{"id":32518,"date":"2025-07-02T12:01:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T12:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/32518\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T12:01:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T12:01:08","slug":"canadian-politician-introduces-bill-to-stop-medical-assistance-in-dying-expansion-for-mental-illness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/32518\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian politician introduces bill to stop medical assistance in dying expansion for mental illness"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n \"The
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

By The B.C. Catholic<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

Vancouver, Canada, Jul 2, 2025 \/
\n 06:00 am<\/p>\n

Canadian member of Parliament (MP) from Cloverdale-Langley City in British Columbia, Tamara Jansen, has introduced a private member\u2019s bill to stop the expansion of medical assistance in dying (MAID) for mental illness alone.<\/p>\n

Jansen\u2019s Bill C-218 would amend the criminal code to prevent mental disorders from being considered a \u201cgrievous and irremediable medical condition\u201d for the purposes of MAID.<\/p>\n

The bill was read a first time in the House of Commons on June 20 and is scheduled for second reading at the next sitting of the House.<\/p>\n

Speaking in the House<\/a>, Jansen said: \u201cImagine your son or daughter battling depression for some time, after losing a job or maybe a broken relationship. Imagine they feel the loss so deep that they\u2019re convinced the world would be better off without them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starting March 27, 2027, such Canadians \u201ccould walk into a doctor\u2019s office and ask them to end their life,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not a future scenario, that\u2019s the law right now waiting to take effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Justin Trudeau government delayed expansion until 2024 and again until March 17, 2027, over concerns from medical and legal experts.<\/p>\n

\u201cClinical experts have warned that there\u2019s no evidence-based way to determine if someone with a mental illness would get better, and most do,\u201d Jansen said. \u201cBut still the government is moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jansen said the proposed law sends a message to \u201cstruggling Canadians, trauma survivors, those battling depression, schizophrenia, PTSD\u201d that \u201cdeath is a solution we\u2019re now willing to offer\u201d in response to suffering.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not health care. That\u2019s not compassion. It\u2019s abandonment.\u201d<\/p>\n

She told MPs: \u201cMental illness is treatable. Recovery is possible, but only if we show up and help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jansen\u2019s bill is similar to 2023 legislation that was narrowly defeated in Parliament but delayed implementation of the federal law.<\/p>\n

Conservative MP Ed Fast of Abbotsford, British Columbia, introduced Bill C-314, which would have stopped the expansion of Canada\u2019s euthanasia regime. It was defeated at second reading on Oct. 18, 2023, by a 167-150 vote.<\/p>\n

Fast gathered cross-party support for his legislation, with all 24 New Democratic Party (NDP) members voting in favor of his bill and eight members of the Liberal Party breaking ranks from their colleagues. The Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois held the balance of power on the vote, as each of its members voted against the Abbotsford, British Columbia, representative\u2019s endeavor.<\/p>\n

During the oral question period preceding the vote, Fast condemned reports \u201cof Canadians crying out for help and being offered assisted suicide instead.\u201d<\/p>\n

He attacked \u201cthe sorry state of our mental health system,\u201d saying: \u201cMillions of Canadians oppose the government\u2019s fascination with assisted death.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Story continues below)<\/b><\/p>\n

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A Christian political advocacy group praised Jansen\u2019s bill and called on MPs to support it regardless of party.<\/p>\n

\u201cCanada can never be ready to offer MAID for mental illness,\u201d said Daniel Zekveld, a policy analyst with the Association for Reformed Political Action Canada. \u201cDoing so would undermine suicide prevention efforts and mental health care. Canada cannot promote suicide prevention while at the same time offering suicide assistance as a solution for mental illness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zekveld said: \u201cSince Parliament\u2019s last delay of the mental illness expansion, we\u2019ve seen more stories of people who are suffering and unable to access necessary supports and care being offered MAID.\u201d<\/p>\n

Offering euthanasia to people for mental illness implies \u201cthere is no hope of recovery and normalizes suicide as a solution for suffering,\u201d Zekveld said. \u201cBut psychiatrists tell us they cannot reliably diagnose mental illness as irremediable. Canadians with mental illness need hope and support, not euthanasia or assisted suicide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition said if Bill C-218 is to pass, politicians need to hear from Canadians. He is asking people to send their mental health stories and share what would have happened had MAID been available at the time. Stories can be sent to info@epcc.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This story was first published<\/a> by The B. C. Catholic and is reprinted here with permission.<\/p>\n


\n \"The
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

The B.C. Catholic is the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By The B.C. Catholic Vancouver, Canada, Jul 2, 2025 \/ 06:00 am Canadian member of Parliament (MP) from…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":32519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[3992,2147,17159,210,27320,27321,517,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-32518","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-americas","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-catholic-news","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-maid","13":"tag-medical-aid-in-dying","14":"tag-mental-health","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114783537402638849","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}