By: Ebenezer Adugyamfi & Emmanuel Ayiku for GhanaianNewsCanada
7 October 2026
The federal government of Prime Minister Mark Carney will introduce legislation to prevent people from becoming eligible for medical assistance in dying (MAID) when mental illness is their sole underlying medical condition, Justice Minister Sean Fraser announced Wednesday.
The announcement reverses the direction of Canada’s existing law, under which the temporary exclusion of people with mental illness as their only medical condition is scheduled to expire on March 17, 2027.
Fraser said the government has decided not to proceed with the planned expansion and will instead introduce legislation this fall to maintain the exclusion “on an indeterminate basis.”
The decision follows a parliamentary review that recommended that Canada indefinitely exclude people whose sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness from eligibility for MAID.
What the Government Is Changing
Under Canada’s current MAID framework, a person whose only underlying medical condition is a mental illness cannot currently receive MAID.
That exclusion was originally temporary.
Parliament has already postponed the expansion several times. The most recent legislation, passed in 2024, extended the exclusion until March 17, 2027.
Without further legislation, the Criminal Code provision would cease to exclude mental illness as a sole underlying condition on that date.
The Carney government’s planned legislation would change that situation by keeping the exclusion in place indefinitely.
That means a person would not become eligible for MAID solely because they have a mental illness, even after March 2027.
Government Says It Has Made a Decision
Fraser said Wednesday that the government has concluded that Canada should not move ahead with the scheduled expansion.
“Canada has made a decision not to move forward with the expansion that is scheduled in the criminal code,” Fraser said, referring to circumstances in which mental illness would be the sole basis for a MAID request.
The announcement comes after months of parliamentary examination of whether Canada’s health-care system and safeguards are ready for such cases.
The government had previously said it wanted to review the evidence and recommendations before taking a final position.
Prime Minister Mark Carney had also previously said he would wait for the parliamentary committee’s findings before taking an informed position on the issue.
Parliamentary Committee Recommended an Indefinite Exclusion
A joint committee of MPs and senators examining the issue recommended in June that the federal government amend the Criminal Code to indefinitely exclude people whose sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness.
The committee said the conditions necessary for the safe and equitable implementation of MAID in such circumstances had not been met.
The recommendation followed testimony from medical professionals, disability organizations, mental-health advocates, researchers and people with lived experience.
The committee’s findings have become a major factor in the government’s decision.
Why Mental Illness Has Been Treated Differently
Canada’s MAID law does not require a person to be terminally ill.
Under the existing framework, eligible individuals must meet a number of conditions, including having a serious and incurable illness, disease or disability; being in an advanced state of irreversible decline; and experiencing enduring suffering that cannot be relieved under conditions the person considers acceptable.
However, people whose only medical condition is a mental illness are currently excluded.
The distinction has been the subject of intense debate because mental illnesses can have different trajectories and outcomes from many physical conditions.
Opponents of the expansion have argued that it can be difficult to determine whether a person’s mental illness is genuinely irremediable and whether future treatment could substantially improve their condition.
Supporters of MAID eligibility for mental illness argue that people with severe and enduring psychiatric conditions should not automatically be denied the same autonomy available to people suffering from other grievous and irremediable conditions.
Supporters and Opponents Disagree
The debate has divided medical, disability-rights and assisted-dying organizations.
Groups opposing the expansion have pointed to concerns about access to mental-health treatment, long wait times, social vulnerability and the difficulty of determining whether a psychiatric condition is permanently irremediable.
In May, 90 disability advocacy and mental-health organizations signed an open letter calling on the federal government to permanently exclude mental illness as a sole basis for MAID. The organizations included Inclusion Canada, Disability Without Poverty, the Schizophrenia Society of Canada and the Canadian Mental Health Association.
The groups argued that Canada’s mental-health system still faces significant gaps and that expanding MAID before those gaps are addressed could put vulnerable people at risk.
However, organizations supporting access have argued that permanently excluding people solely because their condition is psychiatric can amount to unequal treatment.
Dying With Dignity Canada, which supports access to MAID under appropriate safeguards, has criticized efforts to permanently exclude people with mental illness.
The organization has argued that people with severe and enduring mental illness should have their individual circumstances considered rather than being excluded categorically.
The Current Law Still Allows MAID in Other Circumstances
The government’s decision does not mean that mental illness generally prevents someone from receiving MAID.
A person who has a mental illness alongside another qualifying medical condition may still be eligible if all legal requirements are met.
Health Canada says eligibility is assessed individually and requires applicants to satisfy all applicable criteria.
The government’s decision specifically concerns cases where mental illness is the sole underlying medical condition.
That distinction will be important as Parliament debates the new legislation.
Government Also Announces Change on Advance Consent
Fraser also announced another change involving MAID and future loss of decision-making capacity.
He said the government intends to allow people to provide consent while they still have decision-making capacity when they have been diagnosed with an illness that is expected to subsequently take away that capacity.
The proposed change would address situations in which a person has made an informed decision about MAID before losing the capacity required to provide consent later.
Details of how the proposed framework would operate will become clearer when the government introduces the legislation.
Canada Has Delayed the Mental-Illness Expansion Before
The decision marks the latest stage in a long-running debate.
Canada originally excluded people whose sole underlying medical condition was a mental illness when Parliament expanded MAID eligibility beyond situations where natural death was reasonably foreseeable.
The exclusion was subsequently extended in 2023 and again in 2024.
The 2024 legislation moved the potential expansion date to March 17, 2027.
The government at the time said the additional delay would allow provinces and territories to prepare their health systems, develop clinical guidance and provide training and resources to medical professionals.
The latest announcement goes further by abandoning the scheduled 2027 expansion rather than simply postponing it again.
A Constitutional Debate Could Continue
The government’s decision is also likely to remain subject to legal and constitutional debate.
There are competing arguments over whether permanently excluding people with mental illness from MAID eligibility violates equality rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
At the same time, disability organizations have raised separate concerns about the broader MAID framework and its potential effects on people with disabilities who are not terminally ill.
The competing legal questions mean the issue may continue beyond Parliament’s consideration of the new legislation.
What Happens Next
The federal government is expected to introduce legislation in Parliament later this year to formally maintain the exclusion.
Until that legislation is passed and receives royal assent, the existing Criminal Code provisions remain in force, meaning people whose sole underlying condition is mental illness remain ineligible for MAID.
If Parliament approves the government’s proposed changes, that exclusion would no longer be scheduled to expire in March 2027.
The legislation will likely generate another debate among MPs, senators, medical professionals, disability advocates, mental-health organizations and assisted-dying advocates.
A Major Shift in Canada’s MAID Debate
The Carney government’s announcement represents a significant change in the trajectory of Canada’s assisted-dying framework.
For years, the federal government had treated the exclusion of mental illness as a temporary measure while Parliament, medical professionals and provinces prepared for a possible expansion.
The government has now decided that the scheduled expansion should not proceed.
The central question will therefore shift from when Canada will allow MAID for mental illness alone to whether such eligibility should ever become part of the country’s assisted-dying system.
As Parliament prepares to debate the government’s legislation, the discussion is expected to focus on individual autonomy, equality, medical uncertainty, access to mental-health care and the safeguards required when the state permits medical assistance in dying.
For now, the federal government’s position is clear: mental illness alone will not become a basis for MAID eligibility under the planned new legislation.
