Canadians are expressing a growing hesitation towards expanding eligibility for Medical Assistance in Dying, or MAID.

According to the Angus Reid Institute, 77 per cent of people continue to support the original MAID criteria introduced in 2016, however when it comes to opening up the service beyond those whose deaths are reasonably foreseeable, that support drops.

New criteria, introduced in 2021, dropped the necessity of reasonably foreseeable death. A recent poll suggests that 39 per cent of Canadians are opposed to allowing MAID for mental illness alone, and a further 19 per cent are unsure.

Further, three-quarters say that the government should be required to demonstrate that adequate housing, income supports, and disability-related care are available to a person who is requesting MAID and lives with a disability. Two-in-five religious Canadians are concerned about the increasing number of annual MAID deaths in Canada. Among non-religious Canadians, this drops to 25 per cent. Based on Statistics Canada data, there have been 76,475 MAID provisions in Canada since the legalization of MAID in 2016