CNA Staff, Jan 22, 2021 / 00:06 am
As cases of assisted suicide continue to increase annually in Ontario, pro-life advocates have called on the government to implement laws to help stem the tide of medically facilitated death.
"The numbers keep going up, and they will continue going up unless more people speak out about this and demand our politicians step back and reconsider what we are doing as a country," said Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, according to The Catholic Register.
According to a new statistic from Ontario's chief coroner, The Catholic Register reported, 2,378 patients participated in medical assistance in dying's (MAiD) in 2020. Schadenberg said the number increases yearly, noting that 1,789 people were killed in 2019, 1,499 in 2018, 841 in 2017, and 189 in 2016.
About 7,000 Ontario residents have ended their lives through MAiD since the Supreme Court of Canada ruled euthanasia to be legal nationwide in 2016. Ontario residents have made up about half of the 14,000 assisted suicide patients across the country.