Liberals table bill to bar access to MAID for mental illness, allow advance requests

OTTAWA — Justice Minister Sean Fraser on Tuesday introduced a bill to amend Canada’s medical assistance in dying law to allow people to make advance requests and bar access for those suffering solely from a mental illness.

Bill C-41 would amend the Criminal Code to allow people to make advance requests to access MAID, though it would be up to provinces to decide whether to fulfil those requests through their own health systems and to enact legislation.

Advance requests allow a person who suffers from a degenerative condition, such as dementia or ALS, to ask that an assisted death be carried out once they no longer have the capacity to consent.

“For Canadians facing an incurable illness and living with intolerable suffering, medical assistance in dying (MAID) is a complex and deeply personal choice,” the government said in a press release.

“The decision to request MAID must remain theirs, be voluntary, free from external pressure, and remain protected by rigorous safeguards.”

Bill C-41 also would stop a scheduled expansion of MAID access to those suffering solely from a mental illness.

“When it comes to MAID, serious concerns remain about whether these cases can be assessed safely and consistently,” the press release said.

The government has repeatedly pushed back the date when mental illness could become a qualifying factor for an assisted death and asked a special parliamentary committee to study the issue.

That committee concluded in June that people suffering solely from a mental illness should be indefinitely excluded from accessing MAID.

Bill C-41 will need to pass the House of Commons and the Senate before March 17 — the date on which the law states people with a mental illness as their sole underlying condition become eligible for MAID.

The bill outlines safeguards for advance requests — including a requirement that two independent medical or nurse practitioners agree the person meets the criteria.

It also says the procedure will not be administered “if the person demonstrates, by words, sounds or gestures, refusal or resistance to have the substance administered to them.”

The legislation says if the person demonstrates such refusal or resistance, “medical assistance in dying can no longer be provided to them on the basis of that request.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 27, 2026.

— With files from Hannah Alberga in Toronto and Catherine Morrison in Ottawa