More Than 15,000 Received MAID in 2023 as Growth Slows, Report Says

More than 15,000 people received medical assistance in dying in Canada in 2023, but federal statistics show the growth in cases has slowed significantly.

Health Canada said in its fifth annual report on MAID released Wednesday that the 15,343 people who received help to die last year represented a 15.8 per cent increase from 2022.

That’s about half the average annual growth rate of 31 per cent from 2019 to 2022. But the report said it cannot draw “reliable conclusions” about whether the slower increase in demand indicates a “stabilization” of the number of cases over the long term.

“An increased awareness of MAID within the care continuum, population aging and the associated patterns of illness or disease, personal beliefs and societal acceptance, as well as the availability of practitioners who provide MAID, may all influence the number of provisions,” the report said.

Each year, has seen a growing number of people requesting and receiving medical assistance in dying (MAiD) in B.C. The provincial government says in 2017, 677 people died by MAiD. By 2020, that number had more than tripled to 1,572. In 2023, nearly 2,800 people chose to end their life that way. {snip}

{snip}

Health Canada said 19,660 people asked for MAID in 2023, but 2,906 died before their requests could be fulfilled, while 915 applicants were deemed ineligible and 496 withdrew their requests.

{snip}

The report said natural death was “reasonably foreseeable” in about 96 per cent of people who went on to receive MAID. It also the median age of recipients was about 78, and that cancer was the most frequently cited medical condition, at 64 per cent.

Health Canada said the report was the first to track the race, ethnicity or cultural identity of MAID recipients.

The statistics show 96 per cent of recipients identified as Caucasian, while East Asian was the second-most prevalent ethnic identity, at 1.8 per cent.

{snip}