After approving physician-assisted suicide for the terminally and chronically ill, Canadian officials announced the government would delay its decision to extend the voluntary euthanasia program to mentally ill people who are not dying.
Health Minister Mark Holland and Justice Minister Arif Virani confirmed there is a shortage of doctors, especially psychiatrists, who can adequately evaluate individuals with mental health issues. As a result, Fox News reports, the program has been delayed. A special parliamentary committee has been formed to investigate the matter:
“The system needs to be ready, and we need to get it right,” Holland told reporters. “It’s clear from the conversations we’ve had that the system is not ready, and we need more time.”
“Although the curriculum is present, although the guidelines are set, there has not been enough time for people to be trained on them, and provinces and territories are saying their systems are not ready and need more time,” he added.
The officials did not provide a timeline for the changes, although the expansion had been previously scheduled to go into effect on March 17.
One group in favor of medical assistance in dying, “Dying with Dignity Canada,” issued a statement in reaction to the news, urging the Canadian government to provide clarity on their plan of action.
“For the people across the country who live with treatment-resistant mental disorders who have patiently waited for this change in Canada’s MAID law, Dying With Dignity Canada is disheartened and shares the frustration of the continued exclusion, stigmatization and discrimination based on diagnosis,” the group pleaded.
Canada legalized doctor-assisted suicide after a 2015 Supreme Court ruling declared that forcing people to cope with intolerable suffering violated their human rights. Under new guidelines adopted in 2021, anyone in Canada deemed to have a “grievous and irremediable” condition, including depression, could apply for assisted suicide.
Through the program, the Canadian government euthanized 13,000 of its citizens in 2022.
One conservative lawmaker in Ottawa has charged the liberal government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with promoting “a culture of death.”
“Have we gone too far and too fast with Canada’s assisted suicide program?” MP Ed Fast rhetorically asked. “Will we evolve into a culture of death as the preferred option for those who suffer from mental illness, or will we choose life?”
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