Parliamentary Committee Recommends Against Expanding Euthanasia to the Mentally Ill

Parliamentary Committee Recommends Against Expanding Euthanasia to the Mentally Ill
People make their way along Parliament Hill and past the Centre Block in Ottawa on April 13, 2026. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick
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A special parliamentary committee has recommended against the federal government expanding its medical assistance in dying (MAID) regime to include those whose sole underlying condition is a mental illness.

The Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying’s report, tabled in the House of Commons on June 17, included only one recommendation—that the government should “indefinitely exclude” these Canadians from MAID eligibility, as the “evidentiary and systemic conditions necessary for safe and equitable implementation cannot presently be met.”