Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) for Mental Health

This program contains 1 hour and 15 minutes of EDI Professionalism Content (Law Society of Ontario, accredited EDI).
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Since legalizing Medical Assistance in Dying or MAiD in 2016, Canada has joined a handful of countries with an extensive MAiD practice. Health Canada reports that in 2022 there were 13,241 instances of MAiD or 4.1% of all deaths in this country, making Canada the country with the highest number of MAiD cases, and the most rapidly growing nation for assisted death.
When the law was expanded in 2021, it legalized MAiD for persons with a chronic illness or disability who are not approaching their natural death. The law also introduced mental illness as a basis for MAiD but a sunset clause suspended this form of MAiD until March 2024. Last week, following joint parliamentary committee hearings on Canada’s readiness to introduce MAiD for mental illness, the government agreed to a temporary halt.
So, what will happen next? Should MAiD be offered as a form of treatment for mental illness within our mental health care system, now or in the future? What are the legal, ethical, and policy arguments for continuing to prohibit it or for introducing it? How has Canada’s practice developed, and what are the implications?
Engage with a thoughtful panel discussion on MAiD, including U of T experts who gave expert testimony to parliament's special joint committee.
Professor Trudo Lemmens, Scholl Chair in Health Law and Policy, University of Toronto Faculty of Law
Dr. K. Sonu Gaind, a professor in U of T's Temerty Faculty of Medicine and Chief of Psychiatry at Sunnybrook Hospital
Kerri Joffe, human rights lawyer, ARCH Disability Law Centre
Orlando Da Silva (JD 1993), Mental Health Advocate
Georgia Vrakas, a professor in the Department of Psychoeducation at Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (virtual)
Chaired by Professor Anna Su, U of T's Faculty of Law
This livestream is part of Building Knowledge: The Jackman Series