Suicide, Assisted suicide or euthanasia

Alex Schadenbeg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

I am speaking for 5 minutes to the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying (euthanasia) on the evening (May 5, 2026). 

My presentation will focus on the outcomes of Canada's euthanasia law based on the language of the law.

This article is not based on my presentation but concerns Canada's euthanasia law and determining when counselling or aiding suicide, which remain illegal in Canada, become informing a patient that euthanasia or assisted suicide are a legal option?

The Criminal Code of Canada states:

Suicide: Counselling or aiding suicide

• 241 (1) Everyone is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than 14 years who, whether suicide ensues or not,

  (a) counsels a person to die by suicide or abets a person in dying by suicide; or

  (b) aids a person to die by suicide.

The Criminal Code provides an exception for medical assistance in dying which states:

• (2) No medical practitioner or nurse practitioner commits an offence under paragraph (1)(b) if they provide a person with medical assistance in dying in accordance with section 241.2.

• Exemption for person aiding practitioner

  (3) No person is a party to an offence under paragraph (1)(b) if they do anything for the purpose of aiding a medical practitioner or nurse practitioner to provide a person with medical assistance in dying in accordance with section 241.2.

The Criminal Code exception for medical assistance in dying is not limited. Section 241 (5.1) states:

Clarification

(5.1) For greater certainty, no social worker, psychologist, psychiatrist, therapist, medical practitioner, nurse practitioner or other health care professional commits an offence if they provide information to a person on the lawful provision of medical assistance in dying.

Canada's Criminal Code essentially states that it is an offence to counsel, abet or aid a person to die by suicide, unless the counselling, abetting or aiding is done based on providing information for euthanasia or assisted suicide (MAiD).

Why is this important?

Fr Larry Holland

There are many stories of people who have felt coerced to request euthanasia.

For instance, a Catholic priest in Vancouver was asked (coerced) on two occasions if he wanted euthanasia. The first request was made by a doctor, the second was by a nurse. How often did the priest have to say NO?

I received a call from a family in British Columbia who were upset after their elderly father was asked five times if he wanted euthanasia. His wife asked:  

How do we get them to stop asking us if he wants MAiD?

Heather Hancock

Heather Hancock, who lives with Spastic Cerebral Palsy was pressured three times to request euthanasia. The third time happened while she was in a hospital in Medicine Hat Alberta. Hancock described the situation:

One nurse came to my bedside in the early morning hours before breakfast and asked me "to do the right thing and consider MAiD." Her next words still ring through my head... "if I were you, I would take it in a heartbeat. You're not living, you're existing!"

I replied, "I am not you, and you have no right to push me to accept MAiD. I will never accept it! My life has value and no human being has a right to say otherwise."

Then there was the case of the veterans affairs worker who suggested (MAiD) euthanasia to a veteran who was dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and a traumatic brain injury. 

We don't know if the veterans affairs worker was a social worker or psychologist, nonetheless, there was no attempted prosecution, even though the veteran was not seeking MAiD and not happy to be offered MAiD.

In three of the four cases, the coercion was done by a medical professional, so even though these people felt coerced towards euthanasia, the law provided the medical professional with legal protection.

Garnett Genuis (MP) introduced a Private Members Bill C-260 to prevent coercion by non-medical staff. Whether this bill passes or not, Canada's Criminal Code clearly needs to be amended.

My concern is that Canada's euthanasia law is intentionally vague, it lacks definition and oversight. Further to that, the law gives medical professionals, who are willing to be involved with killing people, complete and total legal protection.

What about Kenneth Law?

Kenneth Law is a Canadian who sold a suicide poison kit online to as many as 1200 people world-wide. Law has plead guilty to multiple counts of aiding suicide. 

Based on a plea agreement, the Crown Prosecutor dropped the 14 counts of murder, that if convicted, would have resulted in 25 years in prison, for an agreement where Law plead guilty to aiding the suicide of his victims, a charge that would likely result in a 14 year sentence and after time served may result in 8 years remaining in his sentence.

Law is supposedly different because his poison kits were not oriented to Canada's MAiD law. Clearly we can see that Canada's Criminal Code needs to be clarified.

Even though I have concerns with the language of Canada's euthanasia law, my first concern is that we are killing people.

Canada's euthanasia (MAiD) law has been in place now for 10 years. There has now been more than 100,000 euthanasia deaths in Canada since legalization. 

The law is intentionally vague, it lacks any effective oversight and it is out-of-control.

Parliament needs to stop expanding Canada's euthanasia law and do a complete review of the law. Parliament needs to examine the language of the law and how the meaning of the language has evolved. Parliament needs to examine the practise of euthanasia and how the law has expanded far beyond its original stated intentions.

This article only deals with one of many concerns with Canada's Criminal Code. Canada's parliament needs to bring some sanity to the insanity.