Research on Canada's potential savings from medically assisted death misrepresented

"According to a recent publication in the Journal of Death and Dying, Health Canada has a plan for 'savings' that is as brutal as it is unprecedented," an October 26, 2025 X post says.

The text goes on to claim the government is "on track to save a staggering 1.273 trillion" by providing MAID rather than palliative care.

Similar posts spread across platforms in October and November, sometimes featuring an article from The People's Voice, an outlet which has previously spread misinformation.

Footage of podcaster Kelsie Sheren, who began discussing the study's supposed findings on her show in August, also accompanied some of the claims online.

According to Sheren, the journal "expressed what Health Canada's plans look like to do to save money."

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Screenshot of an X post taken November 10, 2025

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Screenshot of an X post taken November 10, 2025

Currently, Canada's MAID law only allows the administration of the procedure to someone over the age of 18 who is experiencing grievous and irremediable suffering (archived here).

Unlike in some states and countries that have legalized assisted dying, Canada does not require a patient's natural death to be reasonably foreseeable. 

MAID as an option for people suffering solely from a mental illness was slated to go into effect in 2024, but alarm over the readiness of health care systems to evaluate these types of cases caused the government to postpone this change until at least March 2027 (archived here).

This delay and conflicting viewpoints on who should be eligible for the program have led to numerous false and misleading claims on Canada's MAID policy that AFP has previously fact-checked.

The claims about aims to use the procedure to save the government money are similarly inaccurate. 

Researchers have tracked potential savings for Canada's health system since the legalization of medically assisted death in 2016.

Canada's Parliamentary Budget Officer estimated in 2020 that the availability of MAID would save Can$149 million (US$106 million) a year across all provincial health budgets (archived here).

Similarly, a 2025 study in the Journal of Death and Dying (archived here) examined the potential for trillions of dollars in health care savings associated with medically assisted deaths, however it was not a plan from the government for how many people should receive the procedure to cut costs.

Study author Joshua Pearce, a professor at Western University in London, Ontario (archived here), told AFP his research was not designed as a forecast but rather as an "economic sensitivity analysis" investigating what potential savings existed through "aggressive" implementation of MAID beyond the scope of the current rules. 

"If you only read the first half of this paper it makes a very strong argument we should just be killing everybody just based on pure economics -- and that is not what we're trying to do," Pearce said in a November 3, 2025 interview.

Ethical considerations

The paper aimed to highlight ethical concerns of continued expansion of MAID availability, Pierce said.

It estimated potential savings on health services and palliative care between 2027 and 2047 if "vulnerable groups that cost the government more than they contribute in taxes" had the option to choose the procedure. "Everything was an estimate," Pearce emphasized. 

The analysis based its predictions on the assumption that MAID access would be expanded to include those who had attempted suicide, the homeless population, retired elderly people, drug users, Indigenous communities or the mentally ill. It presented a low-end "voluntary" model, alongside a high-end "non-voluntary" model which assumed less informed consent would result in more medically assisted deaths.

Many of the social media claims jumped on the estimated $1.273 trillion in savings presented for the non-voluntary scenario, while the study predicted the voluntary scenario would amount to $59 billion saved.

However, the paper's authors concluded: "While the potential financial benefits of expanding MAID are considerable, the ethical costs are far too great. Allowing vulnerable populations to opt for assisted death as a means of saving money for the state undermines the core values of medical ethics and morals."  

Pearce said the study warns of a possible economic incentive for the government to expand MAID eligibility, but it is not evidence the government will intentionally open the procedure to save money.

Health Canada denounced the claims that Pearce's study proved a plan to generate savings as "disinformation" in a November 6 email to AFP, emphasizing the legislation's eligibility criteria and procedural safeguards.

The law currently requires patients voluntarily request MAID and be informed that they can withdraw consent at any time (archived here). Requests are meant to be assessed by multiple health professionals and those whose natural death is not reasonably foreseeable are supposed to be informed of other avenues to relieve their suffering.

While misinformation about MAID often circulates, there are also reports of vulnerable people applying for the procedure which have led to concerns that it is too readily viewed as an alternative to material support for impoverished or disabled individuals.

Read more of AFP's reporting on misinformation in Canada here.