Episode Introduction
Alexander Raikin had just published one of the most widely discussed investigations into Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying program when he joined Breaking Battlegrounds on January 2, 2023. Raikin is a freelance journalist who covers medical ethics. He spoke with Chuck Warren and Sam Stone about how MAiD works and why he believes it had grown into a crisis. At the time, Canada was weeks away from a scheduled expansion of eligibility to people whose only condition is mental illness. In the second segment, Abe Hamadeh called in with an update on his legal challenge to the 2022 Arizona attorney general race. A recount had just confirmed he lost by 280 votes.
Quick Answer
On Breaking Battlegrounds Podcast 117, recorded January 2, 2023, journalist Alexander Raikin discussed his investigation of Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) program. Abe Hamadeh gave an update on his court challenge to the 2022 Arizona attorney general race. Canada has since dropped its planned MAiD expansion for mental illness alone, and Hamadeh was elected to Congress in 2024.
Episode Overview
Podcast 117 pairs two stories that were moving quickly in January 2023.
The first half focused on Canada. Alexander Raikin, a freelance journalist investigating Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD), spoke with the hosts about the program. Canada legalized assisted death in 2016 and broadened eligibility in 2021.
The second half returned to Arizona. Abe Hamadeh, the Republican nominee for attorney general, called in to discuss his court challenge to the results. That race became one of the closest statewide elections in the country.
About Alexander Raikin
Alexander Raikin is a freelance journalist and writer focused on medical ethics and bad statistics. His work has appeared in City Journal and The New Atlantis. He has also served as a research fellow with Do No Harm.
His investigation of MAiD, “No Other Options,” ran in the Winter 2023 issue of The New Atlantis. According to the magazine’s editor, the piece was discussed in The Atlantic and The New York Times and was widely shared among Canadian legislators and physicians.
Raikin later returned to Breaking Battlegrounds for a follow-up conversation. In that episode, he discussed a 2017 CBC report on potential health care savings from medically assisted deaths. He argued that Quebec data showed a majority of MAiD patients would have lived more than a month longer.
About Abe Hamadeh
Abraham “Abe” Hamadeh is a former Maricopa County prosecutor who ran as the Republican nominee for Arizona attorney general in 2022. Democrat Kris Mayes won by 280 votes, out of about 2.5 million cast.
Hamadeh challenged the result in court soon after the election. In December 2022, a Mohave County judge dismissed his first lawsuit. The automatic statewide recount reduced Mayes’ lead from 511 votes to 280. Most of the change came from Pinal County, where officials found that hundreds of ballots had mistakenly gone uncounted. Hamadeh filed a third challenge based on those discrepancies. In April 2024, the Arizona Court of Appeals affirmed that Mayes still had the most votes statewide.
Hamadeh was elected to the U.S. House in November 2024, representing Arizona’s 8th Congressional District. He continued pursuing his challenge to the 2022 race even while running for Congress. He first appeared on Breaking Battlegrounds as a candidate in 2022, in an episode on securing Arizona’s border.
Key Topics Discussed
- How Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) program works
- The 2021 expansion that removed the requirement that death be reasonably foreseeable
- The planned extension of MAiD to people whose only condition is mental illness
- Questions about how MAiD data is collected and reported
- The recount in Arizona’s 2022 attorney general race
- Hamadeh’s legal challenge to the certified result
Canada’s MAiD Program in January 2023
Raikin joined the show as Canada debated how far assisted dying should go. The context below is outside background, not a summary of his remarks.
Canada legalized MAiD in 2016. In 2021, Bill C-7 removed the requirement that a patient’s natural death be reasonably foreseeable, following a court ruling. That law also delayed MAiD for people whose only condition is mental illness until March 2023. When this episode was recorded, that deadline was weeks away. The government soon introduced legislation to push it back by one year.
How MAiD Has Grown Since This Episode
Health Canada’s latest annual report shows 16,499 people received MAiD in 2024. That is about 5% of all deaths in Canada and a 6.9% increase from 15,343 in 2023. Since legalization, 76,475 people have received an assisted death. Most 2024 cases (95.6%) fell under Track 1, where natural death is reasonably foreseeable.
| Year | MAiD provisions | Share of all deaths in Canada |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Not shown here; see note | 4.1% |
| 2023 | 15,343 | 4.7% |
| 2024 | 16,499 | 5.1% |
The Mental Illness Expansion: Delayed, Then Dropped
After this episode, the expansion to people with mental illness as their only condition was delayed twice more. Under Bill C-62, passed in February 2024, the mental illness exclusion would have been automatically repealed on March 17, 2027.
In June 2026, a special joint committee of senators and MPs recommended that the government pause the expansion indefinitely. This month, Justice Minister Sean Fraser announced that Canada is indefinitely dropping the plan. Officials will introduce legislation this fall to stop the expansion.
The debate is still contested. Some senators on the committee argued that wider access is a matter of compassion for people who are suffering intolerably. Dalhousie law professor Jocelyn Downie said the committee heard mostly from opponents of expansion. Critics of the expansion, including many psychiatrists who testified, said there are no agreed criteria for deciding when a mental illness is irremediable.
Abe Hamadeh’s Fight Over the 2022 Attorney General Race
Hamadeh called in while his legal fight was still active. Arizona’s mandatory recount had just ended with Mayes ahead by 280 votes. Mayes took office in early January 2023. Around that time, Hamadeh pushed for a new trial, arguing that the recount discrepancies showed the official count was incomplete.
The courts did not agree. In its 2024 ruling, the Court of Appeals said that even after the Pinal County ballots were counted correctly, Mayes still had the most votes statewide. Hamadeh later filed a separate case seeking a new election in Maricopa County. A judge rejected it as an untimely election contest.
Key Takeaways From the Conversation
- The episode was recorded when Canada’s MAiD expansion to mental illness was scheduled for March 2023, before three successive delays and its eventual cancellation in 2026.
- Raikin’s investigation helped bring MAiD into U.S. political conversation. He returned to the show later to examine the cost-savings argument for assisted death.
- MAiD deaths have risen every year since 2016 and reached 5.1% of all Canadian deaths in 2024.
- Hamadeh joined days after the recount confirmed a 280-vote margin in one of the closest statewide races in the country.
- Arizona courts repeatedly rejected Hamadeh’s challenges. He went on to win a seat in Congress in 2024.
Listen to the Episode
- Listen on the Breaking Battlegrounds website
- Apple Podcasts: Alexander Raikin on Canada’s Euthanasia Crisis
- Breaking Battlegrounds on Spotify
Related Breaking Battlegrounds Episodes
Abe Hamadeh first appeared in 2022 as a candidate, in Abe Hamadeh on Securing Arizona’s Border. He returned in Podcast 197 to discuss Mexican drug cartels alongside Henry Olsen and Jeff Mason. For more on Arizona’s election battles, see the show’s Arizona primary interviews and Podcast 216’s analysis of the pivotal 2024 races.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Alexander Raikin?
Alexander Raikin is a freelance journalist who writes about medical ethics and statistics. His work has appeared in City Journal and The New Atlantis. His investigation “No Other Options,” published in The New Atlantis in Winter 2023, examined Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying program. He has appeared on Breaking Battlegrounds more than once.
What is MAiD in Canada?
Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) is Canada’s legal framework for assisted death, in place since 2016. In 2021, eligibility expanded to include people whose natural death is not reasonably foreseeable. In 2024, 16,499 people received MAiD, about 5.1% of all deaths in Canada.
Will Canada allow MAiD for mental illness?
No, according to the federal government’s announcement this month. Justice Minister Sean Fraser said Canada is indefinitely dropping the planned expansion, which had been set for March 2027. A parliamentary committee recommended the change in June 2026, and legislation is expected this fall.
Who won the 2022 Arizona attorney general race?
Democrat Kris Mayes defeated Republican Abe Hamadeh by 280 votes after a mandatory recount. Hamadeh challenged the result in several lawsuits. Arizona courts rejected them, finding that Mayes still had the most votes statewide.
Is Abe Hamadeh in Congress?
Yes. Hamadeh was elected in November 2024 to represent Arizona’s 8th Congressional District in the U.S. House.
Where can I listen to the Alexander Raikin episode?
Podcast 117 is available on the Breaking Battlegrounds website, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other major platforms. The episode runs 1 hour, 2 minutes.
Conclusion
Podcast 117 caught two stories before their endings were known. Raikin spoke as Canada was about to extend assisted death to people with mental illness alone, a step the government has now abandoned after more than three years of delays. Hamadeh spoke days after a recount confirmed one of the narrowest statewide losses in the country, and before courts rejected his challenges. Read with the updates above, the episode shows how both debates looked at the start of 2023.
Related Reads
- Abe Hamadeh on Securing Arizona’s Border
- Podcast 197: Henry Olsen, Jeff Mason and Abe Hamadeh
- Podcast 216: Election Countdown on Pivotal 2024 Races
- Arizona Primary Interviews
- Meet the Hosts: Sam Stone and Chuck Warren
Sources
- Health Canada, Sixth Annual Report on Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada, 2024 (released November 28, 2025), via The Globe and Mail and ARPA Canada
- Department of Justice Canada, Bill C-62 Questions and Answers
- CBC News, Bill C-39 delay legislation (2023) and 2022 MAiD report coverage
- The Globe and Mail and Global News, special joint committee report, June 2026
- Global News and The Free Press, federal government announcement on MAiD and mental illness, October 2026
- The New Atlantis, editor’s letter on “No Other Options”
- Arizona Mirror, Court of Appeals ruling on Hamadeh’s challenge, April 11, 2024
- Arizona Capitol Times, Hamadeh’s continued challenge, October 15, 2024
