Share of Canadians Taking Their Own Lives with Assisted Suicide Gets Disturbingly High
In 2024, Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) accounted for about 5.1% of Canadian deaths, up 0.4 percentage points from 2023. A government report says more than 22,500 people requested MAID that year; roughly 16,500 received it, about 4,000 died of other causes, 700 withdrew requests, and 1,300 were found ineligible. Since legalization in 2016 there have been over 76,000 MAID provisions,and the practice grew by about 6.9% in 2024 although annual growth appears to be slowing.The report cautions against treating MAID as a cause-of-death statistic – underlying illnesses (such as, cancer) remain the formally recorded causes – and notes the World Health Organization does not classify MAID as a cause of death. The expansion of MAID has sparked ethical and political debate: critics, including many Christians and conservatives, argue it devalues life and worry that a publicly funded health system could create incentives to favor MAID over more costly treatments.
More Canadians are taking advantage of the nation’s expanding assisted suicide system, with more than 5 percent of deaths occurring from the practice.
The Canadian government issued a report in late November that said more than 22,500 people requested assisted suicide in 2024.
Of those requests, about 16,500 went through with assisted suicide.
About 4,000 ultimately died of another cause in 2024, while 700 withdrew their assisted suicide request that year.
Only 1,300 were deemed ineligible for assisted suicide.
Overall, about 5.1 percent of Canadians who died in 2024 perished after receiving assisted suicide, officially known as “Medical Assistance in Dying.”
That’s a 0.4 percentage point increase from 2023.
There have been over 76,000 assisted suicide provisions since it became legal in 2016, according to the report.
The rate of growth is slowing for assisted suicide, but the practice still expanded by nearly 6.9 percent in 2024.
Alicia had less than 48 hours’ notice that her mother was going to end her life using Canada’s euthanasia programme.
Under the assisted suicide Bill in England and Wales, there is no requirement to inform family members at all… 😱
👉You can watch the full BBC documentary on… pic.twitter.com/gfHGvdHpD9
— Right To Life UK (@RightToLifeUK) December 5, 2025
“While the data suggests that the number of annual MAID provisions is beginning to stabilize, it will take several more years before long-term trends can be conclusively identified,” the Canadian government report added.
Christians and conservatives have voiced disagreement with assisted suicide, noting that the practice devalues human life.
Some have noted that Canada, which has a socialized healthcare system, has incentives to prescribe assisted suicide instead of pursuing more expensive treatment plans.
The report from the Canadian government indeed contended that assisted suicide “is a health service provided as part of end-of-life or complex care, which a person can access in very limited circumstances.”
The New York Times is reporting that since Canada has made it possible for any “suffering” person to choose assisted su*c*de…as of data from 2023, now 1 in 20 people die as a result of the procedure
1 in 20
That’s outrageous
(From the pictured article) pic.twitter.com/UgvUHRWaDU
— Lisa Cooper 🦬🦬🦬 (@LaLaLisaCooper) June 2, 2025
The government said that “the number of MAID provisions should not be compared to cause of death statistics in Canada” when determining the prevalence of assisted suicide “nor to rank MAID as a cause of death.”
That is because “if a person suffering from advanced cancer chooses to receive MAID to alleviate their suffering, the cause of death extracted from their death certificate for the purposes of vital statistics will be cancer.”
The report also argued that “MAID is not classified as a cause of death by the World Health Organization, which sets international standards on data collection related to the classification of disease.”
The World Health Organization defines a “cause of death” as a “disease or injury that initiated the train of events leading directly to death, or the circumstances of the accident or violence which produced the fatal injury.”
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