Quebec's MAID Rate Hits 7.9%, World's Highest
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- Josée Lamère, a former Quebec public school religion teacher, received medical aid in dying 18 days after being diagnosed with stage 4 gallbladder cancer on Dec. 1, 2023 — at age 58.
- Quebec's MAID rate reached 7.9% of all deaths between April 1, 2024, and March 31, 2025 — the highest of any jurisdiction in the world, compared with Canada's national 2024 rate of 5.1%.
- Canadian law will expand in 2027 to allow mental illness as a standalone reason to petition for MAID; under the current Track 1 framework — which covers 95.6% of cases — eligibility requires a foreseeable natural death and permits immediate MAID with two physician certifications.
- Josée's child Constance (who uses they/iel pronouns) recalled that Josée feared uncontrolled pain more than death itself, and told her daughter no event — not even a future wedding or grandchild — would make staying alive worthwhile.
- Josée had previously advocated online for expanding MAID after caring for her mother through Alzheimer's, since the law's consent-at-the-moment-of-death requirement would have excluded her mother; in 2024, Quebec's courts agreed to broaden advance-request provisions.
- Josée's physician — pseudonymously called Dr. Poulin by the author — required her to wait nearly two weeks for biopsy results before certifying Track 1 eligibility, a delay Constance said added unnecessary pain to her final days.
Why it matters: This piece reframes MAID debates — usually focused on qualifying criteria and bedside autonomy — by arguing the decision is shaped by decades of cultural work, not just a physician's verdict. Quebec's 7.9% rate and Josée's case illustrate how a secular society's accumulated choices make assisted dying feel meaningful, while raising the question of whether specialist verification adequately weighs a patient's own testimony of terminal suffering.
