False Claim: People must agree to organ donation in order to have MAiD
One of the most persistent conspiracy theories about MAiD is that people are being pressured into assisted dying to increase the supply of organs and tissue for transplantation. Kelsi Sheren has repeatedly promoted variations of this claim, including stating that a person "has to say yes to organ donation" in order to receive MAiD. That claim was independently investigated and debunked by both AFP Fact Check and CTV News' Deception Decoded, which confirmed that organ donation is entirely voluntary and completely separate from MAiD eligibility.
Rather than acknowledge the error, Sheren later claimed she had been misunderstood and that she had only been "asking a question." However, the public record tells a different story. She has made multiple unqualified statements across different interviews asserting that organ donation is required for MAiD, and only after those statements were fact-checked did she begin arguing that she had never actually made the claim. We reviewed her comments in detail and published the transcripts so readers can judge for themselves.
The conspiracy theory extends far beyond organ donation. Sheren has suggested that governments, Canadian Blood Services, CAMAP, transplant programs, and MAiD providers are working together to increase organ procurement through MAiD. She has also linked MAiD to black-market organ trafficking and even claimed that donated skin is being turned into "skin wallets." These extraordinary allegations are presented without credible evidence and bear no resemblance to how Canada's MAiD and organ donation systems actually operate.
This misinformation has real-world consequences. It causes patients and families to fear that end-of-life decisions are being driven by hidden motives rather than their own wishes. It discourages organ and blood donation, undermines trust in health-care professionals, and fuels suspicion toward a system that relies on informed consent at every stage. If these allegations were true, they would represent one of the largest scandals in Canadian medical history. They are not. They are conspiracy theories, and they should be recognized as such.