Canada will not extend assisted dying to people with mental illness alone
Justice Minister Sean Fraser said on October 7, 2026 that the Canadian government will introduce legislation this fall to keep mental illness excluded indefinitely from the country's medical assistance in dying program
The Canadian government has decided not to extend its assisted dying program, known as MAID (medical assistance in dying), to people whose only condition is a mental illness. Justice Minister Sean Fraser announced the decision on October 7, 2026 at a news conference in the House of Commons. The government plans to introduce legislation this fall to keep the current exclusion in place indefinitely. It had been set to expire on March 17, 2027.
Canada legalized euthanasia in 2016 under restrictive criteria tied to serious and incurable medical conditions. About 100,000 Canadians have since died through the MAID program. In 2023, assisted deaths accounted for roughly one in 20 deaths in the country.
Extending the program to people whose only condition is a mental illness would have raised complex questions. Those include how to assess whether psychological suffering will persist, whether recovery is possible, and whether a person can make a lasting decision about his or her own death. The government had already postponed that expansion in 2024, after a parliamentary report concluded that Canada was not ready to take the step.
Concerns about vulnerability and treatment
A 2025 report by Cardus Health raised specific concerns about how vulnerable groups are treated, including people with mental illness, in a country that also has a duty to prevent suicide.
A survey by the Angus Reid Institute carried out in June 2026 found that 77 percent of Canadians support the original criteria for euthanasia, limited to patients with grievous and irremediable suffering whose death is foreseeable. When mental illness is the sole condition, support falls to 43 percent, while 39 percent are opposed and 19 percent have no firm view. The survey also found that 74 percent of respondents believe the government should first guarantee adequate resources for people with disabilities before opening the door to euthanasia on psychiatric grounds.
Debate continues in the provinces and over the constitution
The federal restriction has not ended the debate at the provincial level. In 2024, Quebec announced that it would begin accepting advance requests for medical assistance in dying, allowing euthanasia for a person who had lost the capacity to consent, provided the request had been made beforehand.
Dying With Dignity, an association that supports euthanasia, has a pending constitutional challenge to the exclusion. The federal government must respond before December. On the same day as the announcement, Liberal members of Parliament voted against a bill that would have permanently excluded euthanasia for mental illness.
