From LifeSiteNews

By Jonathon Van Maren

Canada now leads the world in having an almost uniquely predatory euthanasia regime, and unless there is a change in government before March, that will only get worse

On September 28, journalist Alexander Raikin made a prediction. Raikin has been reporting on Canada’s euthanasia regime for several years, producing some of the best journalism available on the subject and exposing how “MAiD” – the euphemism used by the government and medical professionals to describe death by lethal injection – is administered. “I’m calling it,” he wrote on X. “The reason that the MAiD annual report still isn’t out is because it’ll show that MaiD caused more than 4% of all deaths in Canada, which will mean that MaiD will be around the 4th leading cause of death in Canada. It’s not linear growth: it’s exponential.” 

Raikin was right. The “Fourth annual report on Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada 2022” was released this week, and the numbers are staggering. Over 13,200 Canadians died by assisted suicide in 2022. This is a 31.2% increase from 2021 and brings the total number of deaths by lethal injection in Canada since 2016 to 44,958. All of this is unfolding in the midst of a healthcare crisis in which we are incapable of offering comprehensive psychiatric services, suicide prevention, or palliative beds. As we have seen from the conveyer belt of horror stories being reported around the world, many Canadians are opting for state-sanctioned and state-funded suicide simply because they feel they have no other choice.

In many cases, “MAiD” is the only thing they’re eligible for. 

The report is packed with dry data that should cause acute alarm. Every province but Manitoba and Yukon “continue to experience a steady year-over-year growth in 2022.” Males accounted for slightly more of the death count – 51.4% against 48.6%. The average age of the person was 77. While cancer remains the most cited medical condition amongst those requesting assisted suicide, “other conditions,” not specified, account for 14.9% and “neurological conditions” account for 12.6%. Of the total, at least 463 of the people who died by assisted suicide “were individuals whose natural deaths were not reasonably foreseeable,” an increase from 223 in 2021. These numbers, it must be pointed out, are only those officially recorded. 

Of those who did not have a “reasonably foreseeable death,” most of them had “neurological conditions” (50%) or “other conditions” (37.1%). According to report, “the most commonly cited sources of suffering by individuals requesting MAID were the loss of ability to engage in meaningful activities” at 86.3%. This, says the report, continues “to mirror very similar trends seen in the previous three years (2019-2021), indicating that the nature of suffering that leads a person to request MAID has remained consistent over the past four years.”  

The steady rise in the number of Canadians requesting assisted suicide has also led to a growing number of medical professionals opting to perform it. In 2022, the total number of practitioners dispatching patients by lethal injection was 1,837, up 19.1% from 1,542 in 2021. Of these, 95% were doctors and 5% were nurses. 39.5% of assisted suicides were carried out in private homes. The report also noted that the number of requests is rising sharply, and that few are declined: 

There were 16,104 written requests for MAID in 2022. This represents an increase of 26.5% over the number of written requests in 2021. Written requests for MAID have grown by an average of 28.2% per year between 2020 and 2022. In 2022, the majority of written requests (13,102 or 81.4%) resulted in the administration of MAID.

Despite these numbers – which will certainly rise sharply if assisted suicide for mental illness, addiction, and other afflictions are approved next March, which seems likely at this point – Trudeau’s health minister Mark Holland noted that: “As Minister of Health, I am proud to present Health Canada’s Fourth Annual Report on Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada (2022).” It is unclear what, specifically, he is proud of. Canada now leads the world in having an almost uniquely predatory euthanasia regime, and unless there is a change in government before March, that will only get worse.  

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Jonathon Van Maren is a public speaker, writer, and pro-life activist. His commentary has been translated into more than eight languages and published widely online as well as print newspapers such as the Jewish Independent, the National Post, the Hamilton Spectator and others. He has received an award for combating anti-Semitism in print from the Jewish organization B’nai Brith. His commentary has been featured on CTV Primetime, Global News, EWTN, and the CBC as well as dozens of radio stations and news outlets in Canada and the United States.

He speaks on a wide variety of cultural topics across North America at universities, high schools, churches, and other functions. Some of these topics include abortion, pornography, the Sexual Revolution, and euthanasia. Jonathon holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in history from Simon Fraser University, and is the communications director for the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform.

Jonathon’s first book, The Culture War, was released in 2016.