Canada will not expand its controversial Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) euthanasia program to individuals whose sole condition is mental illness, Justice Minister Sean Fraser announced Wednesday.
“Canada has made a decision not to move forward with the expansion that is scheduled in the Criminal Code of medical assistance in dying in circumstances where mental illness is the sole basis,” Fraser told reporters on Parliament Hill.
“While there is not a perfect consensus on this issue, we believe this is the correct approach at this particular time,” he continued.
Expanding MAID to include “mental illness” as the sole eligibility factor for euthanasia in Canada has been a controversial point of contention for years. The preceding liberal government approved a legislation in 2021 revising the eligibility criteria for MAID, but gave a two-year extension for mental illness eligibility criteria to allow for further discussions on the highly controversial matter, pushing it to 2023.
The deadline was extended three more times. CTV News recounted that in 2024, then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delayed the legislation for a third time, therefore making it go into effect on March 17, 2027.
Minister Fraser reportedly affirmed that the current Liberal Canadian government will maintain the delay “on an indeterminate basis through a new legislation expected to be introduced by the Canadian government in the coming weeks.
Fraser, in a social media post, detailed that “serious concerns” remain on whether MAID requests can be assessed “safely and consistently” when it comes to mental illness — stressing, “For that reason, Canada does not intend to move ahead with the scheduled expansion of MAID for mental illness..”
In a follow-up post, however, the Minister announced that Canada intents to adults “diagnosed with an illness such as early-stage Alzheimer’s “to make an advance MAID euthanasia request so “their wishes could be respected after they lose the ability to decide for themselves.”
The announcement comes months after a joint House of Commons and Senate committee report urged in June not to expand the euthanasia program for mental health. Supporters of the controversial expansion argue that not doing so would allegedly stand in violation of their constitutional rights and access to medical care, the BBC noted.
A still-ongoing case presented before Canadian courts by the advocacy group Dying With Dignity Canada challenged the Trudeau-era suspension. Per The Globe and Mail, the group described Wednesday’s announcement as a “profoundly disappointing day for medical assistance in dying legislation.”
As Breitbart News reported, critics of the MAID program have accused Canadian doctors of aggressively pushing patients into MAID. In June, Doctors reportedly proposed in a paper the possibility of harvesting organs from MAID subjects while they were still alive, an outrageous proposal that further fueled criticism of the already controversial euthanasia program.
In May, a Canadian doctor was placed under supervision after it was assessed that he engaged in serious breaches of MAID protocols — including assessing a man for euthanasia outside a Tim Hortons restaurant.
Last month, relatives of an 83 year-old Canadian woman blasted the Canadian government for putting the elderly woman to death through the MAID program, accusing the nation’s healthcare system to subjecting her to a “hideously botched” procedure that left her covered in blood during her final moments.