by Nadine Yousif, BBC:
Medically-assisted dying – also known as voluntary euthanasia – accounted for 4.7% of deaths in Canada in 2023, new government data shows.
The country’s fifth annual report since euthanasia was legalised in 2016 showed around 15,300 people underwent assisted dying last year after being successful in their applications.
The median age of this group was more than 77. The vast majority – around 96% – had a death deemed “reasonably foreseeable”, due to severe medical conditions such as cancer.
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In the small minority of other cases, patients may not have been terminally ill, but sought an assisted death due to a long and complicated illness that had significantly impacted their quality of life.
Canada is among a few countries that have introduced assisted dying laws in the past decade. Others include Australia, New Zealand, Spain and Austria.
In Canada, consenting adults can request medical assistance in dying from a healthcare provider if they have a serious and irremediable medical condition.
Some provisions are in place, including a requirement of having two independent healthcare providers confirm that the patient is eligible before their request is approved.
More than 320,000 people died in Canada in 2023, and 15,300 of those deaths – about one in 20 – were medically assisted.
The figures released on Wednesday by Health Canada show that the rate of assisted dying in Canada increased by nearly 16% in 2023. This number is a sharp drop from the average increase of 31% in previous years.
The report cautioned that it is too early to determine what caused the rate to slacken.
For the first time, the report delved into race and ethnic data of those who died by euthanasia.
Around 96% of recipients identified as white people, who account for about 70% of Canada’s population. It is unclear what caused this disparity.
The second most reported ethnic group was east Asians (1.8%), who account for about 5.7% of Canadians.
Assisted dying continued to have the highest usage rate in Quebec, which accounted for nearly 37% of all euthanasia deaths, despite the province holding just 22% of Canada’s population.
Quebec’s government launched a study earlier this year to examine why its euthanasia rate was so high.