Available in Audio Format:
Sep 04, 2026
Euthanasia and Mental Illness: Is the End in Sight?
Five years ago, Parliament passed legislation to permit euthanizing persons whose sole reason for requesting euthanasia was that they suffered from mental illness.
At the time, euthanasia for mental illness was scheduled to begin in March, 2023. Thankfully, that expansion has not yet come into effect due to being delayed multiple times. While it remains scheduled for March 17, 2027, there are signs the government will change course.
Timeline:
Bill C-14 (2016): permits euthanasia for persons suffering from a “grievous” and “irremediable” medical condition whose natural death is “reasonably foreseeable”.
Bill C-7 (2021): expands euthanasia to people who are not dying, also including a clause to permit MAID for mental illness as of March 17, 2023.
Bill C-39 (2023): delays euthanasia for mental illness until March 17, 2024.
Bill C-314 (2023): A private members’ bill which would have repealed the scheduled expansion of euthanasia for mental illness was defeated by a vote of 167-150.
Bill C-62 (2024): delays euthanasia for mental illness until March 17, 2027, and requires a parliamentary review prior to that expansion.
Bill C-218 (2025): A private members’ bill to repeal the scheduled expansion of euthanasia for mental illness has not yet reached a vote at second reading (currently active in Parliament).
AMAD Committee Report (2026): The Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying (AMAD) heard from witnesses about the problems with euthanasia for mental illness as well as concerns with Canada’s current euthanasia regime. Ultimately, that Committee recommended that the government indefinitely exclude people with mental illness as their only condition from being eligible for euthanasia.
The AMAD Committee’s recommendation is great news, and it is the strongest recommendation that committee has produced since it began studying the issue of euthanasia and mental illness.
What Now?
While we celebrate the AMAD Committee’s recommendation, it now falls to Parliament to implement that recommendation. That can happen in one of two ways.
Pass Bill C-218: Bill C-218 would ensure that people with mental illness are excluded from euthanasia by repealing that expansion entirely. The government would simply need to support the bill to implement the Committee’s recommendation.
Further debate and a vote on Bill C-218 are expected in the next month. We need to encourage the government to fully repeal the mental illness expansion. Not to simply delay it again, but repeal it, full stop. Bill C-218 would do just that, and you can support the bill by sending an email to your Member of Parliament.
Introduce Government Legislation: Alternatively, the government could introduce and pass its own legislation rather than passing an opposition member’s bill. Such legislation could do more than just scrap the expansion of euthanasia for mental illness, however. For example, there is some speculation that the government may include some other element of expansion like advance requests, which many pro-euthanasia advocates have been asking for.
The government must stop any further expansion of euthanasia or relaxing or removing safeguards. Instead, once euthanasia for mental illness has been repealed, the government must go further and address more of the problems with Canada’s existing euthanasia law.
If the government chooses to introduce its own legislation rather than passing Bill C-218, we will look closely at the legislation and prepare action items accordingly. Stay tuned for more information and action items when Parliament returns to Ottawa at the end of September.
