This report comes in large part owing to the exceptional work done by Inclusion Canada -years in the making – who first issued this Press Release to announce this monumental news:
On Wednesday March 26, 2025, the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities released a set of recommendations calling on the government of Canada to repeal Track 2 of its assisted suicide and euthanasia program. Specifically, Canada’s 2021 amendment to its Criminal Code that expanded through Bill C-7, which expanded eligibility passed promised safeguards.
Track 2 of the Canadian assisted suicide and euthanasia program allows people with disabilities (“grievous and irremediable medical condition”) whose natural death is not reasonably foreseeable to request assisted suicide or euthanasia.
Arguing against the very premise of Track 2, the report notes that the Canadian federal government,”…did not challenge the Quebec Truchon decision which fundamentally changes the whole premise of medical assistance in dying when natural death is reasonably foreseeable to a new program that establishes medically assisted dying for persons with disabilities based on negative, ableist perceptions of the quality and value of the life of persons with disabilities, including that ‘suffering’ is intrinsic to disability rather than the fact that inequality and discrimination cause and compound ‘suffering’ for persons with disabilities.”
The recommendations, known as “Concluding Observations,” are issued after United Nations treaty bodies review state reports to determine and summarize a country’s progress and the committee’s concerns and recommendations for improvement. These reports offer an authoritative view of human rights in a country. And while the United Nations’ “Concluding Observations” are specific to Canada, their explanation and justification bear welcome validation to the arguments advanced by opponents of legalization efforts in the United States and will function as authoritative guidance in international human rights law for years to come.
Here, we should recall that the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is modeled on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA, 1990) and was inspired by American leadership. In 2009, President Obama signed the treaty, but as of this moment it still awaits ratification from the United States Senate.
The UN report also directly addresses a common argument advanced by advocates of assisted suicide in the U.S. – namely, that assisted suicide is all about “choice” and an extension of unrealized autonomy, and the so-called “right to die” being fought for; In stark contrast, the committee writes:
“The concept of ‘choice’ creates a false dichotomy by setting up the premise that if persons with disabilities are suffering, it is valid for the State Party to enable their death, with safeguards not guaranteeing the provision of support, and ableist assumptions deemphasizing the myriad of support options for persons with disabilities to live dignified lives , and the systemic failures of the State Party to address the social determinants of health and well-being, such as poverty alleviation, access to healthcare, accessible housing, prevention of homelessness, prevention of gender-based violence, the provision of community-based mental health supports and employment supports;”
Or, as Diane Coleman and Marilyn Golden and others repeated for decades in their predictive warnings, suicide only becomes a rational “choice” when offered to people with disabilities whose lives are seen as not worth living by a system steeped in ableism, and inequality and social consequences arising from bigotry and poverty.
Ian McIntosh
Interim Executive Director