Netherlands Allows Euthanizing Newborn Babies, Canada Could be Next

Last September, several media outlets reported that Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) program – legalized in 2016 to permit doctor-assisted suicide – had reignited debate over whether newborns could be included at some point.

The debate began in 2022, during hearings before Parliament’s Special Joint Committee on MAiD, when Louis Roy of the Quebec College of Physicians suggested that eligibility could one day extend to “babies from birth to one year of age” that were born with severe deformities or disabilities.