Canada is pausing expansion of its "medical assistance in dying" law. On February 1, Justin Trudeau's Liberal government announced that it would postpone until 2027 the provision allowing mentally ill patients to apply for euthanasia. It was originally scheduled for March 2024, but "the country is not ready," argued Health Minister Mark Holland, justifying its postponement until after the 2025 federal election.

Canadian provinces and territories were consulted, as well as lawmakers including Conservative MP, meeting as part of a committee issuing recommendations. They have all voiced their opposition to this expansion. Psychiatrists have argued that it would be difficult, if not impossible, for doctors to assess such requests and decide that a mental illness, such as schizophrenia, is "untreatable" in order to grant the patient's request, or to judge that the request is "rational." All insisted on the need to guarantee better access to care, throughout the country, for people with mental disorders, before considering granting them this new right.

Canada's euthanasia law is already one of the most liberal in the world. It was passed in June 2016 under joint pressure from Quebec, which had legislated on the subject a year earlier, and the Supreme Court of Canada, which enjoined the government to comply with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, recognizing every individual's freedom to dispose of his or her own body.

Initially for people suffering from "serious and irremediable illness, causing intolerable physical or psychological suffering" and whose "natural death is reasonably foreseeable," the law evolved in 2021 by relaxing the eligibility criteria. The applicant's life no longer needs to be at risk in the short term, for example in the case of chronic disabling illnesses, for the request – systematically assessed by two doctors – to be deemed admissible.

Canada's Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) program allows two types of assistance: a patient may be administered a lethal product by a doctor or nurse, or choose to ingest it himself in the presence of a loved one or medical staff member. However, "assisted suicide," as allowed in the US state of Oregon, remains extremely rare. Latest data from the World Medical Association's annual report reveals that only seven people in the whole country had utilized it in 2022. Finally, you must be of legal age to apply, and a Canadian resident – each province's health insurance system covers the financial cost of this medical procedure.

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