New research finds that one third of Canadians would welcome assisted suicide if the patient was poor or homeless.

The data, gathered in a recent Research Co. Poll, showed that around the same number would approve of assisted suicide where the patient’s only suffering was poverty.

In March 2021, Canada legalised assisted suicide for patients who did not have terminal illnesses, instead setting out the requirement that they have a “greivous and irremediable medical condition.”

Research Co. carried out the research to find out how comfortable Canadians are with current assisted suicide measures. Of the 1000 adults surveyed online, 73 per cent were in favour.

If a patient was only suffering from poverty, 27 per cent approved of legalising that individual’s access to assisted suicide.

The poll found 28 per cent ascertained homelessness to be an appropriate circumstance for assisted suicide and 20 per cent agreed that “medical assistance in dying should always be allowed, regardless of who requests it.”

A small majority of respondents, 51 per cent, approved “inability to receive medical treatment” as sufficient grounds for assisted suicide.

Similarly, the Angus Reid Institute found that 61 per cent Canadians were in favour of Canada’s recent expansion of assisted suicide. It also found respondents were hesitant to favour an expansion of assisted suicide to patients suffering from mental illness.

In 2021, 10,064 Canadians opted for assisted suicide, according to a government report this amounts to an increase of 32.4 per cent from the year before.