A Quebec physicians’ group is again promoting euthanasia for newborn babies, saying euthanasia can be an "appropriate treatment" for infants with severe disabilities or malformations even though Canadian law still forbids the practice and a baby cannot consent.

The Collège des médecins du Québec, or Quebec College of Physicians, told the Daily Mail it "reiterates that medical assistance in dying may be an appropriate treatment for babies suffering from extreme pain that cannot be relieved and who have severe malformations or serious polysymptomatic syndromes that destroy any prospect of survival."

"The CMQ believes that parents should have the opportunity to obtain this care for their infant under these well-defined circumstances," the college said.

That is a proposal, not the law. Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying program, legalized in 2016, applies to adults 18 and older who request it and meet eligibility rules. It does not authorize doctors to euthanize newborns. Yet.

The college first pushed the idea in 2022, when Dr. Louis Roy appeared before Parliament’s Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying. Roy said MAID could be considered for "babies from birth to one year of age" born with severe deformities or disabilities.

He described infants "who are born with severe deformations, very grave and severe medical syndromes, whose life expectancy and level of suffering are such that it would make sense to ensure that they do not suffer."

Parents of disabled infants may already decline or withdraw treatment. The college’s plan would go further by allowing physicians to end a baby’s life. The group calls that killing "care."

The public reaction in 2022 was immediate.

Then-Liberal Disabilities Minister Carla Qualtrough rejected the idea on CBC Radio.

"There is no world where I would accept that," she said.

Anna Farrow, writing in the Western Standard, said Canadians have not warmed to the idea since.

"Most Canadians disagree strongly with the concept of euthanasia for babies," she wrote. "We know this because every time the topic comes up, the public’s response is one of instant horror."

Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, said euthanasia of newborns with disabilities "can only be described as eugenics." Once killing is treated as medical treatment, he wrote, the only remaining questions are who may be killed and for what reasons.

Canada’s euthanasia program has expanded quickly.

Government figures cited by Schadenberg show 16,499 reported MAID deaths in 2024 and 76,475 from legalization through Dec. 31, 2024. By early 2026, he estimated at least 100,000 euthanasia deaths since 2016.

A parliamentary committee recommended in 2023 that MAID be considered for so-called "mature minors," a separate debate involving older children said to have decision-making capacity. Newborns have none.

The Netherlands already allows infant euthanasia under the Groningen Protocol.