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Canadian journalists need to significantly change how they report on medical assistance in dying (MAID) for mental illness, a new report says. 

Most news articles about MAID for mental illness do not include perspectives from people with mental illnesses, the report says. 

“The voice and everyday experiences of people with lived experience of mental illness were limited [in news articles],” says the report, released July 15 by the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Health Equity and Community Wellbeing at Toronto Metropolitan University.

“This absence raises concerns about the implications of MAID’s expansion for impacted communities.”

Most Canadians do not understand Canada’s MAID laws, Danielle Landry, the report’s lead author and research associate at the centre, told Canadian Affairs in an interview. 

“I don’t think most Canadians are informed [about MAID],” she said. “If it was being reported on as a health issue, then maybe people would be paying more attention.” 

‘People tune out’

Landry and her research team examined 367 English Canadian news articles about MAID for mental illness published between 2020 and 2024. 

Most of these articles focused on federal MAID legislation, which has evolved considerably in recent years. 

In March 2021, the Trudeau government passed legislation removing the requirement that a person’s death be “reasonably foreseeable” to qualify for MAID. The law said people whose only condition is a mental illness would be eligible for MAID beginning March 2023.

In March 2023, Parliament delayed the expansion of MAID for mental illness until 2024. In early 2024, Parliament delayed the expansion again until 2027.

Landry’s research team found much of the news coverage about these changes focused on political debates rather than health implications. Politicians were most often quoted and pictured, with medical experts sometimes commenting on the political developments.

“This suggests that articles are geared more towards politically astute readers, rather than informing the average Canadian about what’s at stake in this debate,” the report says.

The report recommends journalists instead report on MAID as a public health issue. Health reporting is more likely to discuss ethical and moral issues, and show how MAID impacts Canadians’ lives, Landry says.

“When [MAID is] reported on as a political news story, sometimes people tune out,” she said. 

Reporting should also show MAID’s impact on communities, instead of only focusing on an individual’s experience with MAID.

“When one person accesses MAID, it has ripple effects,” said Landry.

Missing information

News reporting on MAID for mental illness also left out key details about MAID, the researchers found.

Most articles studied by the researchers did not explain the differences between Track 1 and Track 2 MAID. 

Track 1 MAID is available to eligible individuals whose deaths are reasonably foreseeable, whereas Track 2 MAID is for eligible individuals whose deaths are not reasonably foreseeable. People with disabilities or incurable illnesses can be approved for Track 2 MAID, even if they are not dying. 

Opinion pieces critical of MAID’s expansion were most likely to explain the differences between Track 1 and Track 2 MAID, the report says.

“If [journalists are] not bothering to explain why [Track 2 MAID] might be concerning to folks — why somebody might have an alarm bell going off around these issues — it is concerning because then [people are] not informed,” said Landry.

Canada’s Track 2 MAID laws have come under considerable scrutiny. In March, the United Nations recommended Canada scrap Track 2 MAID altogether, including allowing MAID for mental illness. Last fall, several disability organizations launched a Charter challenge against it.

People with mental illnesses have a range of opinions about whether MAID for mental illness should be allowed, says Landry, who taught in disability studies for a decade and has a personal mental health history. 

Suffering

But people with mental illnesses are rarely included in news articles about MAID for mental illness, the report says. When they are, mental illness is most often described as suffering.

The study recommends journalists stop equating mental illness with suffering.

“When mental illness is repeatedly framed in the context of suffering, the framing effect could serve to reinforce notions that life with severe mental illness is not worth living,” the report says.

This allows “eugenic ideology [to] seep into public discourse,” said Landry. Eugenic ideology focuses on finding a so-called “ideal” person or race.

People’s value often becomes tied to what they can do, says Landry. 

“We start to tie people’s value to their productivity,” she said. “[But] people contribute to society in a myriad of different ways. We can’t be making life or death decisions based on whether or not somebody is productive enough.”

People with mental illnesses may come to believe that they are burdens on others, she says.

In 2023, 45 per cent of Track 1 MAID patients and 49 per cent of Track 2 MAID patients reported they were suffering because they felt like a burden to others, a 2024 Health Canada report says.

Media reporting guidelines

The report also recommends Canada’s media industry develop guidelines about reporting on MAID. Guidelines about reporting on suicide — such as ones from the World Health Organization — may help to inform these guidelines, the report says.

People who have mental illnesses should also help develop these guidelines, the report says. 

“It can’t just be journalists writing for journalists,” said Landry. “There actually needs to be some input from the communities that are being represented.” 

These conversations need to happen now, she says.

“The clock is ticking,” she said. “It’s almost 2027. It’s really important that there is space in that public discourse in which people with lived and living experiences can …  share our knowledge and experience to actually contribute to that debate.”

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