Canada’s medical assistance in dying (MAID) program may be vulnerable to exploitation by “health-care serial killers” due to its permissive safeguards and growing number of patients, a peer-reviewed
study says.
Health-care serial killing (HSK) is defined as the intentional, individual, and sequential killing by medical workers—often physicians and nurses—of “helpless or dependent persons under their care,” according to the study published on Aug. 2 in the
journal HealthCare Ethics Committee Forum.
The study notes that clinicians involved in HSK often target patients who share the same clinical traits as those eligible for MAID. It raises heightened concern about the
Canadian law defining MAID as a “non-culpable” form of homicide, exempting medical and nurse practitioners from criminal liability in cases where patient deaths might otherwise raise suspicion, the study says.
“While some patients may be legally eligible for MAiD by meeting the Criminal Code eligibility criteria, their assessors and providers can still have non-clinical or extra-legal motivations to participate, such as sadism, financial gain, misapplied altruism, or ideology,” wrote Christopher Lyon, a Canadian social scientist and author of the study.
Lyon, a
research fellow at the University of York in the United Kingdom, notes that Canada “lacks an oversight system to independently review MAID requests, consistent post-death reporting, and a waiting period between approval and death.” He also expresses doubt about whether Canadian health-care systems can effectively detect and prevent culpable MAID homicides by relying on self-reported legal compliance, filtering possible criminal activities through local oversight or regulatory bodies before police are involved.
“Canada’s MAiD system is criticized as the most permissive or least safeguarded in the world, raising the question of whether it could protect patients who fit the clinical profile of adult victims of HSK from a killer working as a MAiD provider,” he writes.
Lyon’s study references historical instances of illegal deaths–often linked to euthanasia advocacy groups–before MAID was decriminalized in 2016. It suggests that these past activities may offer insights into how MAID could be exploited today.
Lyon clarifies that his study does not claim that criminally culpable homicide, such as murder or manslaughter, is occurring within Canada’s MAID program. Instead, he says it suggests that the current system could allow serial killers to “safely” or legally commit homicide under the guise of MAID.
‘World’s Fastest-Growing Assisted-Dying Program’
Canada’s MAID program, which has seen the number of assisted deaths increase thirteenfold since its legalization, is deemed “the world’s fastest-growing assisted-dying program,” according to Ontario-based think tank
Cardus. in a research report released on Aug. 7.
In 2016, there were just over 1,000 deaths through MAID, and by 2022, the last year for which data are available, the number had surged to over 13,240, accounting for
4.1 percent of all deaths in Canada, says Health Canada’s fourth annual report on MAID in Canada, published in October 2023.
Cardus notes that MAID is now the
fifth leading cause of death in the country, tied with
cerebrovascular diseases, which according to Statistics Canada saw just over 13,900 deaths in 2022.
In response to Lyon’s report, a Health Canada spokesperson noted the strict
eligibility criteria for MAID and the regulations governing health professionals who administer assisted deaths.
“Mandatory requirements that permit physicians or nurse practitioners to lawfully provide MAID in Canada are set out in the Criminal Code. These requirements include stringent eligibility criteria and robust safeguards that must be applied. In addition to the Criminal Code requirements, physicians and nurse practitioners are bound by professional regulatory rules, and their professional ethics,” the spokesperson said in an email statement to The Epoch Times.
“They also have access to additional guidance, including model practice standards and advice to the profession documents, as well as a national MAID curriculum.”
Canada’s MAID regime was
expanded in 2020 to allow those whose natural death is not “reasonably foreseeable” to use it as well.
Ottawa has been
eyeing further expanding MAID to those whose sole medical condition is mental illness, but has
postponed that decision to 2027 for now.
