Canada suspends plans to expand assisted dying to people with mental illness

Justice Minister Sean Fraser said the decision to pause the expansion was a difficult one

Canada says it will indefinitely suspend plans to expand its medically assisted dying law to people whose sole condition is mental illness, citing a lack of consensus on who would be eligible.

On Wednesday, Canada's justice minister, Sean Fraser, said that "while there is not a perfect consensus on this issue, we believe this is the correct approach at this particular time".

A federal case remains before the courts challenging the government's earlier decision to delay access to Maid for people with mental illness.

Wednesday's announcement means that Canadians with mental illness as their sole condition will not be able to access assisted dying by March 2027 as previously planned.

That proposed legislation will also to allow patients who have a progressing incurable illness to consent to assisted dying before their health deteriorates to the point where they are unable to do so.

Advanced requests are not currently legal under federal law, but are allowed in Quebec for those with serious and incurable illnesses.

Medically assisted dying became legal in Canada in 2016 for people with terminal illnesses, who still account for the vast majority of cases.

Canada was first set to expand its assisted dying laws to people whose sole condition is mental illness in 2023, but it delayed doing so twice to allow for time to study its potential delivery.

But concerns have been raised about whether mental illnesses are currently understood well enough by medicine to determine appropriate eligibility.

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