The mentally ill in Canada have a 1-year reprieve from euthanasia.

Bill C39 has just passed in the Senate and now only needs royal assent to delay the implementation of euthanasia for mental illness as a sole condition, till 17 March 2024. (Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada — MAiD — is almost 100% euthanasia.)

In 2021, euthanasia for the mentally ill was legalised through Bill C-7, but implementation was deferred till March 2023. In February, the federal government announced plans to delay implementation a further year claiming they need time to develop “practice standards and training.” When the majority of psychiatrists oppose MAiD for mental illness, this training is apparently being planned by the group of doctors who will provide euthanasia — the Canadian Association of MAiD Assessors and Providers (CAMAP).

(A disconcerting image from the CAMAP website.)

The federal Minister for Justice, Mr. Lametti, also hopes the extension will give the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying time to complete its final report on MAID for those suffering solely from a mental illness.

There are assertions that this committee has a Pro-MAiD bias: 43 expert witnesses to the Special Joint Committee on MAiD wrote how their testimony was ignored:

“We, the undersigned, speaking each to our own expertise, who testified at the Special Joint Committee on MAiD, reject this report which misconstrues, misrepresents, minimizes, and completely ignores key evidence necessary to protect Canadians. The 23 recommendations fail to provide Canadians with the required safeguards to prevent harm and wrongful death and introduces larger segments of the Canadian population to potential harms instead of supporting Canadians to live well and flourish.”

Dr. Stefanie Green tweeted about the passage of Bill C-39 and sounded rather sad about the delay.