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

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.”

The report, tabled on the 10-year anniversary of MAID’s legalization in Canada, stated that the committee held six meetings between March 24 and May 5, heard from 44 witnesses, and received 32 written briefs. Witnesses included clinicians, researchers, academics, government officials, representatives of associations and professional bodies, legal and international experts, and people with “lived experience.”

A common theme of the testimonials was that Canada needed increased access to adequate mental health services, while some witnesses questioned whether a person’s illness could be considered irremediable if they did not have access to mental health and social services.

Some witnesses who testified before the committee warned that expanding MAID could lead to the so-called “suicide contagion effect,” which has been seen in some jurisdictions that have MAID, where suicide rates increase following legalization.

Two professors also testified to the committee that expanding MAID to the mentally ill would “disproportionately end the lives of mentally ill women,” in the same way that Track 2 MAID—which applies to people whose natural death is not reasonably foreseeable—has led to disabled women disproportionately seeking euthanasia.

The report concludes that the federal government could introduce legislation to extend the exclusion of MAID for the mentally ill, or “introduce legislation to permanently prohibit MAID” for that group. It also said the matter could be sent to the Supreme Court for a ruling on the “constitutionality of such an exclusion.”

Canada’s MAID regime was initially scheduled to allow eligibility for Canadians whose sole medical condition is a mental illness beginning March 17, 2023. However, the federal government has since postponed the change multiple times. Unless Parliament takes action again, the eligibility is set to be expanded to the mentally ill next year, on March 17, 2027.

Prime Minister Mark Carney had said on May 6 that he would wait for the release of a parliamentary report on MAID expansion before deciding whether to expand it to the mentally ill. Justice Minister Sean Fraser has also said the decision would follow the report’s release.

In a statement to The Epoch Times, Fraser’s Press Secretary Jeanne Joannie Fogue Mgamgne said MAID is a “deeply personal and complex choice” and that the government is “committed to getting this right.”

“We will take the time to review the report, as well as the evidence that supports the recommendation, in full before determining the path forward,” she said.

Following the tabling of the report, Conservative MP Tamara Jansen said her party supports the committee’s recommendation to indefinitely pause the expansion of MAID, which would save “thousands of lives.”

Jansen said the “two core problems” with the expansion of MAID to the mentally ill “remain unresolved,” namely that physicians are unable to reliably determine when a mental illness is irremediable, and also that they are unable to reliably distinguish a request for MAID from suicidality.

Jansen encouraged MPs to vote in favour of her private member’s bill C-218, which would amend the Criminal Code to permanently repeal the scheduled expansion of MAID for Canadians whose sole medical condition is a mental illness.

“Vulnerable Canadians should not be caught in partisan gains or legislative delay. There’s no reason for the government not to support Bill C-218 at second reading,” Jansen said.

Conservative MP Andrew Lawton, who previously experienced mental health struggles and attempted suicide in his 20s, told reporters that he might not have “been here today” if the planned expansion of MAID for the mentally ill had existed at that time.

“It’s crucial that people who are at their most vulnerable stage in life, dealing with these severe mental illnesses, are given the supports they need to not want to end their lives anymore,” Lawton said.