Summary#

Bill C-218, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (medical assistance in dying), proposes to amend the Criminal Code. Its stated goal is to protect vulnerable people and prioritize mental-health supports and suicide-prevention counselling.

• The bill would say that a mental disorder is not a “grievous and irremediable medical condition” for the purpose of the Criminal Code’s MAID eligibility rules.
• This would exclude a mental disorder as the medical condition qualifying a person for MAID. The bill does not say that everyone with a mental disorder is barred if another condition is the basis for eligibility.
• It includes coordinating rules for how this change would fit with a 2021 Act amending the Criminal Code.

What it means for you#

• People seeking MAID: If a mental disorder is the condition they rely on to meet the “grievous and irremediable” requirement, the proposed exclusion would mean it cannot qualify on that basis.
• People with a mental disorder and another medical condition: The bill does not directly say how the exclusion would apply when another condition is involved. It does not amend the other eligibility rules in the supplied text.
• Clinicians and the public: The bill creates no new service, application process, review process, or enforcement power in the supplied text.
• Current law: This is proposed legislation, not proof of a change already in force. The Criminal Code provisions it would amend were not supplied, so the change from current law cannot be verified here.

Money#

No cost information is in the available material.

• The bill specifies no spending, staffing, tax, fee, or fine.

What is unclear#

• The supplied text does not give a start date.
• It does not define “mental disorder.”
• It does not explain how the exclusion would apply when a person has both a mental disorder and another medical condition.
• The coordinating rules address timing with the 2021 Act, but the 2021 Act and current Criminal Code provisions were not supplied, so their effect in context cannot be verified.

Case for#

• The bill appears intended to ensure that a mental disorder alone cannot qualify someone for MAID under this part of the Criminal Code.
• Its preamble says Parliament considers mental-health supports and suicide-prevention counselling a priority for vulnerable Canadians.
• A possible argument for the exclusion is that it sets a clear legal boundary while those supports are the stated priority.

Case against#

• The exclusion is categorical: it does not set out a way to consider individual circumstances when a mental disorder is the condition relied on.
• The bill does not explain how the exclusion would work alongside another medical condition or define the term “mental disorder.”
• The supplied text does not show what mental-health supports or suicide-prevention services would be available instead.