Assisted Suicide in Canada: Beware the Slippery Slope

Everywhere that assisted suicide has been legalized, critics have warned that, however tight the initial restrictions limiting the use of this so-called process may at first be, its legalization could become the beginning of a slippery slope. 

Max Dublin | October 6, 2026

Everywhere that assisted suicide has been legalized, critics have warned that, however tight the initial restrictions limiting the use of this so-called process may at first be, its legalization could become the beginning of a slippery slope. Canada was not the first country to legalize assisted suicide. But Canada is presently the poster child for what the slippery slope looks like. Although Canada’s Criminal Code, which governs this procedure, originally required two witnesses to the application it was subsequently amended to require only one. For those who are curious as to where the slippery slope can ultimately lead, a recent case has spelled this out quite clearly: it leads to a criminal investigation.

The term assisted suicide is an oxymoron. Unless one dies of illness, old age, or accident, there are only two ways by which a life may be ended, both of which are defined by agency. If one dies by one’s own hand, then it is a suicide; if by the hand of another, then it is a homicide. But reality is not that simple. Since the assisted suicide process in its various forms was introduced, both the morality and legality of the matter turn on one thing: the patient’s consent. The public is divided on the morality of the process, but the one thing that the public and the law are not divided about is the issue of consent. Everything depends on the patient’s desire and ability to give consent. That is the issue at the heart of the criminal investigation.

Brigitte Stegemann --........

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