Misinformation surrounding M.A.i.D.

It’s amazing that people in this day and age still publish “facts” on the interwebs when they know full well that they’re gonna get fact checked.

The numbers quoted above sure look dramatic, until you actually look at the numbers behind them.

Currently in Canada there are two tracks to obtaining Medical Assistance in Dying.

They are Track One, and Track Two.

Track 1: You’re seriously ill and approaching the end of your life, although nobody knows exactly when you’ll die.
Track 2: You’re seriously and incurably ill, but you’re not approaching a reasonably foreseeable natural death, so additional safeguards apply.

In Canada, M.A.i.D. is not the primary cause of death. There has to be a diagnosed underlying medical condition.

To see how well our American friend loves to play with numbers, let’s look at the TOTAL number of gun deaths over the last 10 years in the United States of America.

Year	Total firearm deaths	Suicide	Homicide	Accidental	Legal intervention¹	Undetermined
2015	36,252	22,018	12,979	489	484	282
2016	38,658	22,938	14,415	495	510	300
2017	39,773	23,854	14,542	486	553	338
2018	39,740	24,432	13,958	458	539	353
2019	39,707	23,941	14,414	486	520	346
2020	45,222	24,292	19,384	535	611	400
2021	48,830	26,328	20,958	549	537	458
2022	48,204	27,032	19,651	463	643	415
2023	46,728	27,300	17,927	463	604	435
2024	44,447	27,593	15,364	450	636	404

Source: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System. “Total firearm deaths” includes firearm suicide, homicide, accidental (unintentional) deaths, legal intervention and deaths of undetermined intent.

¹ CDC uses the term “legal intervention”. This category includes firearm deaths involving law-enforcement or other peace officers acting in the line of duty. The classification does not itself indicate whether the use of force was legally justified.

In 2024 there were a total of 44,447 deaths involving firearms. Homicides came in a distant second to suicides by gun.

In a ten year period from 2015 to 2024, there were 249,728 suicides in the USofA, and unlike in Canada where a request for M.A.i.D. has to be attached to an underlying medical condition, suicide has no safe guards in place.

Listed below are the total number of Canadian deaths per year, and the cause of those deaths

Year	All deaths	Cancer	Heart disease	Accidents	Stroke	Chronic respiratory	MAID provisions	MAID % of deaths
2006	228,079	67,807	49,893	9,640	13,805	9,786	—	—
2007	235,217	69,595	50,499	9,951	13,981	10,659	—	—
2008	238,617	70,558	50,722	10,234	13,870	10,923	—	—
2009	238,418	71,125	49,271	10,250	14,105	10,859	—	—
2010	240,075	71,882	48,757	10,866	13,706	10,757	—	—
2011	243,511	72,736	47,911	10,961	13,332	11,243	—	—
2012	246,596	74,361	48,681	11,290	13,174	11,130	—	—
2013	252,338	75,112	49,891	11,452	13,400	11,976	—	—
2014	258,821	77,059	51,014	11,724	13,573	11,876	—	—
2015	264,333	77,054	51,534	11,833	13,795	12,573	—	—
2016	267,213	79,084	51,396	12,524	13,551	12,293	1,018	0.4%
2017	276,689	79,844	53,029	13,894	13,893	12,847	2,838	1.0%
2018	283,706	79,536	53,134	13,290	13,480	12,998	4,493	1.6%
2019	285,301	80,372	53,364	15,527	13,717	12,902	5,461	1.9%
2020	308,824	81,242	54,430	16,818	13,761	11,844	7,469	2.4%
2021	313,268	82,822	55,271	19,257	13,491	11,018	10,066	3.2%
2022	338,217	82,412	57,357	18,365	13,915	12,462	13,199	3.9%
2023	327,546	84,629	57,890	20,597	13,833	12,994	15,427	4.7%
2024*	326,779	~85,600	~57,800	~20,300	~13,700	~13,100	16,499	5.1%

Notes: Canadian mortality figures are from Statistics Canada, Table 13-10-0394-01, covering Canada, both sexes and all ages. 2024 mortality data are preliminary. MAID figures are from Health Canada’s annual reports on Medical Assistance in Dying. MAID became legal federally in 2016, so no MAID figures are shown before that year. Historical MAID totals may be revised by Health Canada as additional or corrected reports are received.

Important: MAID is shown here for comparison only. It is not classified as an underlying cause of death by the World Health Organization. A person who receives MAID generally remains classified in mortality statistics according to the underlying disease or condition that led to death. Consequently, the MAID column must not be added to the other cause-of-death columns.

First thing to remember when looking at the table above is that people who receive M.A.i.D. are already included in Canada’s total number of deaths. If someone suffering from Stage IV cancer receives M.A.i.D., they’re not counted once as dying from cancer and then counted a second time as dying from M.A.i.D. Their underlying cause of death remains cancer.

Looking at the above table, 16,499 deaths by M.A.i.D. sure looks like a lot of people “offing themselves” for no reason at all. However, the truth is the overwhelming majority of those deaths were Track One deaths.

Year	Total MAID provisions	Track 1	Track 2	Track 1 %	Track 2 %
2016	1,018	N/A	N/A	—	—
2017	2,838	N/A	N/A	—	—
2018	4,480	N/A	N/A	—	—
2019	5,461	N/A	N/A	—	—
2020*	7,469	7,451*	18*	99.8%	0.2%
2021	10,066	9,842	224	97.8%	2.2%
2022	13,199	12,730	469	96.4%	3.6%
2023	15,427	14,802	625	95.9%	4.1%
2024	16,499	15,767	732	95.6%	4.4%

Track 1: The person’s natural death is reasonably foreseeable.
Track 2: The person’s natural death is not reasonably foreseeable.

The statutory two-track MAID framework was introduced in March 2021. Accordingly, Track 1/Track 2 figures are not applicable to the 2016–2019 figures. Health Canada’s current historical series categorizes 18 provisions in 2020 as Track 2; this predates the commencement of the statutory two-track regime and should therefore be interpreted with caution.

Historical totals can change slightly as Health Canada receives late reports and corrections. Figures shown here use the revised historical series published in Health Canada’s Sixth Annual Report on Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada (2024).

The vast majority of the 15,767 M.A.i.D. deaths in Canada in 2024 were from people suffering from cancer.

From 2006 until 2024 the number of cancer related deaths went up from 67,807 to 85,600.

What happened there?

The boomers are getting older, and as the population ages they get cancer more often.

So no, the people receiving M.A.i.D. are not little Suzy who tripped at Grade 6 Track & Field day at school and was put down like a race horse ’cause she broke her tibia and would never be able to race again. It’s 87 year old Nana who has Stage IV cancer that has spread from her bowels and into her lungs, her heart, and is starting to attack her eyesight. She doesn’t want more chemo, she doesn’t want more radiation therapy, and she doesn’t want to spend the next 6 months slowly checking out.

Religion does seem to have a bearing on where one stands.

Group	Say medically assisted death is morally wrong
White evangelical Protestants	60%
Black Protestants	52%
Catholics	40%
White non-evangelical Protestants	25%
Religiously unaffiliated	12%
Agnostics	6%
Atheists	5%

I’m Atheist.

I fully believe that the choice to live or the choice to die belongs solely with the person making the decision so long as the criteria are met.

People whose sole underlying medical condition is mental illness are currently excluded from M.A.i.D. That exclusion is scheduled to end on March 17, 2027, after already being postponed twice. When M.A.i.D. for mental illness as a sole underlying medical condition comes into effect, it will not simply be a matter of someone walking into a doctor’s office and asking to die.

There is already a framework of eligibility requirements, independent assessments and additional safeguards intended for these cases.

Will M.A.i.D. ever turn into the “suicide booth” from Futurama?

No, no matter how much the anti-M.A.i.D. crowd try to scare the public about M.A.i.D., M.A.i.D. will never be a quick process where one just walks into a booth, inserts a quarter, and selects between “Quick and Painless” and “Slow and Painful”