Inclusion groups sign open letter calling on Ottawa to halt MAID for mental illness

OTTAWA — Inclusion Canada and dozens of other disability and mental health organizations are calling on Ottawa to call off a planned expansion of access to medical assistance in dying next year.

People whose sole underlying condition is a mental illness are not eligible for medical assistance in dying.

A parliamentary committee of MPs and senators has been studying whether Canada is prepared for that exclusion to end next March.

Now, 90 organizations have penned an open letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney, Health Minister Marjorie Michel and Justice Minister Sean Fraser.