Canada’s radical evolution in assisted dying laws is reverberating far beyond its borders, raising deep ethical, legal, and emotional questions that nations like the U.K. and U.S. are now wrestling with in real time. Nowhere is the controversy more starkly embodied than in the case of April Hubbard, a 39-year-old artist in Halifax, Nova Scotia, who has chosen to end her life on stage—literally—under the country’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) program.
April, a performance artist with spina bifida and tumors that leave her in constant agony, has scheduled her death for later this year on a theatre stage where she’s previously performed. Her condition is not terminal—she could live for decades—but she qualifies under Canada’s “track two” MAiD criteria, which allows those with non-terminal but “grievous and irremediable” suffering to access euthanasia. Her death, she says, will be a “celebratory” event, surrounded by friends and family in a “giant cuddle puddle.”
For her, it’s a choice of dignity. For her critics, it’s a disturbing sign of a system that has moved from protecting the dying to enabling despair.
Since Canada legalized assisted dying in 2016, the law has expanded dramatically. What began as an option for the terminally ill now includes adults with chronic disabilities and will soon extend to those with mental illness alone. In 2023 alone, 15,343 people died under MAiD, accounting for 1 in 20 deaths in the country—among the highest proportions in the world.
Even Canadian doctors are deeply divided. While MAiD assessors like Dr. Konia Trouton describe it as a “privilege” to help people die peacefully, others like Dr. Ramona Coelho say the country has “fallen off a cliff,” with vulnerable populations offered death instead of care. Critics argue that for many, especially those with disabilities or limited access to support, euthanasia is now being treated as a medical convenience, not a last resort.
The U.K. Parliament is currently debating its own assisted dying bill, which limits eligibility to terminal patients with less than six months to live, and requires self-administration of lethal medication—a far cry from Canada’s physician-delivered intravenous infusions for non-terminal cases.
Meanwhile, in the United States, New York’s Assembly just passed its own Medical Aid in Dying Act, allowing terminally ill patients to request a lethal prescription. The bill still faces an uphill battle in the state Senate and uncertainty with Governor Kathy Hochul. Opponents, including both Democrats and Republicans, warn against normalizing suicide as a healthcare option, citing spiritual, ethical, and societal consequences.
“This idea of giving up and dying is not Excelsior, ever upward. It’s incredibly sad,” said New York Assemblywoman Mary Beth Walsh.
