by Dan Hart

Following the death of a beloved grandmother who was killed without her consent through Canada's government-run assisted suicide program, public outcry is building against the 10-year-old scheme that has killed over 100,000 Canadians.

In July, the family of 83-year-old Brigitte Stegemann, an assisted living resident in Belleville, Ontario, chronicled their anguish after the beloved grandmother was put to death by a doctor under highly controversial circumstances. Stegemann suffered from cognitive impairment, was hard of hearing, and was recently diagnosed with Stage 4 stomach cancer, although she had been responding well to treatment.

Shortly thereafter, a dispute arose over whether Stegemann had verbally consented to being killed via Canada's Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) program, in which doctors administer fatal drugs to those who have been diagnosed with terminal illnesses and consent to ending their lives. Even though Stegemann's family argued that her Christian faith would have stopped her from knowingly agreeing to assisted suicide, the doctor went ahead with the killing in the family's presence over their objections and without Stegemann verbally consenting to the lethal drugs just prior to them being administered, which is what MAiD regulations technically require.

The incident has become the latest flashpoint in the debate over what observers say are severe ethical shortcomings in the regulations that govern MAiD. The program became legal in 2016, and by the next year, MAiD had claimed almost 4,000 lives. Every year since then has seen precipitous surges in deaths, with the rate swelling by 30% annually from 2019 to 2022. By 2024, over 16,000 lives were taken that year alone. In April, the program officially passed over 100,000 deaths.

Notably, this number dwarfs the amount of assisted suicides that have been carried out in the U.S. (approximately 14,500), where the practice is legal in 14 states plus the District of Columbia, representing around 110 million people. Despite Canada's vastly smaller population of 42 million, it has now carried out almost seven times the amount of assisted suicides than the U.S. has.

Experts like Alex Schadenberg, who serves as executive director at the Canada-based Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, say that the reason the number of deaths has continued to escalate is because the criteria for being approved for an assisted death has continually expanded, as has the endorsement of the medical establishment.

"[T]he program's gone crazy in Canada because the original law required that the person would have a terminal condition, and also that there had to be a waiting period, etc. — that was removed in 2021," he explained during "Washington Watch" Monday. "… [N]ow you don't have to be terminally ill. There's often no waiting period. … The other thing is they're selling it. … [E]very major hospital in Canada now has a MAiD team where they sell it. They're the ones who sign you up. They're also the ones who sell it. So they make sure people know that, 'Oh, by the way, you have this medical condition, you probably qualify for MAiD.' … And you see the numbers of deaths just going through the roof."

In addition, Schadenberg highlighted how the safeguards that MAiD supposedly has against ethical abuses are in name only, which the case of Brigitte Stegemann put in stark relief.

"[Stegemann] was not capable of consenting," he pointed out. "Nonetheless, she is dead. Now you have to understand how the law is written. The law says that the doctor must prove that the person is capable of consenting. … [Stegemann] got the questions wrong, but the doctor still declared that she was capable of consenting. But the law says the doctor only has to be of the opinion that the person fit the criteria of the law. So the law completely covers these people to kill you. … [When] you have such a wide open law, you're going to get these type[s] of cases."

Schadenberg went on to emphasize how MAiD is being used to take advantage of a vulnerable population of elderly and others with severe health problems who can be easily coerced.

"Just this last weekend, we had another similar type case [where the] person who had cancer was saying no to euthanasia, they don't want it. They're saying it's against their religious beliefs, but they're being asked over and over and over again. … It affects you emotionally, it affects you psychologically. … So thankfully, this person once again has changed their mind and is being properly treated. But you know how this goes. These people are being almost pressured. It's almost like coercion. The problem with this word 'coercion' is, what does it actually mean to be coerced? And I think in a lot of these cases, euthanasia is about coercion."

Schadenberg further lamented how lawmakers in Canada are currently debating whether to implement an additional expansion of MAiD for those with mental illnesses.

"[T]he law has passed already, and they have held it off until March of 2027. So right now, the legislators in Ottawa are debating a bill as to whether they're going to reverse that or not," he detailed. "So as of March of 2027, Canada is going to allow euthanasia for people with mental illness as a sole criteria. … This is insane what we're doing. We're talking about euthanasia for children. … [I]n the Netherlands [and] Belgium, they have that, and they're talking about that in Canada. … When you allow killing, it's very hard to say you can kill this person, but not that person, and that's where we're at. We need a massive reversal in our country."