Medical Assistance in Dying (mental illness eligibility) Act (43-2)

Bill C-7 (S.C. 2021, c. 2) amended the Criminal Code to broaden medical assistance in dying (MAID), receiving royal assent on March 17, 2021. It responded to the Quebec Superior Court's 2019 Truchon decision, which struck down the requirement that a person's natural death be reasonably foreseeable. The Act created two sets of safeguards: one for people whose death is reasonably foreseeable and a more rigorous one for those whose death is not. It initially excluded people whose sole underlying condition is a mental illness, with a temporary exclusion meant to expire after 24 months. That mental-illness eligibility has since been deferred repeatedly, most recently to March 2027 by Bill C-62 in 2024, amid disagreement among MPs of every party and concern from psychiatric and disability groups. It remains one of the most morally contested statutes of the past decade.