing discussion surrounding assisted suicide. “We saw everyone is working in different directions. And then we said ‘OK, well, let's start an international [discussion] of all the countries involved,’” physician and MAID provider in Zwolle, Netherlands Dr. Johannes Mulder told CTV.He expressed concern people considering MAiD may be motivated to do so for the sake of helping others that need an organ donation.“What should you do, or what shouldn't you do? And how to keep the whole project completely voluntary,” he said. “Guidelines are necessary and should also be strict.”.The Canadian Institute of Health published data on its website that confirms organs procured through assisted suicide makes up 6% of all transplants. There were 2,936 organ transplants performed in Canada in 2022. Of them, “80% of transplants used deceased donor organs and 20% used living donor organs,” the website states. Director of the Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics at the University of Manitoba Arthur Schafer told CTV he was “proud that Canada has done so well in terms of organ donation by MAID patients.”“So I say, 'good on us,’” Schafer said. “It’s a wonderful opportunity for someone facing death to make something significant out of the end of their life.”
