Advocates and civic officials are warning of the high numbers of donated organs from assisted suicide victims in Canada, arguing that organ donation programs for suicidal individuals could lead to additional pressure for such patients to decide to end their lives by assisted suicide.
Data have shown consistently high numbers of organ donations in Canada tied to the country’s medical aid in dying (MAID) program. A 2024 study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, for instance, found “a substantial increase in deceased [organ] donation after MAID in the first five years of implementation in Quebec.”
And a 2022 study in the American Journal of Transplantation found that nearly half of euthanasia victims in the survey who donated organs came from Canada.
Jim O’Neill, the deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), recently said in an interview with the Washington Examiner that the data suggesting a link between euthanasia and organ donation is “very unfortunate.”
“We thought we’d seen all the possible horrors, you know, in America, and then Canada had this strange new horror that was really just shocking,” he said.
‘No amount of proposed guidelines’ can rule out coercion
Claire Middleton, a doctor of anesthesia at the University of Toronto, told EWTN News that it is “impossible to include conversations about donation at any stage during the MAID process without the potential of influencing and actually encouraging the decision” to go through with euthanasia.
Middleton, a Christian, said she is “totally opposed to MAID and [has] been from the outset.” Her ethical concerns over organ donation after MAID stem from that belief, she said.
“We know that some patients who request and are approved for MAID actually change their minds multiple times right up to the actual event,” she said. “Many factors may come into play at this time, but how much harder for them to back out of the whole process if they have agreed to donate and now feel they will be disappointing a potential transplant recipient.”
“Some patients may actually make an initial choice for MAID because they view their lives as worthless and feel that the world would be a better place if they gave their organs to others,” she said.
But “every human being is equally worthy of being valued and supported — no one group of patients should take priority over another,” she argued.
Lawmakers in Canada have for years debated the possibility of extending assisted suicide to those suffering solely from mental illnesses rather than terminal medical conditions.
In 2024 the government delayed implementing that expansion until at least 2027, though advocates have continued to warn that individuals with mental illness are uniquely vulnerable to MAID.
Middleton said that vulnerable patients such as those suffering from mental health issues “may see their lives as worthless and just the possibility of organ donation via MAID may sway their decision.”
If the death program is ultimately extended to mental illness patients, “concerns about truly informed consent and absence of undue influence would surely increase significantly,” she said.
Abandoning the ‘dead donor rule’
Some officials have even suggested euthanizing patients directly by removing their organs, in part to ensure that no damage is done to the organs themselves.
Robert Sibbald, the director of health ethics at London Health Sciences Centre, argued several years ago that the best “mode of death” for those donating their organs might be “to retrieve [the] organs” outright.
“We’re so invested in this dead donor rule, and I think that over time, that rule has become so ingrained in the medical community that we hold it out as a foundational principle, not only a rule, but a value,” Sibbald said at the time.
But “is the dead donor rule even relevant?” he asked.
Alex Schadenberg, a pro-life advocate and the executive director of the Ontario-based Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, admitted that the “problem begins with the legalization of medical homicide.”
“Ethically speaking, if it is OK to kill someone, then why isn’t it OK to kill them by removing their organs?” he pointed out.
Schadenberg said some studies have indicated that “some people are asking for euthanasia at an earlier time … in order to ensure that the organ donation is possible.”
Echoing Middleton, Schadenberg said that those who are determined to take their own lives may see euthanasia as “a way to give the gift of life to another when someone feels that their life has become meaningless.”
Cultural and legal battles over euthanasia have been escalating in Canada in recent years. Last month the British Columbia Supreme Court heard a case to determine whether faith-based hospitals can be forced to provide euthanasia on site.
In July 2025 a member of the Canadian Parliament attempted to preemptively block the MAID mental illness expansion, while advocates there have criticized the current government’s lack of a disability minister amid concerns over disabled Canadians opting for assisted suicide.
Assisted suicide in Canada has seen regular double-digit annual growth in recent years, and the government has also considered allowing citizens to prearrange to be euthanized at a time when they are unable to consent to the procedure.
Middleton told EWTN News that MAID uptake in recent years has shifted to people who are seeking it “because of social issues or lack of support for chronic but nonterminal conditions.”
That pivot, she said, shows that “at a societal level, we are reaching for a quick cheap fix instead of addressing underlying health inequities.”
“Ultimately, we are poorer as a society because of euthanasia,” she argued. “Our success as a community is measured in how well we care for each other rather than how well individuals get what they want.”
Schadenberg, meanwhile, argued that legalizing medical homicide “opens the door to greater and greater crimes against humanity.”
“The only real response is to say no to killing,” he said.
