The mechanism of eliminating people is quite comparable to German Nazi experiments: The state cuts back on medical treatment and social support, and some citizens, driven to despair by need and suffering, themselves request “assistance in dying”
We have already written about euthanasia in Canada. In just ten years, the country has become a leader in the share of such suicides in the total number of deaths: 5.1% of citizens who died in 2024 did so with medical assistance. In Quebec, the number was as high as 7.9%.
Despite assurances that all of this is done to relieve citizens’ suffering, there are other motives for accelerating citizens’ deaths. One of them is economic. Killing citizens is cheaper than treating them and providing other assistance. According to a report published in 2021, budget savings from the use of euthanasia in 2020 amounted to 86.9 million Canadian dollars. In 2021, the expected savings were projected at C$149 million.
Considering that Canadian authorities are also economizing on healthcare in general — in 2025 there were at least two applications for euthanasia after citizens with treatable illnesses despaired of receiving medical care — the savings reach significant levels, growing alongside the increasing number of those being killed.
However, this is not only about reducing social expenditures. By 2022, Canada had become the leader in the number of donor organs obtained from people subjected to euthanasia. By 2021, in Canada, the Netherlands, Spain, and Belgium, 286 cases of organ donation after euthanasia had been registered. Of these, 136 occurred in Canada, despite the fact that euthanasia was legalized there only in 2016.
At the same time, not only the number of euthanasia cases is rising, but also the number of organ donation cases and, consequently, the share of such donor organs. In the province of Quebec alone, organs were taken from eight euthanized individuals in 2018 (4.9% of donors), and from 24 in 2022 (14%).
It should be emphasized that the most common illness for which euthanasia is applied is cancer. As a rule, citizens whose end is already near and who may be suffering in the final months of life express the desire to die voluntarily.
However, the bodies of such individuals are of little interest from the standpoint of organ donation. Cancer can metastasize to other organs, including those intended for transplantation. At early stages, tumors are virtually impossible to detect.
There are other incurable diseases accompanied by severe pain or leading to profound disability. For example, Alzheimer’s disease or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). These are diseases of nervous tissue, and the organs of those who die from them may be deemed suitable for transplantation.
There are, however, nuances. Alzheimer’s disease leads to gradual memory loss, coordination difficulties, and a diminished ability to fully comprehend one’s condition and actions. At a certain stage, a person may no longer be capable of doing so at all. Accordingly, questions arise about the awareness and voluntariness of such a citizen’s decision when applying for euthanasia.
In the case of ALS, a person retains cognitive abilities but loses control over their body. At the same time, they retain, in principle, the possibility of living and creating. A classic example is the renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, who, even when completely immobilized, continued his scientific and public work.
Nevertheless, euthanasia in Canada is permitted not only for such patients. The description of conditions under which euthanasia may be applied has been revised several times, and currently even people with mental illnesses may be subjected to euthanasia.
The issue of allowing euthanasia for mentally ill individuals has been discussed in Canada since at least 2016. In 2021, amendments were introduced removing the requirement that death be reasonably foreseeable. It was then planned that mentally ill individuals could be euthanized as early as March 2023. Under public pressure, this deadline was first postponed to 2024 and then to 2027.
Given the data on organ donation, the persistence of those advocating assisted suicide for the mentally ill becomes understandable. If mental illness is the sole diagnosis, the body of the suicide victim can, in effect, be used for organs and tissues without limitation.
In any case, the number of potential organ donors is large even without mentally ill citizens. In Canada, there are two categories of euthanasia applications. The first includes incurably ill citizens whose death is expected in the foreseeable future.
The second includes those not facing imminent death. The number of euthanasia cases in this second category is steadily increasing. In 2024, the increase amounted to 17% — 732 cases, or 4.4% of all euthanasia cases.
Many disabled individuals who resort to euthanasia do so because of poverty. In 2019, a man with ALS was euthanized after he was unable to find a hospital closer to his son. The brother of another man who “voluntarily” ended his life claimed that his relative was “effectively executed”: the only disorder listed in the application was hearing loss.
There is also the case of a man who felt compelled to apply for euthanasia because of bedsores, although the problem could have been solved by purchasing a special mattress — he simply could not afford one. According to a 2017 report by Statistics Canada, nearly a quarter of people with disabilities (around 1.5 million individuals) lived in poverty, and disability benefits did not allow them to live otherwise.
Currently in Canada, organs may be removed only if the citizen has provided consent. The decision must be strictly voluntary; coercion is prohibited. However, experts fear that in practice persuasion may occur.
Claire Middleton, an anesthesiologist at the University of Toronto, speaking on EWTN News, stated that “it is impossible to include conversations about donation at any stage during the MAID process without influencing and actually encouraging the decision.”
Meanwhile, US Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill directly pointed out that Canada became a leader in organ donation thanks to the introduction of euthanasia and called this very regrettable. “We thought we’d seen all the possible horrors, you know, in America, and then Canada had this strange new horror that was really just shocking,” he said in an interview with the Washington Examiner.
Given the enormous demand for donor organs – only in the United States, on average, 13 people die every day while waiting for a transplant – further growth in “supply” can be expected. Moreover, to increase the number of those “willing” to commit suicide, it is not necessary to persuade specific individuals. It is enough to cut back on medical treatment and social support so that some citizens, driven to despair by poverty and suffering from entirely treatable illnesses, come seeking “assistance in dying,” as this practice is called in Canada.
It appears that this is precisely the plan being implemented.
