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MAiD practitioner upset that it hasn't been expanded for mental illness
A doctor who became one of the first to commit euthanasia in Canada has written an op-ed complaining that medical assistance in dying (MAiD) will not be expanded in 2027 to include people whose sole diagnosis is mental illness.
Canada had been set to expand MAiD to include mental illness as a sole diagnosis in 2027.
Justice Minister Sean Fraser announced earlier this month that the government will not move forward with this plan, though a bill to permanently block MAiD for mental illness alone was defeated.
Jean Marmoreo, a family physician who became one of the first doctors to commit euthanasia after legalization in 2016, objected, saying that people with mental illness should be eligible for MAiD.
Canada originally legalized MAID in 2016, and quickly reached the fastest-growing rate of assisted suicide and euthanasia in the world. People are reportedly killed in the country for non-medical reasons already, like loneliness, poverty, disability, and an inability to access health care services.
After just 10 years, the country is already on track to reach 100,000 deaths from MAiD. And though there have been numerous controversies and concerns, the government had planned to expand MAiD in 2027 to allow mental illness as the sole diagnosis required for approval to die.
MP Tamara Jansen introduced Bill C-218 in 2025, which would have barred mental illness as sole eligibility, but that bill was voted down in parliament this month. However, in a press conference, Justice Minister Sean Fraser and Health Minister Marjorie Michel announced the planned expansion would no longer take place. Fraser said:
Canada has made a decision not to move forward with the expansion that is scheduled in the Criminal Code of medical assistance in dying in circumstances where mental illness is the sole basis.
This decision reflects the conclusion and recommendations of the recent special committee that was established as between the House of Commons and the Senate, who recommended that we move forward in this direction.
In an op-ed for the Globe and Mail, Jean Marmoreo slammed the government's decision not to expand MAiD to include mental illness. Marmoreo, by her own admission, was one of the first doctors to begin committing euthanasia when it was legalized in 2016.
To Marmoreo, the cancellation is "politically driven cowardice in the face of controversy surrounding an individual’s Charter rights of bodily autonomy." Instead, she argued that people with mental illness should be eligible for MAiD.
"I’m not talking about our newly heightened sensitivity to many mental-health issues that afflict millions of Canadians, such as social anxiety, isolation, anomie of purpose and meaning," she said. "We all carry a little mental illness from time to time."
The difference, according to Marmoreo, is that the program would be careful, even though the current MAiD practices have proven otherwise; people can be (and have been) euthanized without any of the caution she promises would be exercised in this instance. She stated:
With MAID, the threshold of eligibility would be a diagnosed mental disorder, assessed by many psychiatrists. The confirmation of grievous and irremediable suffering would follow only after every reasonable treatment has failed, exactly as we already require for cancer, ALS or end-stage heart failure.
I have often consulted psychiatrists about patients with treatment-resistant depression – in addition to their physical disease – in the same way I consult oncologists on their prognosis for a cancer patient.
Marmoreo said mental illness should be treated the same as cancer, even though mental illness can fundamentally alter someone's ability to consent to being killed:
Ottawa is also telling a patient with treatment-resistant depression or complex PTSD that their agony is less credible than another person’s cancer. All this simply because their illness resides in the brain.
Anyone who believes that the pain of mental illness is less terrible than the pain of cancer hasn’t experienced the helplessness of sitting with a family in the face of their child or loved one’s severe depression.
Marmoreo then claimed that MAiD should be legal for mental illness, because otherwise, sufferers might... commit suicide. The sole difference to her is that MAiD is more "humane" and has "safeguards and support."
So ultimately, Marmoreo is arguing that society should not prevent the suicides of people with mental illness, but simply make them more palatable.
It is not compassionate to agree with someone suffering from depression and say their life is not worth living. People with suicidal ideation need treatment and help, not someone willing to help them die.
Live Action News is pro-life news and commentary from a pro-life perspective.
Our work is possible because of our donors. Please consider giving to further our work of changing hearts and minds on issues of life and human dignity.
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·MAiD practitioner upset that it hasn't been expanded for mental illness
A doctor who became one of the first to commit euthanasia in Canada has written an op-ed complaining that medical assistance in dying (MAiD) will not be expanded in 2027 to include people whose sole diagnosis is mental illness.
Canada had been set to expand MAiD to include mental illness as a sole diagnosis in 2027.
Justice Minister Sean Fraser announced earlier this month that the government will not move forward with this plan, though a bill to permanently block MAiD for mental illness alone was defeated.
Jean Marmoreo, a family physician who became one of the first doctors to commit euthanasia after legalization in 2016, objected, saying that people with mental illness should be eligible for MAiD.
Canada originally legalized MAID in 2016, and quickly reached the fastest-growing rate of assisted suicide and euthanasia in the world. People are reportedly killed in the country for non-medical reasons already, like loneliness, poverty, disability, and an inability to access health care services.
After just 10 years, the country is already on track to reach 100,000 deaths from MAiD. And though there have been numerous controversies and concerns, the government had planned to expand MAiD in 2027 to allow mental illness as the sole diagnosis required for approval to die.
MP Tamara Jansen introduced Bill C-218 in 2025, which would have barred mental illness as sole eligibility, but that bill was voted down in parliament this month. However, in a press conference, Justice Minister Sean Fraser and Health Minister Marjorie Michel announced the planned expansion would no longer take place. Fraser said:
Canada has made a decision not to move forward with the expansion that is scheduled in the Criminal Code of medical assistance in dying in circumstances where mental illness is the sole basis.
This decision reflects the conclusion and recommendations of the recent special committee that was established as between the House of Commons and the Senate, who recommended that we move forward in this direction.
In an op-ed for the Globe and Mail, Jean Marmoreo slammed the government's decision not to expand MAiD to include mental illness. Marmoreo, by her own admission, was one of the first doctors to begin committing euthanasia when it was legalized in 2016.
To Marmoreo, the cancellation is "politically driven cowardice in the face of controversy surrounding an individual’s Charter rights of bodily autonomy." Instead, she argued that people with mental illness should be eligible for MAiD.
"I’m not talking about our newly heightened sensitivity to many mental-health issues that afflict millions of Canadians, such as social anxiety, isolation, anomie of purpose and meaning," she said. "We all carry a little mental illness from time to time."
The difference, according to Marmoreo, is that the program would be careful, even though the current MAiD practices have proven otherwise; people can be (and have been) euthanized without any of the caution she promises would be exercised in this instance. She stated:
With MAID, the threshold of eligibility would be a diagnosed mental disorder, assessed by many psychiatrists. The confirmation of grievous and irremediable suffering would follow only after every reasonable treatment has failed, exactly as we already require for cancer, ALS or end-stage heart failure.
I have often consulted psychiatrists about patients with treatment-resistant depression – in addition to their physical disease – in the same way I consult oncologists on their prognosis for a cancer patient.
Marmoreo said mental illness should be treated the same as cancer, even though mental illness can fundamentally alter someone's ability to consent to being killed:
Ottawa is also telling a patient with treatment-resistant depression or complex PTSD that their agony is less credible than another person’s cancer. All this simply because their illness resides in the brain.
Anyone who believes that the pain of mental illness is less terrible than the pain of cancer hasn’t experienced the helplessness of sitting with a family in the face of their child or loved one’s severe depression.
Marmoreo then claimed that MAiD should be legal for mental illness, because otherwise, sufferers might... commit suicide. The sole difference to her is that MAiD is more "humane" and has "safeguards and support."
So ultimately, Marmoreo is arguing that society should not prevent the suicides of people with mental illness, but simply make them more palatable.
It is not compassionate to agree with someone suffering from depression and say their life is not worth living. People with suicidal ideation need treatment and help, not someone willing to help them die.
Live Action News is pro-life news and commentary from a pro-life perspective.
Our work is possible because of our donors. Please consider giving to further our work of changing hearts and minds on issues of life and human dignity.
Contact editor@liveaction.org for questions, corrections, or if you are seeking permission to reprint any Live Action News content.
Guest Articles: To submit a guest article to Live Action News, email editor@liveaction.org with an attached Word document of 800-1000 words. Please also attach any photos relevant to your submission if applicable. If your submission is accepted for publication, you will be notified within three weeks. Guest articles are not compensated (see our Open License Agreement). Thank you for your interest in Live Action News!
Carole Novielli
·Guest Column
Right to Life UK
·Issues
Nancy Flanders
·Issues
Bridget Sielicki
·Issues
Nancy Flanders
·International
Nancy Flanders
·International
Cassy Cooke
·Human Interest
Cassy Cooke
·International
Cassy Cooke
·International
Cassy Cooke
·International
Cassy Cooke
·