(LifeSiteNews) –– Documents show that Health Canada has been funding a university research project concerning “youth views” on euthanasia that included a brief discussion as to whether children with severe autism would ever be allowed to qualify for death under the nation’s “Medical Assistance in Dying” program.
The documents, which were made public by Rebel News, show that Health Canada has given some $549,068 towards a four-year research project with Canada’s Dalhousie University to study “youth views on end-of-life care, palliative care, and MAID.”
The internal documents come from 2024 and concern email chains, which can be viewed here, regarding talk of allowing MAID for minors.
One email exchange shows a Health Canada official named Heather Davids, who was with the Indigenous End-of-Life Care team, asking two top-level bureaucrats in Canada’s MAID unit named Ian Gillies and Richard Martin, “How should the department respond to public correspondence about whether severe autism meets the eligibility criteria for MAID?”
A draft reply included the response, “Your position will be carefully considered as the government advances with MAID legislation.”
It is worth noting that this draft reply was eventually taken out of a later version of the internal notes.
While the draft reply does not endorse the practice of MAID for autistic children, activists have long been pushing for expansions in the nation’s euthanasia program, specifically advocating for the practice to allow the killing of so-called “mature minors” and those suffering solely from mental illness. In fact, the expansion of euthanasia for the mentally ill is slated to become law in 2027 as a consequence of the 2021 passage of Bill C-7.
The most recent data show that MAID is the sixth-highest cause of death in Canada, with Health Canada reporting in 2022 that 13,241 Canadians died by MAID lethal injections. That figure accounted for 4.1 percent of all deaths in the country that year and represented a 31.2 percent increase from 2021, the first year euthanasia was available to those who were not terminally ill.
It is worth noting that the Conservative Party has attempted to oppose the expansion of MAID for some time, but recent legislative attempts to stop the expansion outright instead of just delaying it, such as through Bill C-314, have failed.