OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) — Canada is offering Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) to federal prisoners and has already euthanized 10 inmates.
On April 8, Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) Jennifer O’Connell told Parliament that the Correctional Service Canada (CSC) has euthanized 10 of the 37 inmates who applied for MAiD since 2016.
“As part of this, CSC is responsive to the needs of offenders, including quality and compassionate palliative and end-of-life care,” she claimed.
“As of February 13, 2024, the total number of requests that CSC has received since the implementation of the legislation was 37, of which 10 eligible individuals received MAID,” O’Connell continued.
“Furthermore, of the individuals who received MAID, nine received it in external facilities and one received it within a correctional facility at the individual’s request,” she revealed. “All procedures were carried out by health professionals outside the service.”
O’Connell’s statement came in response to questioning from Conservative MP Doug Shipley regarding how many inmates had been medically killed by their doctors since MAiD was legalized in 2016.
“The number of federal prisoners who are dying by euthanasia will continue to rise unless rules are established to prevent this from happening,” Euthanasia Prevention Coalition executive director Alex Schadenberg told LifeSiteNews.
“Once the terminal illness requirement in the law was removed in March 2021, the law essentially required that a person experience an ‘irremediable medical condition,’” he explained. “The phrase ‘irremediable medical condition’ is not defined in the law.”
“Considering the reality of prison life and the reality of Canada’s MAiD law, unless changes occur, people who have an ‘irremediable medical condition’ and want to escape prison life, will seek death by medical homicide, also known as MAiD in greater numbers,” he warned.
Similarly, Jack Fonseca of Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) told LifeSiteNews that “this is one more demonstration of the sheer evil of Trudeau’s euthanasia-killing regime.”
“The mouth of the Liberal death machine opens wide to swallow vulnerable Canadians in every setting and social state,” he stated. “No institution is immune. Not even prisoners in federal prisons apparently. Amazingly, Trudeau has managed to restore capital punishment in Canada, through the back door, eliminating prisoners by lethal injection!”
“There is no safeguard which can protect the expansionary nature of euthanasia as a solution to human suffering,” he continued. “We must re-criminalize euthanasia in every instance, or else it will inexorably be permitted for every person who experiences ‘suffering’ as a ‘right,’ whether that suffering is physical, mental, or social.”
MAiD does not yet apply to the mentally ill, as the Liberal government decided to delay the expansion of euthanasia to those suffering solely from such illnesses until 2027 after backlash from Canadians and prominent doctors.
In January, provincial health ministers went a step further than seeking a delay in the provision, asking for the measure to be “indefinitely” postponed.
The provincial health ministers’ appeal echoes that of leading Canadian psychiatrist Dr. K. Sonu Gaind, who testified that the expansion of MAiD “is not so much a slippery slope as a runaway train.”
Similarly, in November, several Canadian psychiatrists warned that the country is “not ready” for the coming expansion of euthanasia to those who are mentally ill. They said that further liberalizing the procedure is not something that “society should be doing” as it could lead to deaths under a “false pretence.”
The expansion of euthanasia to those with mental illness even has the far-left New Democratic Party (NDP) concerned. Dismissing these concerns, a Trudeau Foundation fellow actually said Trudeau’s current euthanasia regime is marked by “privilege,” assuring the Canadian people that most of those being put to death are “white,” “well off,” and “highly educated.”
The most recent reports show that MAiD is the sixth highest cause of death in Canada. However, it was not listed as such in Statistics Canada’s top 10 leading causes of death from 2019 to 2022. When asked why MAiD was left off the list, the agency explained that it records the illnesses that led Canadians to choose to end their lives via euthanasia, not the actual cause of death, as the primary cause of death.
According to Health Canada, in 2022, 13,241 Canadians died by MAiD lethal injections. This accounts for 4.1 percent of all deaths in the country for that year, a 31.2 percent increase from 2021.
While the numbers for 2023 have yet to be released, all indications point to a situation even more grim than 2022.