Canada’s assisted death policies have been in the spotlight in the UK as MPs there have been mulling legalizing euthanasia in recent weeks. Some raised concerns about a “slippery slope” effect that could result in the law becoming less stringent over time.
Canada’s experience was cited as an example of laws becoming increasingly more permissive following the legalization of euthanasia.
UK MPs voted last week to support the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, bringing the country a step closer to legalizing assisted dying for adults who have six months or less to live. The vote result was 330 in favour and 275 against. MPs were given a free vote, allowing them to cast their ballots according to their conscience rather than toeing the party line.
The End of Life bill has successfully cleared its first hurdle, but must pass another five steps to become law. That process could take up to two years and requires further rounds of voting.
Canada’s medical assistance in dying (MAID) legislation as a whole received considerable scrutiny in the lead-up to the vote, becoming a talking point in UK parliamentary debate and by the country’s media.
One of the main criticisms was the way Canada’s legislation has evolved over time.
When MAID was initially introduced in Canada in 2016, it was strictly for the terminally ill, much like the UK’s current bill.
Following the Superior Court of Québec’s 2019 Truchon decision, Canada’s MAID legislation was revised in 2021 to include those enduring “unbearable suffering” from an irreversible illness or disability that is not terminal. In 2027, eligibility is set to again expand to include those whose sole condition is a mental illness, though that move has already been delayed once.
Since legalization in 2016, nearly 45,000 Canadians have been euthanized.
In 2022, assisted deaths accounted for 4.1 percent of all deaths in Canada, representing a growth of 31 percent over 2021.
The Canadian government has described MAID as a system put in place to support the “autonomy and freedom of choice of individuals.”
Concerns About Canada’s Experience
Critics of the UK’s End of Life bill have cited Canada’s MAID system as an example of how such legislation can be amended to be more permissive over time.That is the concern of Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, a British Paralympic athlete with 11 gold medals.
Future changes to the UK’s assisted dying laws, such as those that have been implemented in Canada, could jeopardize the autonomy of disabled individuals, she told Sky News.
“I’m really worried that disabled people, because of the cost of health and social care, because that’s being removed, that choice is then taken away so the only choice they have is to end their lives,” she said.
UK proponents of assisted suicide, like Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, also found fault with Canada’s system. Leadbeater presented the UK’s bill to the House of Commons on Oct. 16.
“We have the benefit of learning from the practices which we would want to potentially emulate in this country and certain practices which we would absolutely not want to emulate,” Leadbeater told Sky News.
She also told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that she didn’t look at “the model that is going on in Canada” when considering the UK bill.
Leadbeater has been adamant UK law would not be modified over time like Canada’s legislation has, saying it will always be limited to those who are terminally ill.
Aside from worries that euthanasia laws may expand in the future, some have also opposed the current legislation as it pertains to terminally ill patients.
Patients may be “self-coerced” into choosing death if they feel they’re a burden to their families, said former Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron in the House of Commons debate last week.
Former Labour minister Dawn Butler argued that a terminal diagnosis is “not an exact science,” and there were many cases in which people lived far longer than doctors had expected.
Government money may be used to “fund death” instead of improving palliative care, said Conservative Father of the House Sir Edward Leigh. Labour’s Diane Abbott had the same concern.
Other opponents of euthanasia have also cited the “sanctity of life.”
UK Justice Minister Shabana Mahmood has been adamant that there is no real way to put absolute safeguards in place. She shared her concerns in a recent letter to her constituents in which she described the UK euthanasia bill as a “slippery slope to death on demand.”
She vowed to vote against the bill, saying that the “state should never offer death as a service.”
But Canada’s experience doesn’t have to be replicated in the UK, according to MP Tony Vaughan. He said it would be almost impossible for the UK to go down the same path as Canada in terms of expanding the legislation.
“The truth is there is no way this bill could be liberalised without Parliament amending the legislation which would require a further vote by MPs,” he wrote in a letter posted to social media.
“The UK courts could not strike down or liberalise parts of the legislation because Parliament is sovereign (unlike in, say Canada where it’s not). The slippery slope argument is based on speculation.”
Landmark Rulings
MPs heard from Canadian experts as part of the UK’s assisted dying inquiry last year before the bill was presented this fall.One of the experts noted that Carter v. Canada—the landmark 2015 Supreme Court of Canada case that struck down sections of the Criminal Code that prohibited assisted dying—had been subject to allegations of bias and conflict of interest. This case was also discussed in UK media ahead of MPs’ deliberations on the assisted dying law.
The allegations of bias date back to when Carter v. Canada came up on the docket of B.C. Supreme Court Judge Lynn Smith.
Smith ruled in favour of Carter in 2012, striking down Canada’s doctor-assisted suicide law in the province. That eventually led the Supreme Court of Canada to follow suit four years later, paving the way for medical assistance in dying (MAID) to become legal in Canada in 2016.
The Canadian Supreme Court received an application some years later claiming the case should be overturned due to links between Smith and the BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA), the organization that filed the Carter v. Canada lawsuit.
The application from disabled Ontario resident Roger Foley alleged bias, saying Smith’s daughter, Elin Sigurdson, worked for the BCCLA, an organization that had long advocated for the rights of terminally ill people to seek medical assistance in dying.
The Epoch Times contacted Smith and the BCCLA for comment but did not receive a response prior to publication.
The court refused to hear Foley’s motion on the grounds that he wasn’t a party to the original case and it was filed too long after the original case. The motion didn’t receive the federal court’s attention, but it became a subject of interest and media coverage leading up to the UK vote.
