Joanne of Arc's blog

By Joanne of Arc for Quebec Life Coalition

QUEBEC - Euthanasia is now a "health care" service for which Quebec ranks first in the world.

The province of Quebec in Canada is ranked first among all countries in the world this year for euthanasia or MAiD "care", beating out the Netherlands and Belgium, according to CBC's article on December 9.

"The number of people who have used medical assistance in dying (MAiD) has exploded since the beginning of the pandemic: it has risen from 1774 in 2019-2020 to 3663 in 2021-2022", reports CBC.

According to the president of the Commission on End-of-Life Care, Dr. Michel Bureau, the data that puts Quebec first in the world is the following: "In Quebec, 5.1% of deaths are the result of medical assistance in dying. In the Netherlands, it's 4.8% of deaths, and in Belgium, it's 2.3%", says the CBC article.

Le Devoir reports that "The commission presented its annual report in the National Assembly on Friday and issued a press release in which its president, Dr. Michel Bureau, stated that "Quebec continues to do well" in terms of "respecting the criteria for the application of the Act" and "the last resort nature of this care".

According to the press release, "more and more physicians are integrating this care into their practice. The 2021-2022 data shows that there was a 26% increase in physicians participating in this care across the continuum offered to patients, compared to 2020-2021."

"Dr. Bureau says he is surprised by the rapid increase in the number of requests for MAiD in Quebec. According to him, this growth could be explained by the fact that medical assistance in dying is presented to patients as care, and not as euthanasia," according to CBC.

In addition, Le Soleil published an article on the subject in which Dr. Bureau said he anticipated an increase in euthanasia in the future as a result of the "social" acceptance of this new "health care":

"Because of this finding of 'social' acceptance of this new 'care', the president of the commission no longer foresees a plateau being reached in the demand for medical aid in dying. Rather, he believes that growth will continue.*"

"According to the report, 3,663 people were granted medical aid in dying between April 1, 2021 and March 31, 2022. This compares with 2426 people who used it in 2020-2021 and 1776 people in 2019-2020," reports Le Soleil.

The constant promotion of euthanasia through the media as a "miracle solution" to remedy suffering undoubtedly has its place in the way Quebec society is influenced on this subject.

Le Soleil confirms this: "The media are no strangers to the increase in demand, according to Dr. Bureau. He maintains that the many empathetic reports on patients who have benefited from this program have an impact on the demand."

*Emphasized by us.