It has been 10 years since medical assistance in dying (“MAID”) was legalized in Canada. Since the initial legislation, amendments were made in 2021 to expand MAID eligibility; however any person whose sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness has remained ineligible for MAID.
MAID is a complex topic and the laws surrounding it require a delicate balance of competing considerations – from preserving a person’s dignity and autonomy in making health care decisions, including end-of-life care, to protecting vulnerable populations. Unsurprisingly, MAID laws have been subject to considerable review and development since their inception. It is expected that MAID laws will continue to evolve as the concept develops and lawmakers’ understanding and comfortability with the various complexities grows.
A total of 76,800 Canadians received MAID between 2016 to 2024, with the latest report on MAID outlining that 16,499 Canadians received MAID in 2024.
HISTORY
The Supreme Court of Canada in the landmark decision in Carter v Canada, 2015 SCC 5 unanimously ruled that sections of the Criminal Code which prohibited medically assisted death violated section 7 of the Charter protecting the life, liberty and security of the person. In 2016, Parliament passed Bill C-14 which amended parts of the Criminal Code to allow physicians and nurse practitioners to administer MAID to eligible adults in accordance with relatively restrictive safeguards.
Under this law, a person who had a “grievous and irremediable medical condition” had to also show that their natural death was “reasonably foreseeable” to be eligible for MAID.
In 2021, Parliament passed Bill C-7 after the Superior Court of Quebec handed down its decision in Truchon v Canada, 2019 QCCS 3792. In Truchon, the court found that the “reasonably foreseeable” death requirement was too restrictive and therefore unconstitutional. In response, the eligibility criteria was expanded further and two separate “tracks” were created: one for those whose deaths are reasonably foreseeable and one for those whose deaths are not reasonably foreseeable.
The 2021 amendments addressed but temporarily excluded from MAID eligibility any person whose sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness.