MAID for Mental Illness: Why Canada Said No in 2026

Can people with mental illness get MAID in Canada?

"I open my eyes every morning and I feel immediate dread and anxiety." Claire Brosseau told the BBC this in May 2026 (BBC).

Brosseau is 49 and lives in Toronto. She has acted in films and plays. She has done stand-up comedy around the world. Since she was young, she has lived with bipolar 1 disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Psychiatrists in four cities have treated her over three decades. She says she has tried therapy, medicines and electric treatment to the brain. She says nothing has worked.

On 4 May 2026, she stood outside a Toronto court. She was asking a judge to let her apply for medical assistance in dying (MAID). "I have been asked again and again to be patient," she said. "I was patient for years." (CBC)

On 3 September, Justice Carissima Mathen said no. She accepted that Brosseau had shown serious harm. But she also pointed to "Parliament's role to make policy decisions on sensitive social issues" (Globe and Mail).

Five weeks later, on 7 October, the government gave its answer. Justice Minister Sean Fraser said the government will not open MAID to people whose only condition is a mental illness. "These are not easy decisions but we believe they will be the correct ones," he said (BBC).

So here is the short answer for today, 11 October 2026:

• Not now. People whose only condition is a mental illness cannot get MAID in Canada.
• The written law has not changed yet. It still names 17 March 2027 as the start date.
• A new bill is promised this fall. It would delay that date with no end date (CBC).
• The courts are still involved. Brosseau's challenge under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms continues.

Brosseau's pain is real. Her case also asks one of the hardest questions in medicine. Can a doctor ever be sure that a mental illness will not get better? Careful doctors, patients and families give different answers.

Assisted dying is a regulated medical process for assessed, eligible patients in some places. It is not a response to suicidal feelings.

How did Canada get here?

Canada made MAID legal in 2016, after the Supreme Court's ruling in Carter v. Canada. At first, a person's death had to be "reasonably foreseeable".

In 2019, a Quebec court struck down that rule. In March 2021, Bill C-7 removed it. The same law said people with mental illness alone would become eligible in March 2023.

That date was then delayed twice: first to 2024, then to March 2027 (CBC).

In June 2026, a special committee of MPs and senators gave its answer. A majority said Canada should "indefinitely exclude persons whose sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness". It also spoke of a "pressing need" for better mental health care (BBC). Some members disagreed and wrote a dissent.

Fraser gave two reasons for the October decision. First, many people live where mental health services are hard to reach. Second, experts do not agree on when a mental illness is truly incurable.

Where is euthanasia for mental illness legal?

The best-known examples are Belgium and the Netherlands. Both passed their laws in 2002. Neither law requires a terminal illness. Luxembourg also allows it (BBC).

Belgium. The 2002 Act on Euthanasia covers "constant and unbearable physical or mental suffering that can not be alleviated" (Act, English translation). The suffering must come from a serious and incurable disorder. That can be a psychiatric illness alone.

In 2025, Belgium's federal commission reviewed 4,486 cases. Psychiatric conditions were 1.6% of them, up from 1.4% in 2024 (Belgian health ministry; WFRtDS summary).

The Netherlands. The Termination of Life on Request and Assisted Suicide (Review Procedures) Act covers suffering with a medical cause. That includes psychiatric disorders. The doctor must be sure the suffering is "unbearable, with no prospect of improvement" (Government of the Netherlands).

In 2025, Dutch review committees received 10,341 reports. 174 were for psychiatric conditions. That is about 21% fewer than in 2024 (RTE key figures 2025).

Young adults are a special worry. Dutch psychiatric cases in people under 30 rose from 11 in 2022 to 30 in 2024. They fell to 19 in 2025 (RTE). There were no psychiatric cases in minors in 2025. Our euthanasia statistics page has the wider figures for each country.

Who asks? A Belgian study followed 100 people who asked for euthanasia because of psychiatric suffering. 77 were women. Their average age was 47. The most common diagnoses were depression (58 people) and personality disorders (50 people). Most had more than one condition (Thienpont et al., BMJ Open 2015).

Why is mental illness treated differently from cancer?

With late-stage cancer, doctors can usually see where the illness is going. Scans, blood tests and years of data help them. Their forecast is not perfect, but it is often close.

Mental illness is harder to forecast. Think of the weather. A forecast for tomorrow is fairly reliable. A forecast for a day next year is not. Many psychiatric illnesses change over years. They can shift with life events, respond to a new treatment, or go into remission. Remission means the symptoms fade, sometimes for good.

There is a second, deeper problem. The illness can affect the very judgment being tested.

The novelist William Styron lived through severe depression. In his memoir Darkness Visible he wrote: "In depression this faith in deliverance, in ultimate restoration, is absent" (Wikiquote).

Here is a simple way to picture it. Depression can bend the ruler you use to measure your own future. When the ruler is bent, the future looks shorter and darker than it may really be. And the person holding the ruler often cannot see the bend.

So doctors face a hard task. They must tell apart a settled, well-considered wish and a wish that is a symptom of the illness. Critics say no test can do this reliably. Supporters say careful, repeated checks over a long time can. Our page on euthanasia ethics sets out the wider arguments on both sides.

Ask yourself: if you were the second psychiatrist, what would you need to see before you felt sure?

What do supporters of psychiatric MAID argue?

Suffering is suffering. Supporters say mental pain can be as severe as physical pain. Brosseau puts it plainly: "If I get cancer tomorrow, I can refuse treatment and be eligible for MAID" (BBC). To her, the difference is stigma. "I'm not campaigning for death," she said. "I'm campaigning to be seen as not a subsection of human." (BBC)

Autonomy. Autonomy is the right of a capable adult to make decisions about their own care. Supporters say this right should not disappear because the illness is in the mind.

Honesty about limits. Some people do not respond to any treatment available today. Supporters say medicine should admit this.

Very few would qualify. Dying With Dignity Canada expects "a very small number" of people would be eligible. "Their suffering is no less real," said its CEO, Helen Long (BBC).

What do critics worry about?

Recovery is hard to rule out. Dr Jitender Sareen leads psychiatry at the University of Manitoba. He told the committee: "Individuals can remain severely ill for long periods and still improve" (CBC).

Care gaps, not just illness. Poor care, unstable housing and money worries can make people lose hope. Disability advocates say Canada should fix these first. "We are investing in ending people's lives," said Krista Carr of Inclusion Canada, rather than in giving them a better quality of life (BBC).

The system is not ready. Dr Sonu Gaind is a former chief of psychiatry at a Toronto hospital. He told the 2026 committee that "we are not ready to provide MAID for mental illness" (BBC).

Ask yourself: what would a fair system have to offer first, before this question is even asked?

How many people withdraw their requests?

Many people who ask do not go ahead. This fact matters to both sides.

• Young people in the Netherlands. A study looked at 397 requests from 353 people under 24, made between 2012 and mid-2021. Only 3% were granted. 45% were refused. And 47% were withdrawn or stopped (Schweren et al., JAMA Psychiatry 2025).
• Belgium. In the study of 100 patients, 48 requests were accepted. Of those, 8 people chose to postpone or cancel (Thienpont et al.).

Supporters read this as proof that the process works. It gives people time, care and a chance to reconsider. Critics read it as a warning. Many requests may come from a period of crisis, not a lasting wish.

Either way, a request is often not the final word. Many people who ask later step back.

What safeguards apply in Belgium and the Netherlands?

Both countries add extra steps when the suffering comes from a mental illness.

• Belgium: a psychiatrist or specialist. When death is clearly not expected soon, the doctor must also consult a psychiatrist or a specialist in the disorder. That doctor reads the records and examines the patient.
• Belgium: a waiting period. At least one month must pass between the patient's written request and euthanasia (Belgian Act).
• Netherlands: an independent psychiatrist. The review committees say that, in principle, an independent psychiatrist must be consulted. That psychiatrist checks the diagnosis. They also check that the request is voluntary and well considered, and that no reasonable alternative is left (Euthanasia Code 2026).
• No reasonable alternative. If a patient refuses a reasonable treatment, the suffering does not count as having "no prospect of improvement". But patients do not have to try every possible treatment.
• Review after every case. Belgium's Federal Commission for the Control and Evaluation of Euthanasia and the Dutch Regional Euthanasia Review Committees check each reported case.

What happens next in Canada?

Three things are still moving.

1. The new bill. The government says it will introduce it this fall. It would delay MAID for mental illness alone with no end date. It would also allow advance requests for people with incurable illnesses that will later take away their capacity. Provinces would decide on that part (BBC).
2. The court case. Brosseau and Dying With Dignity Canada argue the exclusion breaks the Charter. Her lawyer, Michael Fenrick, expects a long legal fight. Fraser said the Supreme Court may decide the question one day (BBC).
3. The politics. On 7 October, MPs voted down a Conservative bill, C-218, by 187 to 141. It would also have blocked MAID for mental illness alone. Fraser said its wording was too broad (CBC).

The debate is not over. But it has forced clearer thinking about capacity, about what "incurable" means, and about when medicine has truly done enough.

If this topic feels personal, where can you turn?

Maybe you are reading this because you feel the way Brosseau describes. If so, thank you for reading this far. Please hear this clearly: assisted dying is not meant as an answer to suicidal feelings.

Depression and other mental illnesses can get better. The World Health Organization says "there is effective treatment for mild, moderate and severe depression" (WHO). Often it takes more than one try to find what works.

Styron recovered. He wrote that people who have recovered from depression "are countless", and that depression "is conquerable" (Wikiquote). The numbers agree. About 9 in 10 people who survive a suicide attempt do not later die by suicide (Harvard Means Matter).

One small step for tonight: tell one person how you really feel. It can be a friend, a doctor or a helpline.

• In danger right now? Call your local emergency number (911 in the US and Canada, 999 or 112 in the UK).
• Any country: findahelpline.com lists free, private helplines in more than 175 countries.
• US: call or text 988.
• UK and Ireland: Samaritans 116 123.
• Canada: call or text 9-8-8, the Suicide Crisis Helpline.
• Australia: Lifeline 13 11 14.
• Your country's lines: our help page shows the lines where you live.

More options are on our help page. You do not have to face this alone.