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Comment by niceice | Hacker News Reader

"For the first time, the report delved into race and ethnic data of those who died by euthanasia.

Around 96% of recipients identified as white people, who account for about 70% of Canada's population. It is unclear what caused this disparity."

Any good hypothesis about this?

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Could be longer life expectancy for particular demographics that are mostly white.

Or it could just be that 70% of people of all ages today are white, but 80 years ago it was a much larger proportion (I didn't think it would be 96% but I also wouldn't be surprised if it was).

This is pure speculation, I have no data to support either of these hypotheses.

> I didn't think it would be 96% but I also wouldn't be surprised if it was

Wikipedia says 93% in 1981. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Canada#Visible...

My hypothesis would be that white people in Canada, and especially Quebec, are culturally very ok with MAID due to being less religious than other groups (on average). Since at least as far as I know most if not all religions condemn suicide/assisted suicide.

Culturally (though I have no data point but my own) my friends and family tend to be very comfortable with discussing death and assisted-dying. It's just not really taboo.

Demographics in 75+ age group. It’s late here or I would have looked up in Stat Can before posting. But that’s where you should check.

Looks like 66% of people 75+ identify as European Origins

     math 1_710_255/2_595_470
    0.658938

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=981003...

It's obscured because of how Canada formats their data, but the vast majority of "North American origins" respondents would fall under white as well. The total percentage is in the upper 80s.

People of color are more religious and usually treat MAiD program as suicide over here.

Perhaps they tend to be richer?

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