Canada: ~1 in 20 deaths via MAID
Roughly 5% — or 1 in 20 — deaths in Canada now run through the government-run assisted suicide program, prompting backlash against Canadian laws.
Where this was said
Public Opinion and the Supreme Court's Shadow
At 25:51 · chapter starts 22:50
The episode's analytical spine resurfaces here. A 2024 Gallup poll showing 71% of American support for legal assisted dying suggests broad consensus [1] — Stephen Dubner "71% of Americans support legal assisted dying: A 2024 Gallup survey found that 71% of Americans believe doctors should be allowed by law to…" 22:47 — but Roth immediately complicates the picture. Two sitting Supreme Court justices, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, have both written explicitly against MAID: Barrett in her pre-judicial work on the obligations of Catholic judges, Gorsuch in a book arguing against assisted suicide. Roth notes that since the 1997 unanimous Supreme Court ruling left the issue to the states, opponents are now looking for a case to bring back to the Court — where the current conservative majority would likely be more receptive to banning it. The conversation then turns to Canada, where MAID now accounts for approximately 5% of all deaths, and where Roth suggests that much of the high number reflects previously covert end-of-life practices by doctors administering high doses of pain medication. But the larger policy question — whether Canada's expansion to non-terminal cases and possible expansion to mental illness represents a genuine slippery slope — is left productively unresolved.
The Slippery Slope: Canada as Warning
Canada's MAID system now accounts for roughly 5% of all deaths, has expanded beyond terminal cases, and has debated extending eligibility to people whose sole condition is mental illness. Critics like Sulmasy see this as proof that any safeguards written into law will eventually be dismantled.
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