Just weeks before MAID laws were set to be expanded to be provided for patients suffering from mental illness, a joint parliamentary committee released a report indicating that the country’s medical system is inadequately prepared to expand MAID. The expansion was already set to occur in March of 2023, but was delayed by a year.
Dissenting Senators lamented the delay in affording the right of access to MAID across all Canadian citizens; “It also stigmatizes individuals with mental disorders, promoting the myth that individuals with mental disorders are incapable of making informed decisions about their end-of-life choices,” the senators said.
Helen Long, chief executive of Dying With Dignity Canada, lamented the delay saying, “For the people across the country who live with treatment-resistant mental disorders who have patiently waited for this change in Canada’s MAID law, Dying With Dignity Canada is disheartened and shares the frustration of the continued exclusion, stigmatization and discrimination based on diagnosis – a clear breach of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”
Canada