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There were 1,523 medically assisted deaths in Canada in the last six-month reporting period — a nearly 30 per cent increase over the previous six months.
Cancer was the most common underlying medical condition in reported assisted death cases, cited in about 65 per cent of all medically assisted deaths, according to the report from Health Canada.
Using data from Statistics Canada, the report shows medically assisted deaths accounted for 1.07 per cent of all deaths in the country over those six months. That is consistent with reports from other countries that have assisted death regimes, where the figure ranges from 0.3 to four per cent.
Since Quebec’s assisted death law and the federal legislation came into force two years ago, 3,714 Canadians have received medical aid in dying.
Most Canadians who choose an assisted death are between 56 and 90 years old. The average age of those choosing medically assisted deaths during the reporting period was 73 years old.
In 2016, Netherlands reported that more than 80 per cent of its assisted deaths occurred at home. In Canada, the setting is usually a hospital (40.5 per cent of all assisted deaths) or a patient’s home (43.3 per cent). Other assisted deaths took place in a long-term care or assisted living facility.
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