According to researcher Patricia Maloney, euthanasia and assisted suicide groups in Canada are raking in millions of dollars from taxpayers courtesy of the Canadian government. Maloney uncovered two instances involving the government funding of assisted suicide groups.
The first organization is The Canadian Association of MAiD Assessors and Providers (CAMAP) received over $3.2 million from the government in 2021, compared to just over $41,500 in 2018. CAMAP is a national charity dedicated solely to euthanasia and assisted suicide.
The second organization is Dying With Dignity Canada, also dedicated only to euthanasia and assisted suicide. It received $204,655 from the Canadian government in 2021, as well as grants from the Canada Summer Jobs program in 2020 and 2021.
A 2020 report submitted to the Parliament of Canada celebrated the healthcare cost savings that resulted from the country’s legalization of assisted suicide. The report concluded that assisted suicide represents “a net reduction in cost of $86.9 million” for the government, adding, “expanding access to MAID will result in a net reduction in health care costs for the provincial governments.” (emphasis added)
Though medical assistance in dying was only legalized relatively recently in Canada, the Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) program has already become one of the world’s most extreme. It’s set to include people with mental illness in 2024, and the country is currently the world leader in euthanizing incarcerated people. The government is also looking to allow children to be euthanized, even without parental consent.
Meanwhile, more than one in four Canadians support euthanasia solely due to homelessness, while Canadian ethicists argue that poverty alone should be an acceptable reason for someone to be eligible for physician-assisted death. Individuals with disabilities are increasingly requesting MAiD because they cannot afford to live and the government denies their requests for better care and support.
“We need to understand that many people with disabilities live in poverty and find themselves having difficulty receiving necessary medical treatment and yet according to the law they have no difficulty being approved for death by euthanasia,” Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition previously told the Catholic News Agency. “Clearly this has led to an epidemic of death, of despair, in Canada. Deaths based on cultural abandonment but sold to the population under the false guise of freedom.”
