Opinion | Andrew Phillips: Too many uncertainties remain around MAID and mental disorders - Toronto Star
Many disagree, but I think the government is right to prevent people with mental disorders from accessing MAID. There are too many uncertainties involved
Medically assisted suicide is one area where there’s no need for Ottawa to rush, writes Andrew Phillips. “The government shouldn’t force it through on an artificial deadline. It should take the time and get it absolutely right.”
Andrew Phillips is a Toronto-based staff columnist for the Star’s Opinion page. Reach him via email: aphillips@thestar.ca
There are some things you just have to get done quickly, and there are others where you should take the time you need to get it right.
The key is knowing which is which. But when it comes to the thorny issues involved in medical assistance in dying, or MAID, the federal government is showing it doesn’t know, or care, about the difference.
On one issue — whether people whose sole medical condition is mental illness should be eligible for assisted dying — the government has to act quickly. There’s a hard deadline — next March 17, just over 20 weeks away — to get legislation all the way through the parliamentary process in order to stop that from becoming legal.
Many disagree, but I think the government is right to prevent people with mental disorders from accessing MAID. There are too many uncertainties involved; there’s too much evidence that mental illnesses can’t reliably be diagnosed as “irremediable,” as the law requires.
In any case, that issue has been extensively debated — including by two parliamentary committees that recommended the course the government is taking. It’s time to get on with it and make sure the law is fixed before March 17.
But the government didn’t leave it there. In the same bill it introduced to deal with the deadline on mental illness, C-41, it included a completely separate issue: advance requests for MAID.
The bill, tabled by Justice Minister Sean Fraser Tuesday, also seeks to update the reporting requirements health care professionals.
