Alwaght- Canadian physicians have helped near 2,000 patients to commit suicide since euthanasia became legal in the country in 2016.
According to a report released by Health Canada, popularity of medically assisted dying among terminally ill Canadians has meaningfully increased with the number of such deaths rising to almost 1 percent of all deaths over the 12 months.
The report released on Friday revealed that a total of 1,982 people resorted to the controversial practice since June 2016, when it became enshrined in a federal law. The figures included 803 people in the first six months, and 1,179 in the second.
This constitutes an almost 47 percent increase, with 0.9 percent of all deaths in Canada from January to June being assisted suicides.
Cancer was found to be the leading medical condition prompting patients to seek an assisted death, which amounts to some 63 percent of all cases.
Neuro-degenerative disorders, respiratory and circulatory system failures were also among the top reasons prompting sufferers to choose euthanasia.
People of all ages resorted to assisted suicide, the entire range being 18 to 91 years old and the most common ages falling between 56 and 64.
At the time the law permitting assisted suicide was passed by Canadian lawmakers, it came under fire for being too restrictive, with critics arguing that it “will trap patients in intolerable suffering.”
The so-called Bill C-14 allows doctor-assisted suicide to be performed exclusively on adults suffering from an "incurable'' disease or disability, when a person’s health is "in an advanced stage of irreversible decline” and where “natural death is reasonably foreseeable.” These strict criteria mean that a person who has applied for a procedure has to wait for a medical institution to review the case and rule if all conditions are met.
Apart from Canada, euthanasia is legal in Netherlands, Belgium, Colombia and Luxembourg.
