Canada moves to halt assisted dying access for sole mental illness cases

The short version

• Justice Minister Sean Fraser announced plans to indefinitely suspend extending Canada's medical assistance in dying framework to individuals whose sole condition is mental illness.[BBC News]
• The upcoming legislation will also introduce provisions allowing patients with progressing incurable conditions to submit advance requests before losing the capacity to consent.[The Guardian · BBC News]
• Advocates argue that excluding sole mental illness cases infringes upon constitutional rights and access to healthcare, with a challenge currently pending in federal court.[BBC News]

Key facts

• Canada plans to introduce legislation to indefinitely suspend assisted dying eligibility for people whose sole underlying condition is mental illness.[The Guardian · BBC News]
• The proposed measure will also allow advance requests for medically assisted dying for individuals diagnosed with progressing incurable conditions.[The Guardian · BBC News]
• Quebec is currently the only jurisdiction in Canada that allows the use of advance requests for assisted dying.[The Guardian · BBC News]
• A parliamentary committee earlier recommended indefinitely excluding people with a mental illness as their sole condition from assisted dying.[BBC News]
• Official figures show that 95.6% of assisted dying cases in Canada involved individuals whose natural death was deemed reasonably foreseeable, compared to 4.4% where death was not reasonably foreseeable.[The Guardian]

Sources

Outlet counts describe coverage, not independent confirmation. Reports may share a wire service or original source.

• Canada suspends plans to expand assisted dying to people with mental illnessBBC News - World
• Canada to extend assisted dying exclusion for people whose sole condition is mental illnessThe Guardian - World