A sharp rise in state-facilitated deaths in Canada has drawn strong criticism from a leading U.K. pro-life group, which warns that the country’s experience should serve as a cautionary example as British lawmakers debate assisted dying legislation.
Right to Life News reported Dec. 1 that a record 16,499 Canadians died by euthanasia in 2024—accounting for 5.1% of all deaths nationwide—marking a 6.9% annual increase according to Health Canada’s most recent Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) report. While Canadian law permits assisted suicide, the group noted that no such cases were recorded last year; all reported deaths involved euthanasia performed by a medical practitioner. (Data from the year before (2023) recorded only five cases of assisted suicide.)
The figures arrive as the U.K. House of Lords continues to consider a bill that would legalize assisted dying for terminally ill adults under strict conditions.
Catherine Robinson, spokesperson for Right To Life UK, expressed alarm at the statistics. “It is shocking that almost two-thirds of those who died by euthanasia and whose death was not reasonably foreseeable self-identified as disabled,” said Robinson.
“As we see time and again in Canada and other jurisdictions that record the reasons that people opt for euthanasia and assisted suicide, the end-of-life concerns are predominantly non-medical. ‘Isolation and loneliness’, ‘existential suffering’, being a burden – none of these are medical. Rather, they are psychological, emotional, familial and even spiritual in nature, and the state should not be assisting such people to end their lives to escape this normal part of the human condition. Instead, people experiencing these hardships need support and love, not despair and an early grave.”
Members of the U.K.’s House of Lords are currently reviewing the Terminally Ill (Adults) Bill, which would legalize assisted dying in England and Wales under specific conditions.
The legislation, introduced by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater and first approved in December 2024, allows terminally ill adults—with a life expectancy of six months or less—to request and receive assistance in ending their lives, subject to a series of safeguards.
“MPs and MSPs in the UK would do well to reflect on the experiences of Canada and understand that we have a chance not to make the same mistakes here,” said Robinson.
A total of 76,475 cases of euthanasia and assisted suicide have been recorded in Canada since the country legalised the methods of death for patients in 2016.
Reasons for euthanasia applications in Canada in 2024 included 75.5% of people citing “loss of independence.” Right to Life News pointed out this is a significant increase from 2023, when 52.2% cited “loss of independence.”
The data also showed 48.5% of those euthanised carried a “perceived burden on family, friends or caregivers.”
Euthanasia and assisted dying are permitted under “Track 1” for people whose deaths are reasonably expected. A revised law passed on March 17, 2021, removed that requirement, creating “Track 2,” which allows adults with “a serious and incurable illness, disease or disability” to qualify for MAiD even when their death is not foreseeable.
Right to Life News reported that more than half of Track 2 participants (50.3%) cited fear of being a burden. Track 2 deaths rose to 732 in 2024, up from 625 the previous year, with underlying conditions including diabetes, frailty, autoimmune disorders and chronic pain.
The report added that 58.1% of those euthanized in 2024 cited emotional “distress/anxiety/fear/existential suffering,” a 19.8-point increase from 2023. More than a fifth of all euthanasia applicants (22.9%) had “isolation or loneliness” recorded by a medical practitioner—an issue affecting 44.7% of Track 2 cases.
Such patterns point to growing social and psychological vulnerabilities driving requests for assisted death rather than strictly medical factors.
