Since the legalization of medical assistance in dying (MAiD) in 2016, the federal government has created certain safeguards and regulatory mechanisms – including data collection – to ensure that people don’t request death because they lack access to care, including palliative care.

Health Canada itself has acknowledged that “information about access to palliative care and disability supports is important to ensure that MAiD is not being sought because of a lack of options for end-of-life-care or support services.”

Given just how routine euthanasia and assisted suicide have become, it is essential that Health Canada’s annual reports on MAiD include robust data on palliative care – especially regarding the adequacy of the care provided. However, the most recent annual report, presenting 2024 data, leaves much to be desired on this front.

This has important implications. The lack of adequate data raises questions about how meaningful the choice of MAiD really is for many people.

Take, for example, the report’s claim that 74.1 per cent of MAiD recipients in 2024 received palliative care, whereas only 2.5 per cent of recipients required but did not receive palliative care services. Of those who did not receive palliative care, “91.2 per cent confirmed that services were accessible to them.” The report concludes that “consistent with previous years, most MAiD recipients who required either palliative care or disability support services received these services.”

This conclusion simply cannot be made convincingly based on the data collected.

Critically, the annual report provides little detail on the timing, intensity, quality and location of care. Palliative care should be delivered early in the disease process, in sufficient intensity and quality, with the continuity of care required to meet a person’s needs, and, as the natural end-of-life approaches, at a person’s home if they prefer.

Yet research continues to show that only a minority of Canadians receive palliative care in keeping with these........

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