OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Canada’s Liberal government said Wednesday it will indefinitely bar people whose sole medical condition is mental illness from receiving medical assistance in dying, abandoning an expansion that had been scheduled to take effect in March 2027.
Justice Minister Sean Fraser said there is no consensus in the medical community on when mental illness can be considered irremediable and cited concerns about inadequate access to mental health
care.
“While there is not a perfect consensus on this issue, we believe this is the correct approach at this particular time,” Fraser said.
A parliamentary committee recommended in June that people whose sole underlying condition is mental illness be indefinitely excluded from assisted dying.
Legislation to be introduced this fall would also change the Criminal Code so health professionals could provide assisted dying on the basis of an advance request made by someone diagnosed with a serious illness who later loses the capacity to consent. Fraser said provinces would decide whether to offer advance requests because they oversee healthcare delivery.
That could produce different rules across Canada. Quebec already allows advance requests for people diagnosed with serious and incurable illnesses leading to incapacity, such as Alzheimer’s disease, while Alberta passed legislation in March that would bar advance requests for assisted dying.
Canada legalized medical assistance in dying in 2016 and broadened eligibility in 2021 to include people with serious and incurable conditions even when their deaths were not reasonably foreseeable. People whose sole underlying condition is mental illness remained temporarily excluded.
Canada has one of the world’s most permissive assisted-dying laws. Unlike many countries, it allows people with serious but nonterminal medical conditions to seek an assisted death.
The changes come amid continuing debate over protections for vulnerable people.
