Canada to Decide on MAID Expansion for Mental Illness

Justice Minister Sean Fraser and Health Minister Marjorie Michel will announce the Canadian government's decision regarding the expansion of medical assistance in dying (MAID) on Wednesday at noon in Ottawa. The announcement will determine if the procedure should be available to individuals whose sole underlying condition is a mental illness, a category that has been temporarily excluded since 2021.

The decision follows a parliamentary committee recommendation to indefinitely pause the expansion. This comes amid rapid growth in the MAID program, with annual deaths rising from 1,018 in 2016 to 16,499 in 2024. MAID now represents approximately 5.1% of all deaths in Canada, ranking as the sixth-leading cause of death nationwide. Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia account for the majority of these provisions.

Critics, including researchers from Cardus, argue that Canada lacks sufficient safeguards to prevent assessor shopping, where patients seek multiple clinicians to secure approval. While some European nations have allowed psychiatric euthanasia since 2002, opponents argue Canada's systemic gaps make such an expansion risky. Simultaneously, the House of Commons is scheduled to vote Wednesday on a Conservative private member's bill that would permanently exclude people with sole mental illness from the program.