CNA Staff, Feb 2, 2024 / 14:30 pm
The Canadian government will postpone until 2027 plans to expand its assisted suicide program to include those suffering from mental illness after a parliamentary report said the country’s health system is “not ready.”
Canada first legalized assisted suicide in June 2016 for adults suffering from irreversibly deadly illnesses. In 2021, the government said it would wait an additional two years to extend those services to citizens suffering from mental illness to “study how MAID [medical assistance in dying] on the basis of a mental illness can safely be provided.”
The government last year extended that delay by another year. Canadians suffering from mental illnesses were expected to be able to apply for assisted suicide by mid-March 2024.
On Thursday the government announced that the extension would be delayed until 2027, stating that the government-run health system “is not yet ready for this expansion.”