Canada will indefinitely postpone plans to allow medically assisted dying for people with mental illness alone. The government will introduce a bill that would repeal the current March 2027 deadline, Justice Minister Sean Fraser announced.
“While there is not a complete consensus on this issue, we believe this is the right approach at this time,“ Fraser said. He said there was insufficient agreement in the medical community on when certain mental illnesses could be reliably defined as incurable and irreversible.
March 2027 deadline scrapped
Initially, access to the procedure was to be extended in 2023. After two postponements, the final deadline was set for March 2027. The new decision means that people with a single mental illness will not be entitled to medically assisted death then.
The government will present the bill in the coming weeks. It would keep the restriction in place without a specific end date. Fraser said the Supreme Court could also rule on the matter, as a federal court case challenging the previous postponement is ongoing.
The Mental Illness Debate
A parliamentary committee earlier this year recommended that Canada indefinitely exclude people whose only underlying medical condition is a mental illness from the program. The committee also cited the need for greater and more equitable access to adequate mental health services.
Supporters of expanding the program argue that the exclusion violates the constitutional rights of people with mental illness. Dying with Dignity called the decision “deeply disappointing.”
“We expect that a very small number of people with severe and long-term mental illnesses will meet this MAID criteria, but their suffering is no less real than that of people with physical illnesses,” said Helen Long, the organization’s executive director.
Claire Brosseau, who suffers from intractable bipolar 1 disorder, is involved in the federal lawsuit challenging the current rules. She has previously said that assisted dying would provide her with a “safe death.” Her lawyer, Michael Fenrick, said he expects a lengthy legal battle. "People will continue to suffer unbearably while the case goes through the courts," he said.
Changes to advance consent
The proposed bill would also include rules for patients with a progressive, incurable disease who have given advance consent to medically assisted death before they lose the capacity to make their own decisions.
Currently, federal law does not allow such advance declarations. They are allowed in Quebec for people with serious and incurable illnesses, but the final decision on the matter will be left to the individual provinces.
Medically assisted death was legalized in Canada in 2016. Initially, it was available to people with terminal illnesses, and after a court ruling in Quebec in 2021, the scope was expanded to include patients with incurable illnesses in whom death is not imminent.
Sources: btvnovinite.bg, apnews.com, globalnews.ca