An extensive report on Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) practices is causing concern that the nation’s euthanasia providers are not following the regulations of the law. Titled “A Pattern of Noncompliance,” the report from New Atlantis found some 428 cases of possible criminal violations in regards to MAiD services since 2018.
Medical Assistance in Dying is regulated under Canadian law and theoretically requires physicians to carefully consider each case for eligibility, uphold all safeguards against abuse, and report each request, as well as each death. Regulations have been progressively loosening since the practice was first approved.
Medical practitioners who breach any of these requirements could face prison sentences of up to 14 years.
The laws are meant to protect patients who are ineligible from ending their lives prematurely, but advocates of euthanasia have also pointed to the regulations as a means of indicating the efficacy of the safeguards. Now, however, the release of private documents from the Ontario Chief Coroner’s office – between 2018 to 2024 – have suggested that MAiD providers may have been playing fast and loose with the rules.
An internal report from Chief Coroner Dirk Huyer identified over 400 cases of “issues with compliance” with criminal law and regulatory policies. Furthermore, in 2023, these cases accounted for a quarter of all MAiD deaths. It should be noted that New Atlantis only came across these documents after three physicians with access to them sent an alert. The physicians chose to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal in their professional communities.
The report found that the issues of noncompliance range in severity from breach of safeguards to patients who were euthanized while they may not have been capable of consent. It is unclear if any or all of these “issues” have been violations of criminal law, but this is because not one single case was reported to law enforcement for investigation.
The Chief Coroner’s Office has categorized virtually all of these cases as requiring a simple “informal conversation,” rather than any sort of investigation. In one case described as “egregious” – one that Huyer himself called "just horrible" – the office referred it to a regulatory body, without informing authorities.
Read the full report at New Atlantis.
