{"id":333490,"date":"2025-06-30T06:50:17","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T11:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=333490"},"modified":"2025-06-30T00:07:42","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T05:07:42","slug":"canadian-mp-mental-illness-qualifying-assisted-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/canadian-mp-mental-illness-qualifying-assisted-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian MP&#8217;s bill aims to keep mental illness from qualifying for &#8216;assisted death&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>As Canadian lawmakers consider expanding the country&#8217;s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) law to allow death for reasons of mental illness alone, one Canadian MP has introduced legislation to prohibit it.<\/p>\n<h2>Key Takeaways:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>A new bill would prohibit MAiD (euthanasia or assisted suicide) for mental illness alone.<\/li>\n<li>The legislation comes as lawmakers are considering expanding the MAiD law exclusively for mental illness reasons.<\/li>\n<li>Canada ranks as a world leader in euthanasia deaths, and there are reports that people are already receiving approval for MAiD for mental illness.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>The Details:<\/h2>\n<p>MP Tamara Jansen introduced her Private Members Bill on June 20. The legislation, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.parl.ca\/legisinfo\/en\/bill\/45-1\/c-218\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">C-218<\/a>, would amend the current criminal code to explicitly prohibit &#8220;assisted dying&#8221; for mental illnesses, stating that &#8220;a mental disorder is not a grievous and irremediable medical condition.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/d1CW5ohyRwA?si=p4vwvjmDhVBK1azM\" width=\"640\" height=\"355\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/center>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Jansen summarized the impetus for her bill when introducing the legislation in Parliament.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Imagine your son or daughter battling depression for some time after losing a job or a broken relationship. Imagine they feel the loss so deep they&#8217;re convinced the world would be better off without them. Now imagine this, starting in March 2027, under Canadian law they could just walk into a doctor&#8217;s office and ask them to end their life, and under our law the system could legally do just that,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>She added, &#8220;Those battling depression, schizophrenia, PTSD, are being told that death is a solution we&#8217;re now willing to offer in response to a life of suffering &#8230; that&#8217;s not health care, that&#8217;s not compassion. It&#8217;s abandonment.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>Why it Matters:<\/h2>\n<p>&#8220;Assisted death&#8221; in Canada has skyrocketed since it was first implemented in 2016, and the country now ranks as one of the <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/euthanasia-rates-quebec-highest-in-world\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">world&#8217;s leaders<\/a> in euthanasia deaths. Advocates have been pushing to remove safeguards and amend the current law to allow &#8220;assisted death&#8221; solely for mental illness reasons, though the legalization has been delayed. For now, it is slated to take effect in 2027.<\/p>\n<p>Anecdotally, however, there are reports that people are already getting approved for euthanasia despite the fact that they were not terminally ill, like a <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/man-euthanasia-canada-mental-illness\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">man in 2022<\/a> who suffered from mental illness, and an <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/autistic-woman-canada-approved-euthanasia-family-fights\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">autistic woman<\/a> whose family has been battling in court to keep her alive. Despite the march toward expanded euthanasia, a <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/canadians-assisted-death-mental-illness\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">survey<\/a> released in 2024 showed that less than half of respondents supported the idea of MAiD for mental illness alone.<\/p>\n<h2>The Bottom Line:<\/h2>\n<p>According to Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, <a href=\"https:\/\/alexschadenberg.blogspot.com\/2025\/06\/bill-c-218-introduced-to-prevent.html?m=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jansen&#8217;s bill<\/a> is identical to 2023 legislation that was narrowly defeated in parliament. Though it failed, that bill forced lawmakers to delay implementing the mental illness MAiD qualification \u2014 a delay that is still in effect today. Jansen&#8217;s bill is expected to reach debate in November.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/actnow.io\/G3Bhv6M\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-332271\" src=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02-700x251.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"251\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02-700x251.jpg 700w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02-300x107.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02-768x275.jpg 768w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02-500x179.jpg 500w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02.jpg 1167w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As Canadian lawmakers consider expanding the country&#8217;s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) law to allow death for reasons of mental illness alone, one Canadian MP has introduced legislation to prohibit it. Key Takeaways: A new bill would prohibit MAiD (euthanasia or assisted suicide) for mental illness alone. The legislation comes as lawmakers are considering expanding [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":333513,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[5,3473],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Canadian MP&#039;s bill aims to keep mental illness from qualifying for &#039;assisted death&#039;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As Canadian lawmakers consider expanding the country&#039;s MAiD law to allow assisted death for mental illness, one MP is trying to prohibit it.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/canadian-mp-mental-illness-qualifying-assisted-death\/\" \/>\n<meta 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