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Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday he won’t take a position yet on whether people with only a mental illness should be able to access assisted dying.
“I like to take informed positions and I’ll wait for the report,” he said before a meeting of the Liberal caucus on Parliament Hill.
A parliamentary committee of senators and MPs is studying whether the country is ready to expand medical assistance in dying, or MAID, to people whose sole underlying condition is a mental illness.
That extension is set to happen in March 2027, after it was delayed more than once by the previous Liberal government.
The committee has heard testimony from psychiatrists, physicians and legal experts, a majority of whom say Canada should not go ahead with MAID for mental illness.
At issue for many is a concern about assessing irremediability, or whether a person who is suffering from a mental illness can improve.
Dr. Sanjeev Sockalingam, the chief medical officer at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, who testified at the committee on April 28, told MPs the institution remains concerned about the planned extension.
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“There’s no doubt that for some people, mental illness can be grievous and cause physical and psychological suffering,” he said.
“The irremediability of an illness, however, is an objective determination that must be based on the best medical evidence available, and right now, there are currently no established criteria or consensus among psychiatrists for if — or when — a mental illness should be considered irremediable.”
Liberal MP Greg Fergus, who recently joined the committee, said he hopes to have the final report done before the summer. Parliament is set to break for the summer in June.
“Do I expect everybody to be a part of it to be unanimous? No,” he said, adding he does think the majority of the committee will agree on its conclusions.
Conservative MP Michael Cooper, who is also a committee member, said the evidence is very clear that the extension should not happen.
“The same issues remain unresolved. They’re going to be unresolved for the foreseeable future,” he said.
Cooper said the government should indefinitely delay the extension.
Justice Minister Sean Fraser said he thinks it would be premature to say whether he is prepared to delay the extension once again, given that the committee has not yet written its report.
“My own view is that as time moves forward, the circumstances change, the system’s readiness changes, the perspective of different witnesses who’ve now seen more experiences with medical assistance in dying over time has changed,” he said.
Some members of the committee and a legal expert who was a witness early in the study have raised concerns that it is hearing mostly from people opposed to the extension.
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