Canada Faces Outcry Over Push to Allow Assisted Suicide for Minors

Advocates in Canada are now pushing to expand the country’s assisted-suicide program to include minors as young as 12, sparking outrage from ethicists and doctors who say the nation’s euthanasia regime has already gone too far.

Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) law, introduced in 2016 for adults whose natural deaths were “reasonably foreseeable,” has rapidly evolved into one of the most permissive euthanasia systems in the world. What began as a measure for the terminally ill has since expanded to include people with chronic illnesses and disabilities—and now, activists are campaigning to open it to children.

The group Dying With Dignity Canada is leading the charge, recommending that “mature minors” aged 12 and older be eligible for assisted death. Their proposal even suggests that 16- and 17-year-olds should be able to request euthanasia without parental consent, with eligibility determined by “maturity” rather than chronological age.

Critics say this proves long-standing warnings about a “slippery slope” were justified. “Once you cross the line of allowing doctors to kill patients, it becomes very hard to argue for limits,” said Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, a psychiatrist and bioethicist at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. “You’ve accepted the premise that some lives are not worth living.”

Since MAiD’s creation, euthanasia deaths have surged dramatically. In 2023 alone, more than 15,000 Canadians ended their lives through the program—roughly 4.7% of all deaths nationwide, or about one in every twenty.

Advocates for expanding MAiD to minors claim it’s about “compassion” and autonomy, noting that minors can already make some medical decisions on their own. But opponents say the movement reveals a deeper moral crisis in Canadian healthcare.

“I once thought the idea of euthanizing children was fringe,” Kheriaty said. “Now I’m not so sure. I wouldn’t put it past them.”

Another expansion—to include people suffering solely from mental illness—is scheduled for 2027, though Kheriaty says it’s already happening in practice. “There have been cases of young adults euthanized for conditions like autism and ADHD,” he noted.

Kheriaty argues that the medical profession must draw a hard line: “We can’t respond to suffering by offering poison. It’s a privilege to care for someone in their most vulnerable moment.”

He warns that normalizing assisted death erodes compassion and abandons the weak. “Assisted suicide is dangerous and inhumane,” he said. “Our duty is to heal, or when healing isn’t possible, to care.”