Canada's exclusion of mental illness from assisted death challenged in court

[August 20, 2024]  By Anna Mehler Paperny

TORONTO (Reuters) - Two individual plaintiffs and an advocacy group are taking Canada to court over its exclusion of mental illness from its assisted death framework, arguing the exclusion violates their rights.

Medically assisted death is legal in Canada under certain circumstances, but people whose sole underlying medical condition is mental illness are excluded.

The exclusion was set to expire in early 2023 but has since been extended twice, most recently until 2027. The Liberal government justified the extension by arguing the system was not ready to provide assisted death to people suffering solely from a mental disorder.

Some critics and health professionals have argued it is too difficult to know when a mental illness is truly incurable for it to be eligible for assisted death. Some disability advocates have also argued it has become easier to access a dignified death than the resources or interventions that would make life bearable.

But advocates and some people with severe mental illness argue their suffering is real, serious and debilitating, and excluding them from eligibility for assisted death prolongs that suffering unnecessarily.

"There is no constitutional justification for the prolongation of the enduring and intolerable suffering of those Canadians who are eligible for (assisted death) but for the Mental Illness Exclusion," reads a notice of application, filed in court Monday.

The two individuals named in the challenge each have grievous and irremediable conditions and would be eligible for assisted death were mental illness as a sole underlying condition not excluded, according to legal documents.

The challenge alleges the exclusion violates severely mentally ill Canadians' rights to equality and to life, liberty and security of the person. It argues the exclusion is also "in part predicated on stigmatizing and prejudicial stereotypes."

Canada's Health Minister's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny; Editing by Stephen Coates)

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