The majority of Canadians do not support the latest expansion that has been planned for medical assistance in dying in Canada, one which would open it up as an option for those with mental illnesses as a sole condition.
While six out of ten Canadians support MAID in its current form, which allows those with a grievous and irremediable medical condition to apply for it, only three in ten Canadians support the idea of allowing patients to seek MAID purely based on mental illness, according to a new report by the Angus Reid Institute.
But other psychiatrists and mental health advocates see the expansion of MAID to include those suffering from a mental illness as a potentially dangerous overreach, likening it to the government making suicide more accessible to a vulnerable population instead of putting in the work to provide the supports needed to improve their daily lives.
When MAID was first introduced in 2016, those who applied needed to be able to prove that they were facing a foreseeable death due to an incurable illness or condition. In 2021, the laws were expanded to allow those facing serious, incurable illness or disability, who did not have a foreseeable death, to apply for MAID.
Those from Quebec had the highest level of support for the 2021 version, with 78 per cent supporting it. It was the Superior Court of Quebec that originally ruled in 2019 that the provision requiring a “reasonable foreseeability of natural death” was unconstitutional.In 2021, the government agreed to a future amendment to allow people to apply for MAID with a serious mental illness as their sole condition, but asked for a two-year extension to prepare for such a change to be implemented.
Only 31 per cent said they support mental illness as a sole condition for MAID—a far cry from the 60 per cent who supported the 2021 updated version of the law which removed foreseeable death as a requirement.When broken down by province, Saskatchewan has the highest percentage of those who oppose the idea, at 68 per cent, while Quebec has the lowest percentage of those who oppose the idea, at 43 per cent.
Around 43 per cent answered that it was a good thing because “people have more control over end-of-life decisions now.”A combined 31 per cent said it was neither good nor bad or answered that they weren’t sure or couldn’t say .The idea of choosing medically assisted death can be a difficult one for many Canadians to conceptualize.
The report noted that an Ontario man recently made news after he requested MAID not because he wanted to die, but because he thought it was a preferable alternative to being homeless. An investigation was launched this fall after Veteran Affairs Canada discovered that an employee had offered MAID during discussions with four separate veterans. They confirmed in December that the employee was no longer working there.
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