Canada is running out of doctors who are willing to perform medically assisted suicides

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Canada is running out of doctors who are willing to partake in the country’s euthanasia, a new report states. The report suggests that doctors who offer the procedure are limiting it to those for whom the law was originally made, like those at the end of life.

According to the authors, Canada faces a crisis in access to medically assisted suicides due to a dramatic rise in demand for the procedure that threaten to overwhelm the supply of “willing and able providers.”

“Some doctors, burned out from the stresses of the pandemic, are dropping the ‘add on’ work of MAID, other ‘early adopters’ are retiring or moving on to other areas of practice and more doctors still may opt out of MAID over the increased ‘legal risk and moral hazards’ related to ever-widening eligibility, they said,” the National Post reported.

According to the report, existing MAID providers are limiting their services to those for whom the law was originally intended, such as those with terminal illnesses.

The National Post reported:

The number of MAID deaths has grown from just over 1,000 in 2016, when assisted dying in Canada was formally legalized, to 31,644 in total by the end of 2021. More than 10,000 people died by MAID in 2021 alone.

…

In 2021, 1,577 doctors and nurse practitioners were providing MAID in Canada, up 17 per cent from 1,345 in 2020, according to the federal government’s most recent annual report on MAID.

However, the number of people granted assisted death increased by nearly double that amount (32 per cent).

MAID, which was previously restricted to people who were at the end of their life, will be available to anyone whose sole underlying medical condition is a mental disorder. Essentially, anyone with a stress disorder could apply for euthanasia.