(LifeSiteNews) — Statistics Canada has admitted to excluding euthanasia from deaths totals, despite being the sixth highest cause of mortality in the nation.
On November 28, Statistics Canada revealed that its euthanasia program MAiD (Medical Assistance in Dying), is not recorded as a cause of death in official reports. Instead, the government records the illness with which the person was suffering from that led them to chose to end their life as the cause of death.
“In the database, the underlying cause of death is defined as the disease or injury that initiated the train of morbid events leading directly to death,” StatsCan posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “As such, MAID deaths are coded to the underlying condition for which MAID was requested.”
In the database, the underlying cause of death is defined as the disease or injury that initiated the train of morbid events leading directly to death. As such, MAID deaths are coded to the underlying condition for which MAID was requested.
For more info: https://t.co/aVXznOKq9S— Statistics Canada (@StatCan_eng) November 28, 2023
In other words, if a Canadian struggling with cancer chooses to be euthanized, their death will be attributed to cancer, not MAiD, in StatsCan’s databank.
The decision comes as deaths by MAiD are rapidly increasing in Canada. According to Health Canada, in 2022, 13,241 Canadians died by MAiD lethal injection, which is 4.1 percent of all deaths in the country for that year, and a 31.2 percent increase from 2021.
According to this subversive method of recording, despite being the sixth leading cause, MAiD was not listed as a cause of death in a November report of the top 10 leading causes of death from 2019 to 2022.
If MAiD had been listed as a cause of death, it would have been placed just under cerebrovascular diseases and just above chronic lower respiratory diseases.
MAiD has rampantly increased in Canada, with many Canadians feeling forced to end their lives through euthanasia as wait times for treatment skyrocket to record highs.
This is the case of 52-year-old Dan Quayle, a grandfather from British Columba. On November 24, he chose to be “medically” killed by a lethal injection after being unable to receive cancer treatment due to the increased wait times.
Throughout the agonizing wait, his family “prayed he would change his mind or get an 11th-hour call that chemo had been scheduled,” but were instead told consistently by the hospital that they were “backlogged.”
The family is speaking out now “following the stories of two Vancouver Island women who went public with their decisions to seek treatment in the U.S. to avoid delays in B.C.” – and Dan’s wife believes that she could still have her husband today if he’d gotten the treatment he needed. In fact, wait times for cancer patients who are literally dying while waiting for treatment keep getting worse.
Unfortunately, Quayle’s story is not unique, as many Canadians have reportedly chosen to end their lives with MAiD as they are unable to obtain necessary healthcare.
However, instead of supporting the healthcare system to prevent Canadians from taking their own lives, the Trudeau government is working to expand access to MAiD by loosening its requirements.
On March 9, 2024, MAiD is set to expand to include those suffering solely from mental illness. This is a result of the 2021 passage of Bill C-7, which also allowed the chronically ill – not just the terminally ill – to qualify for so-called doctor-assisted death.
The mental illness expansion was originally set to take effect in March of this year. However, after massive pushback from pro-life groups, conservative politicians and others, the Liberals under Trudeau delayed the introduction of the full effect of Bill C-7 until 2024 via Bill C-39.
The expansion comes despite warnings from top Canadian psychiatrists that the country is “not ready” for the coming expansion of euthanasia to those who are mentally ill, saying expanding the procedure is not something “society should be doing” as it could lead to deaths under a “false pretense.”
The number of Canadians killed by lethal injection since 2016 now stands at 44,958.