Both Canada and California legalized assisted suicide in 2016.
They have similarly sized populations, and the leading causes of death are very similar.
In California in 2022, 853 people asked a physician to help them die. In Canada that number was 13,241, roughly fifteen times more.
Medical ethicist David Prentice says the difference is alarming.
“It’s of great concern that Canadians are having themselves killed by their physicians at such high rates.”
Prentice says recently Canada removed the requirement that you must have a reasonably foreseeable death. Now, all that is necessary for a doctor to end your live is a grievous and irreversible condition – like depression.
“This all starts with, ‘Oh yes, someone has an imminent death, and they're trying to avoid pain.’ This has rapidly become, especially in Canada, one where (people are) pretty much picking to die for any particular reason.
Prentice says another factor in the difference between Californian and Canadian assisted suicides is the socialized medicine in Canada.
We can't pay to heal you, but ...
“Socialized medicine really tries to save money for society. It's not into saving lives.”
Prentice notes one of the candidates in the presidential race wants to implement single payer or socialized medicine. He says once it's allowed, the medical establishment will try to push you to choose assisted suicide, as he says happened to one patient in Oregon.
“The patient had cancer. The socialized medicine that was offered to her wouldn't pay for her cancer treatment but would pay to have her killed.”
