About 200 assisted deaths under new law, but details impossible to come by
TORONTO — About 200 Canadians have received help killing themselves since legislation authorizing medically assisted suicide came into force in June, new figures obtained by The Canadian Press show, but those numbers do not paint the whole picture.
To date, 87 people have taken advantage of the law in Ontario, while the total in British Columbia is 66, the provinces’ coroner’s offices reported Thursday. Alberta has tracked at least 23 deaths, Manitoba has had 12, while Saskatchewan has had fewer than five cases. Figures from elsewhere were not immediately available.
But if an outline is beginning to emerge of demand across Canada for help in dying, a dearth of even basic information still exists.
For example, there are little data on how many people have requested help but have been refused, the medical conditions prompting such requests, those who have made requests but changed their minds, and the number of people who have died before the request could be granted.