Ontario MAiD (euthanasia) deaths increase during Covid-19 crisis.

Sign the Petition: Stop euthanasia Bill C-7 (Link)

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Ontario Office of the Chief Coroner has released new data for MAiD (euthanasia and assisted suicide deaths). In Ontario between June 17, 2016 and March 31, 2020, there have been 4888 reported assisted deaths with 199 reported assisted deaths in March 2020 alone.
 
In Ontario there were 1789 reported assisted deaths in 2019, 1499 in 2018, 841 in 2017, and 189 in 2016. 

The new data indicates that there were 570 reported assisted deaths in the first three months of the year with 199 in March alone. The euthanasia rate is sadly increasing.

Sign the Petition: Stop euthanasia Bill C-7 (Link)

Parliament is currently debating Bill C-7, a bill to expand euthanasia in Canada. Bill C-7 amends the euthanasia law by eliminating the "terminal illness" requirement, allowing advanced requests for euthanasia, eliminating the 10 day waiting "reflection" period and it falsely claims to prohibit euthanasia for mental illness.

If Bill C-7 passes without amendments, it will give Canada the most extreme euthanasia law in the world and result in a greater increase in deaths by lethal injection.

A recent CBC Radio show by Duncan McCue, interviewed Stefanie Green, President of the Canadian Association of MAiD Assessors and Providers who explained how MAiD can be done on a patient with Covid-19. Green stated:

"I have provided for MAID on the same day that I've met someone on certain occasions," 

"It's not common … MAID is a process that requires rigorous procedure and safeguarding and is meant to be that way."

Green then explained that "MAID applications can be expedited if two assessing physicians agree a patient is at "imminent risk" of losing their capacity or life, they can forgo the typical 10 day reflection period required by law. Green then stated:

"If they're about to die, or we think they're going to die within 10 days, we actually can go ahead and waive that reflection period and move quicker,"

I recently reported on an article written by Globe and Mail reporter Kelly Grant stating that the Ottawa and Hamilton regions temporarily stopped providing euthanasia "MAiD services" during the Covid-19 pandemic. Grant wrote:

The Champlain Regional MAID Network, which serves Ottawa and the surrounding area, issued a notice on Wednesday that it was shutting down the service in hospitals and homes to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 and to conserve health-care resources. 

Hamilton Health Sciences, a hospital network with 10 sites, has also stopped providing assisted dying within its walls.

It is possible that the MAiD (euthanasia) data will indicate a slowing trend in April 2020 due to Covid-19.

Do you have a personal euthanasia story? Sharing your story may help us prevent other euthanasia deaths. Contact the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition  at: 1-877-439-3348 or info@epcc.ca.