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Reports show some Canada euthanasia deaths driven by social reasons

An expert committee reviewing euthanasia deaths in Canada’s most populous province has identified several cases where patients asked to be killed in part for social reasons such as isolation and fears of homelessness.

LONDON (AP) — An expert committee reviewing euthanasia deaths in Canada’s most populous province has identified several cases where patients asked to be killed in part for social reasons such as isolation and fears of homelessness, raising concerns over approvals for vulnerable people in the country’s assisted dying system. Canada’s legal criteria require a medical reason for euthanasia — a fatal diagnosis or unmanageable pain — but the committee’s reports show cases where people were euthanized based on other factors including an “unmet social need.” Providers expressed deep discomfort with ending the lives of vulnerable people whose deaths were avoidable, even if they met the criteria in Canada’s euthanasia system, known nationally as MAiD, for medical assistance in dying.

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