Ontario’s Chief Coroner has announced that there were 2,378 reported assisted deaths in Ontario in 2020, up by a third from 1,789 the year before.
The report shows that deaths by assisted suicide have increased every year since the legalisation of euthanasia in 2016, when there were 189 assisted deaths.
Throughout Canada, medically assisted deaths increased by 26% in 2019.
Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying Law (MAiD) of 2016 is now being expanded by the Canadian government’s Bill C-7, removing the requirement that a candidate for assisted death should be terminally ill.
But as SPUC reported, the Bill has met with opposition, including by over 600 Canadian doctors who, expressing their “dismay” at the proposed legislation, signed an open letter warning that Bill C-7 would make Canada “the world leader in administering death”.
Elsewhere, countries that have legalised euthanasia have seen a similar rise in deaths every year.
In the Netherlands, the first country to legalise assisted dying, it is expected that 12,000 people will choose euthanasia this year, according to Steven Pleiter, chairman of the Euthanasia Expertise clinic in the Hague, who predicts that this number might double within the next eight years.
SPUC comment
A SPUC spokesperson said: “There is nothing surprising here that the death toll from euthanasia in Ontario has risen dramatically yet again.
“This is a familiar pattern by now, which we ought to heed, not dismiss. That the Canadian government is seeking to expand the opportunities for dying even further, rather than treat the sick and care for their wellbeing, is a damning indictment of its current priorities.
“Wherever assisted dying is introduced, the number of poor souls electing to opt for death, often having felt abandoned and even pressured by society into doing it, increases every year.
“Where will it end?”
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