In an apparent affront to Canadian federal law, the government of Quebec announced recently that it would soon allow early “advance” requests for euthanasia, despite the fact that the country’s laws do not allow for it.
Residents of the province will be allowed to start requesting Medical Assistance in Dying, also known as MAid, in advance, beginning on October 30. In June 2023, the province passed a law to allow MAid.
When it was passed, there was a provision that stated the law had to go into effect within 24 months.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, the provincial justice minister of the Coalition Avenir Quebec government, issued a statement on September 7 saying that residents of Quebec province would in the near future be able to ask for advance MAid requests.
The provincial government’s senior ministers said a month earlier they wouldn’t “wait for any longer” for Canada to amend its federal Criminal Code to allow for the change to happen.
As of now, Maid has not been approved via advance request by the federal government, which means it’s still illegal in Canada.
Since it is still illegal from a federal standpoint, Jolin-Barrette requested that the Crown’s Prosecution Office not levy any charges if a medical staffer helps a person to terminate their own life if they’ve requested it in advance.
Recently, Mark Holland, the health minister of Canada, was asked about Quebec pushing forward with these new rules. He said the federal government was “still evaluating it because we’ve just received it, and it’s important that we have a conversation as a society about the implications of this.”
Canada actually has now two laws regarding euthanasia — the one that Quebec passed in 2023 and one that the Liberal government led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has passed.
Quebec’s bill expanded MAiD access to people who have serious physical disabilities. It also mandates that hospices offer it in addition to allowing advance requests of euthanasia.
Among all provinces in Canada, Quebec has the highest rate of MAiD. In 2024, there have been nearly 5,700 deaths by euthanasia in the province, which was a 17% increase over the year before.
In fact, that total represents a whopping 7.3% of all the deaths in Quebec. This puts the province at the top of euthanasia rates in the entire world.
The Liberal government led by Trudeau has tried to expand MAiD in recent years. They want to give people access to it if they’re suffering just from mental illness, and not just if they are terminally or chronically ill.
Many mental health, medical and pro-life groups have pushed back against that, though. This forced the federal government to delay expanding MAid for mental illness until at least 2027.
Since 2016, nearly 65,000 people in Canada have died due to lethal injection, with around 16,000 estimated to have died this way just in 2023.
