Some advocates fear that Canada and the United States will use assisted dying as a means to curb rising elder and health care costs. Lyman Stone, from the Pronatalism Initiative at the Institute for Family Studies, stated, 'It’s not even hypothetical. It’s Canada today.'
Emergency rooms are known for long waits in both Canada and the U.S., but they remain among the shortest delays in health care. Seeing a specialist can take months, leaving nervous Canadians languishing as they await treatment, surgery, or both. In the U.S., wait times are shorter, but access may be limited by one’s ability to procure and pay for insurance.
However, one medical procedure in Canada offers a quick path to treatment: Medical Assistance in Dying, or MAID. Ethicists debate whether it is good or bad for patients and society, discussing everything from the need for trauma-free ends to possible abuse and people being encouraged to die. Another concern is emerging over elder care. As health care costs mount for governments, employers, and individuals in both countries, low-fertility populations are aging and becoming more expensive to care for. Could both countries turn to MAID to cut costs?
Some critics say it is already happening in Canada and fear it could happen in the U.S. Alexander Raikin, a fellow in bioethics and American democracy at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, said, 'MAID has already become in Canada a form of elder care.' He added that those dying from Canada’s MAID are disproportionately vulnerable, disabled, and elderly, and the data reflect that shift.
In Canada, MAID is available to adults whose deaths are reasonably foreseeable, as well as those suffering from a grievous or irremediable condition where death is not reasonably foreseeable. The rollout to patients with mental health illnesses is delayed until next year, though that is being challenged. In 2024, 16,499 opted for MAID, representing 5.1% of Canadian deaths that year, a 0.4% increase from 2023. MAID came into effect in June 2016, following Parliament’s passing of federal law to implement the Supreme Court’s Carter decision, overturning the criminalization of assisted suicide. In less than a decade, MAID has gone from a criminal act to accounting for roughly one in 20 Canadian deaths.
In the U.S., 14 states have medical aid in dying laws, allowing for prescribed drugs to be taken by patients. Patients must have a prognosis of death within six months. There is no centralized U.S. tally, but for jurisdictions that report, data shows that 1,242 people ingested prescribed aid-in-dying medication in 2024.
