Despite promises that Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) would be a compassionate last resort reserved for the most exceptional cases of unbearable suffering, it has become routine in Canada. 

State-sanctioned euthanasia is now offered to seniors in hospitals and doctors’ offices in lieu of genuine care.

Most recently, on Vancouver Island (now widely recognized as Canada’s euthanasia capital), one such senior arriving at an emergency room was met with the offer of death instead of a treatment plan.

The @cpso_ca reiterates its policy of falsifying euthanasia death certificates.

"The certificate cannot include any reference to MAID or the medications administered." pic.twitter.com/BhucymSKBG

— Amanda Achtman (@AmandaAchtman) March 25, 2026

As Amanda Achtman, founder of Dying to Meet You and ethics director for Canadian Physicians for Life, put it: “It is really devastating because personally I am hearing from seniors constantly about how they are being met with suggestions of death rather than offers of health care… Seniors who, even upon arrival to a hospital or upon going to see their family doctor were met with the suggestion that maybe they would be better off dead. And who can trust their doctor in that climate? It’s just crushing.”

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This is not some fringe occurrence anymore. This is everyday medical culture in parts of Canada. And the numbers prove it: one in 20 deaths nationwide now occurs by lethal injection administered by a doctor or nurse.

Achtman shared the powerful story of 84-year-old Miriam Lancaster, whose experience has gone viral worldwide precisely because it exposes the lie that MAiD is only offered as a compassionate option to those at the very end of life.

“I’m 84 years old,” Miriam recounted. “A year ago… I was suddenly in excruciating pain… I was approached by a young lady doctor whose very first words out of her mouth is, ‘We would like to offer you MAiD.’ I was taken aback. That was the last thing on my mind. I just wanted to find out why I was in pain. I did not want to die.”

Miriam spent a month in the hospital, recovered fully, and went on to travel to Cuba, Mexico, and Guatemala, even climbing a mountain! Travels, which she continues to this day.

“There was no need for MAiD to even be suggested,” Achtman emphasized. “People love this story because life wins.”

Even still, the system continues to expand.

With Canada’s aging Boomer population, the financial incentive is no longer hidden: MAiD has become a convenient tool to reduce healthcare burdens and save millions in costs as families watch from the sidelines.

Achtman pointed to investigative reporter Alexander Raikin’s study ‘From Exceptional to Routine,’ which highlights how normalized this ghoulish practice has become.

Health Canada originally recommended that death certificates list the “toxicity of the drugs administered for the purposes of a medically administered death” as the immediate cause. But now, in provinces like Ontario, physicians are instructed to record only the underlying illness and omit any reference to MAiD entirely.

“This is quite simply the falsification of medical records, the falsification of death certificates,” Achtman stated. “It cuts out the opportunity to have recourse to review and scrutiny of these deaths, and it minimizes the paper trail.”

Inaccurate reporting undermines real, meaningful research, distorts statistics and ultimately delays real solutions that would facilitate life instead of assisted suicide.

Achtman further quotes from a euthanasia doctor’s own memoir, where the physician admitted the practice represented “a monumental shift in philosophy” from the Hippocratic Oath’s command to “First, do no harm.”

The doctor wrote: “I didn’t see assisted dying as ending someone’s life. The underlying illness and suffering were doing that. I understood it more as facilitating someone’s wishes… It wasn’t harm as much as help.”

Achtman called it what it is: “the complete inversion of the Hippocratic Oath.”

Even more damning are the federal government’s own annual reports on why Canadians request MAiD. Pain and fear of pain do not even rank in the top five reasons. The number-one driver, by patients’ own admission, is “an inability to engage in meaningful life activities.” Next come loss of ability to perform daily personal care, loss of dignity, loss of independence, and existential fear about the future.

Achtman explained: “It’s an existential crisis more than a medical crisis… This is about our culture. This is about the relationship between generations. This is about how we regard life when we are in moments of greatest need and dependency.”

“Nothing would burden your loved ones more than your suicide. That is a tragedy that burdens a family like nothing else… This is creating intergenerational grief and complex trauma,” she furthered.

The good news is that pushback is growing. Alberta has introduced life-affirming legislation removing the so-called “Track 2” disability pathway. Internationally, Slovenia rejected assisted suicide by referendum, and Scotland voted it down.

Provinces charting a different course give citizens a clear choice: real healthcare or state-facilitated death.

Achtman’s message to seniors is unwavering: “Don’t go down this path. You deserve so much better. And I’m going to be fighting for you as much as I can… Mounting resistance to what is essentially a form of suicidal ideation is always, always an act of love.”

Canadians do not have to accept this as the new normal. Life-affirming care remains possible, and Achtman advocates for it to become the default once again.

To learn more and support her work, visit dyingtomeetyou.com and physiciansforlife.ca.