Trigger Warning: This article contains content that can be disturbing to some individuals.
Medical assistance in dying (MAID) is a process that allows someone who is found eligible to be able to receive assistance from a medical practitioner in ending their life through some drugs or medical methods. This practice has started to help patients who are suffering from chronic pain because of some terminal illness, for example, cancer.
Recently, Canada’s health minister, Mark Holland while speaking to the media stated that people suffering from mental illness will be excluded from pursuing self-assisted Deaths because the healthcare system is not yet ready.
Canada legalized self-assisted deaths back in 2016 for people with terminal illnesses. An amendment was made when the decision was extended to people who are suffering from incurable conditions in 2021. However, the government passed legislation stating that people whose only underlying condition is mental health will be excluded temporarily from accessing assisted death for three more years till 2027 at least.
This extension would provide more time for provinces and territories to prepare their healthcare systems, including the development of policies, standards, guidance and additional resources to assess and provide MAID in situations where a person’s sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness. It would also provide practitioners with more time to participate in training and become familiar with available supports, guidelines and standards.
This proposed delay is also in line with the recommendations of the Special Joint Committee on MAID (AMAD) in their report MAID and Mental Disorders: The Road Ahead, which was tabled on January 29, 2024. While recognizing that considerable progress has been made in preparing for the expansion of eligibility for persons suffering solely from a mental illness, AMAD recommended that it not be made available in Canada until the healthcare system can safely and adequately provide MAID for these cases.
Mental health is a condition where a professional can never be sure about how long it will take a patient to recover completely. Based on this, denying them something so fundamental to life is snatching away their freedom of choice. “We need more time. Although the curriculum is present, although the guidelines are set, there has not been enough time for people to be trained on them, and provinces and territories are saying their systems are not ready and need more time” said Holland.
If they lift the exclusion, Canada will become one of only six countries to have a provision of self–assisted death for people suffering from mental illness.
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