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The federal government will introduce legislation this fall that will indefinitely extend the ban on access to a medically assisted death for people who are only suffering from a mental illness, Justice Minister Sean Fraser said on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Canada has made a decision not to move forward with the expansion that is scheduled in the Criminal Code of medical assistance in dying in circumstances where mental illness is the sole basis,” he said in the foyer of the House of Commons.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fraser said the government’s decision reflects the position expressed by a special parliamentary committee report released in June along with his own department’s probing of the issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“While there is not a perfect consensus on this issue, we believe this is the correct approach at this particular time,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
WATCH | Justice minister on forthcoming MAID changes:![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791397329_513_default.jpg\")
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Ottawa ‘landed in the right place’ with changes to MAID: justice minister<\/p>\n
Minister of Justice Sean Fraser says his perspective on the new legislation on medical assistance in dying (MAID) that will be tabled this fall comes from the experiences and conversations he’s had with people he knows. ‘These are not easy conversations, but my experience is not unique,’ he says, adding that he understands the reticence some people may have about the legislation.<\/p>\n
Fraser said the promised legislation will also “open the door” for people to give advance consent for their own medically assisted death in circumstances where the illness they are suffering from will eventually eliminate their capacity to make that decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The minister explained that while the details of advance consent will be worked out in House of Commons committees, it will require a person’s illness to be incurable and result in intolerable suffering. <\/p>\n
2 key reasons for MAID exclusion<\/p>\n
Fraser said there are two significant points motivating his government to indefinitely extend the current prohibition on receiving MAID for people who only have a mental illness.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said there are “very real concerns about people who live in communities with inadequate access to mental health services.”<\/p>\n
The second reason was the lack of consensus over when a mental illness is incurable, along with other issues raised in the June report<\/a>.<\/p>\n WATCH | Review urges indefinite exclusion for mental illness: MAID should ‘indefinitely exclude’ people with mental illness, review urges<\/p>\n A newly tabled parliamentary report urges the Canadian government to amend the criminal code to indefinitely exclude people whose sole underlying condition is mental illness from Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID). The decision now lies with Justice Minister Sean Fraser.<\/p>\n The government passed MAID legislation in 2016. But the Superior Court of Quebec struck the law down in 2019 because it was limited to those whose deaths were “reasonably foreseeable.”<\/p>\n Bill C-7, which passed Parliament in March 2021, removed that requirement, in line with the court’s ruling. The legislation also temporarily pushed back the expansion of MAID to cases involving only mental illness to March 2023.<\/p>\n That was further delayed to 2024 and again to March 2027.<\/p>\n Fraser says Conservative bill isn’t enough<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791397331_424_default.jpg\")
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