Canada will indefinitely suspend plans to expand its medically assisted dying law to people whose sole condition is mental illness, Justice Minister Sean Fraser announced Wednesday.
The decision pauses an expansion previously set for March 2027. Fraser said the government lacks consensus on how to determine eligibility for such cases and will introduce legislation in coming weeks to formalize the indefinite suspension.
A parliamentary panel recommended earlier this year that Canada "indefinitely exclude" people with mental illness alone from medically assisted dying, known as Maid. The committee heard from doctors, advocates and experts, including from the Netherlands and Belgium, which do permit assisted dying for people solely with mental illness. Some committee members released a dissenting report, arguing the process was "fundamentally flawed" and "biased."
Fraser acknowledged medical uncertainty as a key concern. "When I hear that there is a lack of consensus in the medical community about the irremediable nature of certain mental illnesses, that gives me real cause for concern," he said.
Medically assisted dying became legal in Canada in 2016 for people with terminal illnesses. A 2021 expansion added people with incurable conditions whose death was not imminent. Canada had delayed the mental illness expansion twice since initially planning it for 2023.
Supporters of extending the program argue that withholding access violates constitutional rights and access to healthcare. Claire Brosseau, a woman with treatment-resistant bipolar 1 disorder who is part of a federal court case challenging current law, told the BBC earlier this year that assisted dying would offer her "a safe death."
Michael Fenrick, Brosseau's lawyer, called Wednesday's decision "deeply disappointing" and said "people will continue to suffer intolerably while the case goes through the courts."
A federal case challenging the government's delay remains before the courts. Fraser said the Supreme Court could weigh on the issue in the future.
The proposed legislation will also allow patients with progressing incurable illnesses to consent to assisted dying before their health deteriorates to the point where they cannot do so. That decision will be left to individual provinces. Quebec currently allows advanced requests for those with serious and incurable illnesses; such requests are not legal under federal law elsewhere.
Some experts have raised concerns that Canada's assisted dying program addresses symptoms of broader social failures rather than serving as a true last resort, and that improved access to affordable housing and healthcare might better serve suffering patients.
Polls show most Canadians support access to medically assisted death overall, but support drops significantly when asked about patients with mental illness alone.