A Milestone of Misplaced Mercy

This article was published by Amy Hasbrouck on her Substack on January 20, 2026.

Amy Hasbrouck

By Amy Hasbrouck

Amy is a founder of Tourjours Vivant - Not Dead Yet and the past President of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.

Sometime this spring, Canada will achieve a milestone of misplaced mercy; the 100,000th person will die by euthanasia. There are about 60 cities in Canada that have populations of 100,000+ people.

Legalization of medical assistance in dying (MAiD) was sold to the public as an exceptional measure to be used in exceptional cases; people with intractable pain or suffering at the end of their lives could control the time, place and manner of their deaths. What could possibly go wrong?

Disability rights activists sounded the alarm, early and often about the dangers of legalizing assisted dying, both before and following legalization.

In 1996, the Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD) passed a resolution stating “…The CCD opposes any government action to decriminalize assisted suicide because of the serious potential for abuse and the negative image of people with disabilities that would be produced if people with disabilities are killed with state sanction…” The reasons for this position were laid out in a 2002 Report which found that:

“there are serious risks to persons with disabilities in societies where assisted death is regarded as a solution to the suffering and anxiety that many experience as they near the end of their lives. For most people in that circumstance, assisted death may be regarded as ‘merciful’ because it relieves them of the physical and mental ordeal they would otherwise have to endure. For people with disabilities, however, the ‘mercy’ is often seen in terms of ending a life that is perceived by others to be devoid of value because of the individual’s disability...”

The report concluded: 

“Until it can be convincingly demonstrated that all Canadians enjoy full equality and security of the person, regardless of disability, as guaranteed by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, then any steps toward legalized assistance in dying should be resisted.”

In 2010, CCD submitted a brief to the Parliamentary Committee on Palliative and Compassionate Care, describing how barriers, discrimination and devaluation of disability combine to create deadly compassion, where ending disabled lives is seen as a kindness.

In 2013, CCD launched Toujours Vivant-Not Dead Yet, which produced 245 webcasts in English and French from 2013 to 2020, as well as providing testimony to parliament on multiple occasions, met with the Trudeau Government, and offered feedback on implementation of Canada’s Euthanasia program. But disability rights activists were ignored, dismissed and disregarded.

Since Health Canada’s reporting system is retrospective – after the fact – we will probably never know the exact date Canada reaches this landmark. It might happen in March of 2026, five years after the MAiD law was amended to make access to euthanasia easier, broader and faster. Most certainly the 100,000th euthanasia will occur less than ten years after adoption of the MAiD law in June of 2016.

The eighth annual report (for calendar year 2026), probably won’t mark the milestone when it is released in the fall of 2027. The details – who was the 100,000th person killed, when did they die, what factors contributed to their decision, and what might have been done to prevent the euthanasia – will be obscured by that annual report, just as they have been shrouded by every other report released by Health Canada. There are some things we know.

• Every person who requests and receives euthanasia has a physical or mental limitation which, in combination with barriers in the environment, (lack of housing or home care, poverty), denial of health- or palliative, and discrimination, results in a disability, (as defined by the United Nations) whether or not they self-identify as disabled.
• If MAiD were classified by statistics canada as a “cause of death” it would have been the fourth leading cause of death as of 2023 (15,342 MAiD deaths declared in the 5th annual report)(6th Annual report stated 16,499 for 2024 with 76,475 from legalization until December 31, 2024)
• Canada has not met its obligations under the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

As we prepare to pass this milestone, we have an opportunity to tap the brakes. A bill is pending in parliament that would exclude mental illness as the sole underlying medical condition from eligibility for MAiD. Bill C-218 is a private members bill that is scheduled for debate in the next few weeks.