People living with mental illness “are discriminated against” in Canada as they are unable to avail of euthanasia laws first introduced there in 2016.

That's according to retired Canadian senator Jim Cowan who told The Hard Shoulder this week that those living with an “insufferable” mental illness should be allowed to avail of assisted dying if they so wish.

More than 13,000 people were assisted to die in Canada in 2022, 4% of all deaths in the country that year.

It follows a recommendation by the Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying last week that euthanasia be legalised in Ireland under certain circumstances and is now in the hands of Government to legislate.

That would apply to those given six months to live, such as in certain cancer diagnoses, or 12 months when it’s a neurodegenerative condition, like motor neuron disease.

'Reasonably foreseeable'

Mr Cowan said in Canada euthanasia was first introduced for those whose death is “reasonably foreseeable” as a result of certain conditions.

“You have to have what is called a grievous and irremediable condition and that is a serious illness or disease or disability,” he said.

“You have to be in an advanced stage of decline and most importantly, you have to be suffering intolerably in a way that is not acceptable to you and can’t be relieved under any treatment or conditions which are acceptable to you.

“Then there are safeguards in space; a person has to make a written request and then they have to be assessed by two independent medical professionals, clinicians, who have to agree that the person meets the criteria.”

The ‘reasonably foreseeable’ criteria were removed from euthanasia law in Canada in 2021.

Subjective

Mr Cowan, a board member of Dying With Dignity Canada, said the definition of intolerable suffering is subjective to the individual.

“It’s subjective in the sense that it is in the eyes of the individual and not in the eyes of the assessor as to whether the condition and the suffering is intolerable,” he said.

“It’s intolerable in the eyes of the patient, the person.”

Mental illness

Mr Cowan said the Canadian Government has now delayed legalising assisted dying for those with mental illness until 2027.

“To my mind, that’s discriminatory,” he said.

“I can’t speak for your country, but certainly in Canada, there has been a stigma attached to mental illness and people have been discriminated against because of their mental illness for years.

“It’s ironic I think that in the year 2024, we’re making that problem worse and extending it so that suffering, which is caused by mental illness, doesn’t afford you the same rights if your illness is physical in God’s nation.”

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Main image: A sick man lies in a hospital bed. Image: Shutterstock