User blog comment:Commdor/Vote for ME3's Female Shepard/@comment-84037-20110725013111/@comment-737801-20110725050222

Actually it isn’t canon that Shepard survives Mass Effect 2. Shepard can die, and you can’t carry the save over. That is just as much canon as Shepard surviving. Yes there is some canon, but a huge amount of decisions are left up to the player. For the final time, BioWare has repeatedly stated that there is no official Shepard, and that the one they use in adds is not the canon Shepard, just the default appearance of the male version. Just because that is used, doesn’t in any sense of the word mean that it is canon or that it is the official Shepard. Shepard is left completely up to the player and that is BioWare’s stance on the issue.