Canada’s top psychiatrists are calling on the federal government to delay its planned eligibility expansion of medical assistance in dying, or MAiD, to include patients whose sole medical condition is mental illness, which is set to come into effect in March 2023.
The Canadian Association of Chairs of Psychiatry (CPA), which represents the leading psychiatrists at Canada’s 17 medical schools, released a statement on Dec. 1 saying more time is needed to ensure certain standards are put in place before the government expands MAiD eligibility criteria.
“Further time is required to increase awareness of this change and establish guidelines and standards to which clinicians, patients and the public can turn to for more education and information,” said the head of the CPA, Dr. Valerie Taylor, in the statement.
The CPA’s position statement on Canadian MAiD laws was last updated in October 2021 after initially being released in February 2020. It stated that the association does not have a stance on the “legality or morality of MAiD.”
MAiD has been legal in Canada since 2016, although the eligibility criteria surrounding it have changed several times. Currently, patients must meet the following criteria to be eligible: have a serious physical illness, “be in an advanced state of decline that cannot be reversed,” and be experiencing “unbearable suffering.”
The requirement that patients be terminally ill to receive MAiD was dropped in 2020.
As of March 17, 2023, patients whose sole medical condition is mental illness will also be eligible for MAiD.
A number of doctors have signed a petition from the Society of Canadian Psychiatry calling for a delay of the legislative expansion until 2024 for the purpose of further “consultation and review of the safety and risks of MAiD for sole mental illness.”
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