Canada will reverse its plan to allow people whose sole condition is a mental illness to seek medically assisted death, the government announced on Wednesday, abandoning a move to expand access to these patients.
“While there is not a perfect consensus on this issue, we believe this is the correct approach,” Sean Fraser, the minister of justice, told reporters on Parliament Hill.
A law, introduced under the former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, that allowed people with intolerable suffering from incurable mental health conditions to access a medically assisted death was initially poised to take effect in March 2023. Access for these patients was postponed for a year after public and some medical-community concerns that the existing system was not yet prepared to evaluate applications from these patients. In March 2024, the government delayed again, this time until March 2027, pending reviews by a panel of experts.
With the clock ticking toward that deadline, Mr. Fraser said the government “very recently” formalized its stance and that Canadians can soon expect parliament to pass legislation that will indefinitely bar people whose sole medical condition is a mental disorder from seeking medically assisted death.
The government is broadening the law to allow people with serious illnesses to make advance requests for medically assisted death if they anticipate their cognitive health will decline in a way that would prevent them from providing consent for the procedure in the future. This is already available to patients in the province of Quebec. The ability to make an advance request for assisted death has considerable public support.
Canada has some of the world’s most expansive laws surrounding medically assisted death, advanced in part through a series of court challenges, that allow people who are terminally ill or living with chronic and incurable conditions to seek a physician’s help to die.
But Canadians have been sharply divided about whether people living with mental health conditions — some of which are also chronic, debilitating and do not respond to treatment — should qualify for the procedure.
A Canadian woman who has lived with bipolar disorder for more than 30 years has taken the existing law to court, arguing that it discriminates against her based on her diagnosis. If she wins, the court would strike down this new law. Canada is the only country where assisted dying is permitted for people whose illnesses are not terminal, which makes an exclusion for people with mental illness.
In 2024, about 16,500 people received a medically assisted death, according to figures in the most recent government report, representing about five percent of the country’s total deaths that year.
Stephanie Nolen contributed reporting.
Both Canada and the United States have a three-digit suicide and crisis hotline: 988. If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 and visit 988.ca (Canada) or 988lifeline.org (United States) for a list of additional resources. This service offers bilingual crisis support in each country, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
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