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The month of April ended with the publication of the first federal interim report on euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada.

According to the report, there were 970 people who committed suicide with the assistance of a physician across the country. Nearly half of the euthanasia cases (463) occurred in Quebec during the first year of the Act Respecting End-of-Life Care, while the other half (504 cases of euthanasia and 3 assisted suicides) occurred in the rest of Canada during the first six months of the federal law - from the 17^th of June to the 31^st of December 2016.

There is little evidence that allows us to analyse the human aspect of these statistics, except that the majority of cases (57%) concern people with cancer, and that the people who were euthanized were, on average, 72 years old. In fact, we agree with what the Coalition for Healthcare and Conscience said recently in an interview, when its spokesperson stressed the need to know why people make this fatal decision, beyond the “underlying medical circumstances.”

Indeed, it is only by questioning the deep motives behind these provoked deaths that we will be able to avoid falling into the trap of a Stalinist analysis based solely on impersonal statistics. It would be a great scandal to maintain collective ignorance with a mountain of numbers that would prevent us from seeing that our system condones the medical suicide of many people who simply feel abandoned, ill-accompanied, or whose pain is poorly treated. As a society, we must not lose sight of the fact that the desire to die is only the symptom of an ill-being and not a solution to the problems that are at its origin.

Be assured that Living with Dignity will continue to make the voices heard of those who want to build a caring society rather than one that facilitates the death of those who are needing help. We count on your support, and we encourage you to participate in the debate by calling open lines, writing to journalists, or contacting your MPs, and by writing your comments under articles that defend our vision.