NEW YORK POST
Canada has delayed the extension of its assisted suicide program to people suffering solely from mental illness, health officials announced Monday.
Canada offers medically assisted death to terminally and chronically ill people, but the plan to extend the program to people with mental illnesses has divided Canadians, the New York Times reported.
Some critics attribute the problem to a lack of adequate psychiatric care in the country.
The controversial policy would allow anyone in Canada with an incurable medical condition to apply for assisted suicide, even if the disease is not terminal, which makes the law one of the most liberal assisted suicide programs in the world.
Canada introduced medically assisted dying after its Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that requiring people to cope with intolerable suffering infringed on fundamental rights to liberty and security.
The law was expanded in 2021 to include people experiencing “grievous and irremediable” conditions, such as depression and other mental health issues.
Over 13,000 Canadians were euthanized as part of the program in 2022, the Daily Mail reported.
When the program was announced last year, one conservative lawmaker “charged that the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is promoting a ‘culture of death.’”
“Have we gone too far and too fast with Canada’s assisted suicide program?” Conservative MP Ed Fast said.
“Will we evolve into a culture of death as the preferred option for those who suffer from mental illness or will we choose life?”
But now, health officials are slow-walking plans to expand the program, stating there are not enough doctors, specifically psychiatrists, in Canada to evaluate mentally ill people who wish to die, according to the announcement made by Health Minister Mark Holland and Justice Minister Arif Virani.
This followed a meeting of the special parliamentary committee looking into the plan, the Times reported.
