Medical Assistance in Dying Safeguards Act
Allows doctors and nurse practitioners to provide medical assistance in dying to a person who has lost the capacity to consent, if that person made an advance request while capable and the province has a legislative regime for storing and managing those requests. Keeps mental illness excluded as a basis for eligibility for medical assistance in dying.
Sponsor · Hon. Sean Fraser
People with a serious, incurable illness could arrange in advance to receive medical assistance in dying if they later lose the ability to decide, but only in provinces with a storage regime for these requests. Those whose only underlying condition is a mental illness would still not be eligible.
The debate · 6 points
Supporters say
- Allowing adults with an incurable illness to request medical assistance in dying in advance would let them make decisions about their care while they can still make them, subject to strict safeguards.
- The two measures in the bill are linked. The rule that mental illness alone cannot be the basis for an advance request is part of the same framework, so keeping them together makes the system consistent.
- The bill deals with one subject, medical assistance in dying, and amends only the Criminal Code and related laws. A single vote at second reading is therefore appropriate.
Critics say
- Stopping medical assistance in dying for mental illness alone and allowing advance requests are separate policy questions. MPs should be able to vote on each one separately.
- A single vote forces MPs who support one measure but oppose the other into an all-or-nothing choice.
- Because the subject touches deeply held personal and moral convictions, critics argue the bill deserves special treatment in the process, as earlier medical assistance in dying laws received.
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