(LifeSiteNews) — Health Canada has released a series of studies on advance requests for assisted suicide in its latest move to expand the nation’s euthanasia regime.
On October 29, Health Canada published a summary of the National Conversation on Advance Requests for Medical Assistance in Dying, which focussed on the suggestion to expand Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) by allowing advance requests for death by lethal injection.
“An advance request is a request for MAiD made by an individual who still has the capacity to make decisions, but before they are eligible or want to receive it,” the report stated. “Their intent is that MAiD be provided in the future: after they have lost the capacity to consent and when they meet the eligibility criteria for receiving MAiD.”
As it stands, in order for a person to be killed by euthanasia in Canada, they must provide “consent” at the time of their suicide. So-called “advance requests” would allow a person to approve their killing at a future date, meaning it would be carried out even if they are incapable of consenting, due to diminished mental capacity or other factors, when the pre-approved death date comes.
These request are currently illegal under the Criminal Code. Despite this, in October 2024, Quebec announced it is taking early requests for assisted suicide.
Now, in addition to not punishing Quebec for their disregard of the law, Health Canada, run by the Liberal government, appears to be in favour of changing the law to expand euthanasia even further.
The report presented a hypothetical case of a man suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, which would likely mean he would lose the ability to make health decisions as his condition progresses.
“Later, after thinking about it further, Charlie decides that should his health decline rapidly and he starts experiencing intolerable suffering after he has lost capacity to make health care decisions, he would like to have MAiD provided,” the report states.
“Charlie then works with his health care provider’s team to develop an advance request. It sets out the conditions that would constitute enduring and intolerable suffering for him after he has lost capacity,” it continued.
“For example, these could include not being able to feed himself, get out of bed and not being able to recognize his children for over a month. In his request, Charlie indicates that if these conditions were to arise, it is his explicit wish that he be provided MAiD,” the story concluded.
The report further cited surveys which found that Canadians were generally supportive of advance requests, but raised concerns over how the system would be implemented.
While the report purported to represent the thoughts of Canadians, it notably excluded Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Director Alex Schadenberg, who was not invited to the roundtable discussions but permitted to make a presentation.
Prior to the report, Schadenberg revealed that he believes Health Canada has “stacked the deck” to ensure an outcome in support of advance requests, “just like they’ve stacked the deck in every other consultation over the past several years.”
The push for advance requests began last November when Health Canada called for a “national conversation on advance requests” for euthanasia.
Since legalizing the deadly practice at the federal level in 2016, the Liberal government has continued to expand the criteria for who can “qualify” for death. In 2021, the Liberal government passed a bill that permitted the killing of those who are not terminally ill but who suffer solely from chronic disease.
The government has also attempted to expand the practice to those suffering solely from mental illness but has delayed doing so until 2027 after pushback from pro-life, medical, and mental health groups as well as most of Canada’s provinces.
Already in Canada, assisted suicide has expanded 13-fold since it was legalized, making it the fastest-growing euthanasia program in the world.
The most recent reports show that euthanasia is the sixth highest cause of death in Canada. However, it was not listed as such in Statistics Canada’s top 10 leading causes of death from 2019 to 2022.
