Ottawa tables bill to bar medical assistance in dying for mental illness alone
The Liberal government tabled a bill in the House of Commons on Tuesday that would bar access to medical assistance in dying, known as MAID, where a patient's sole underlying medical condition is mental illness. The Globe and Mail reported the tabling.
The bill would amend the Criminal Code, Canada's main federal criminal law, to state that a person cannot receive MAID on the basis of mental illness alone. A federal pause on MAID for people whose only condition is mental illness is set to expire on March 17, 2027. CityNews reported that the bill would need to pass both the House of Commons and the Senate before that date.
The National Post has described the proposed exclusion as permanent and indefinite.
The bill also proposes a change for people diagnosed with a capacity-limiting disease, meaning an illness that can affect their ability to make decisions. Under the proposal, those patients could set out the circumstances in which they would want MAID in the future and request the procedure in advance, if their province allows it. Advance requests are currently illegal under the Criminal Code.
Quebec has allowed advance requests since October 2024. The province permits them for patients with serious, incurable illnesses that lead to incapacity, such as Alzheimer's disease.
The federal law has changed several times. In 2016, Canadian law allowed MAID for patients with terminal conditions whose deaths were deemed reasonably foreseeable. In 2021, following a Quebec court decision, the law was updated to allow patients with incurable conditions to seek to end their lives.
The question of mental illness has been before a parliamentary panel for some time. The Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying studied MAID for mental illness as a sole condition, mature minors, advance requests and palliative care. Its final report, titled "MAID and Mental Disorders: The Road Ahead," was tabled on January 29, 2024.
