OVER 800 CANADIANS RECEIVE MEDICAL HELP TO DIE IN FIRST 6 MONTHS
Apr 26, 2017
By Bob Komsic
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An interim report by the Trudeau government shows there were 803 medically-assisted deaths from the introduction of the new law last June 17, and the end of 2016.
A small number, 0.4%, involved Canadians who self-administered a lethal drug while the vast majority sought the aid of a medical professional.
Roughly the same number of men and women, with an average age of about 72, took advantage of the law, which allows assisted-dying only for those in an advanced state of irreversible decline from an incurable condition and for those whose natural death is ”reasonably foreseeable.”
The federal report does not indication how many requests for assisted death were rejected.
Meanwhile, an additional 167 such deaths took place prior to last June in Quebec, which brought in its own law in December 2015.