*Updated January 23, 2020
The federal government plans to introduce new legislation expanding access to euthanasia next month (less than four years after legalizing it), and is seeking Canadians’ input via an online survey.
This consultation presents an opportunity to have your voice heard on the need to uphold the sanctity of life, promote respect for people with disabilities, and guard against wrongful deaths.
The online consultation, which takes 10-15 minutes to complete, closes on Monday, January 27, 2020.
The new law is being developed in response to the Quebec Superior Court’s ruling in Truchon v. Attorney General of Canada, which declared the existing regime too restrictive insofar as it limits euthanasia and assisted suicide (now referred to as “MAID”) to those whose death is “reasonably foreseeable” (CLF intervened in the litigation: see our website for our summary and analysis).
Instead of appealing the ruling (as many groups, including CLF, urged it to do), the federal government announced that it “has accepted the ruling and has committed to changing the MAID law for the whole country.” Specifically, the government intends to “expand eligibility for MAID beyond people who are nearing the end of life”, and may also introduce “other changes once the review is complete”.
Based on the questions contained in the online survey, it appears that the government is considering:
The introduction of new procedural safeguards related to the expansion of MAID to non-dying patients.
Whether to expand MAID to individuals who make an “advance request” but subsequently lose their decision-making capacity.
Both issues are significant, but both presume that the law ought to be amended to remove the ‘end of life’ criterion. This is a point which individuals may wish to address in the comment section, as suggested by the Canadian Association for Community Living, one of Canada’s largest disability rights organizations.
With respect to safeguards, CLF has long urged lawmakers to implement as many protective safeguards as possible, and has highlighted the courts’ call in Carter to craft “a carefully-designed system” imposing “strict limits that are scrupulously monitored and enforced” (SCC, para 27).
CLF has also expressed concern about allowing euthanasia for patients who have lost their decision-making capacity. CLF submitted a detailed legal brief on that topic in October 2017 to the Canadian Council of Academics (CCA) as part of its review of the law in this area. The CCA Working Group’s subsequent report reflected CLF’s concerns, acknowledging that allowing the practice “raises the possibility that a person might receive MAID against their wishes” and that “no safeguard can remove a risk entirely”. This latter point is a crucial one - there will always be risks of wrongful deaths in any euthanasia regime, no matter how many ‘safeguards’ are in place. As the Quebec Superior Court acknowledged in Truchon, “Clearly, no system other than total and
absolute prohibition will ever be able to prevent every error” (para 623). For this reason, CLF and others have expressed concern that the more widely euthanasia is provided, the greater the risk of wrongful deaths.
In the Truchon decision, it was noted that individuals do change their mind, even after submitting a written request for MAID. In fact, from December 10, 2015 to March 31, 2018, at least 167 written requests for MAID were subsequently withdrawn by patients because they had changed their mind, constituting almost 7% of all MAID requests in Quebec during that period (see paragraph 214 of the decision).
In an introductory note to the survey, the government reports that, to date, “more than 6,700 Canadians” have received MAID since it was legalized. However, what the survey does not mention is that these numbers are only current to October 31, 2018. The actual number of MAID deaths to date is likely much higher; even the 6,700 figure represents an “under-reporting”, according to the federal government, because at the time it was reported, “approximately 7 months of Quebec's MAID data [was] unavailable”.
Considering that there were 2,614 medically assisted deaths in Canada in the last 10-month period reported on (January 1-October 31, 2018), the total number to date, based on a similar projection, could be well over 11,000 - and that is before the regime is expanded to apply to those whose deaths are not “reasonably foreseeable”. In fact, the number is likely even higher, since the number of MAID deaths has continued to increase significantly each year since it was first introduced.
CLF’s Executive Director has submitted a response to the government’s current survey, and we intend to make a more formal submission to Parliament in its upcoming review of Canada’s MAID law. In the meantime, CLF is encouraging our members to share their views in response to the government’s invitation for input, and to also share this article and listed resources with interested contacts. Members may also be interested in the following resources as they complete the questionnaire:
The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada’s resource on the government’s current online consultation (14 January 2020)
The Canadian Council of Christian Charities: “Euthanasia: Tell the Government what you think” (21 January 2020)
“Defending Human Rights Starts at Home”, article highlighting concerns about Canada’s euthanasia regime expressed by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities (21 October 2019)
Summary of CLF’s submission to the Canadian Council of Academies (12 October 2017)
Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, “Federal Consultation on ‘Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) Eligibility Criteria and Request Process’” (20 January 2020)