5% of Canadians now choose euthanasia

KERA's Think

KERA

Society & Culture, 071003, Kera, Think, Krysboyd

4.8 • 861 Ratings

🗓️ 27 August 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

One in 20 deaths in Canada are the result of Medical Assistance in Dying, the country’s legalized euthanasia. Elaina Plott Calabro, staff writer at The Atlantic, joins host Krys Boyd to discuss why the MAID law has made medically assisted death more common than Alzheimer’s and diabetes deaths combined, why that’s taken advocates by surprise, and why patients say they prefer to die in this manner. Her article is “Canada Is Killing Itself.”

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Transcript

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0:00.0	It was not quite 10 years ago that Canadian lawmakers legalized euthanasia.
0:14.8	Today, about one out of every 20 people who die in Canada choose lethal medication to make it happen. From KERA in Dallas,
0:24.3	this is think. I'm Chris Boyd. The term there is made, which stands for medical assistance in dying,
0:30.4	and it means that doctors are allowed to directly administer lethal injections to patients who
0:35.2	request it. Initially, the law only permitted this for people who were thought to be very close to
0:39.8	death anyway.
0:40.9	But the rules around whose eligible form made have been relaxed since then in Canada.
0:45.8	And as lawmakers continue to expand who qualifies, my guest has learned some critics want
0:50.6	more conversation about unintended consequences.
0:53.8	Elena Plot Calabro is a staff writer at the Atlantic where you can read her article.
0:58.1	Canada is killing itself.
1:00.2	Elena, welcome back to think.
1:02.1	Chris, thank you so much for having me.
1:04.2	I want to make sure we are all clear on the words we're using here.
1:08.1	I think some people might associate the term euthanasia with a decision
1:12.1	to end a life made by a third party in the way, if you'll forgive the comparison, people think
1:18.1	about making this decision like to relieve the suffering of an animal. That is not necessarily
1:22.3	what we're talking about here, right? No, it's not. Euthanasia in the context in which we're talking within the medical
1:30.1	assistance in dying regime in Canada is when a patient seeks this out themselves from a
1:37.3	clinician and then a clinician on the basis of that patient's consent administers the lethal
1:43.8	injection.
1:45.1	Okay. What sort of movement had existed to persuade lawmakers to legalize this when they did in
	...

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