A retired paramedic who has lived with severe mental illness for more than 50 years has condemned Canada’s decision to prevent people with psychiatric conditions from accessing medical assistance in dying.
Lisa Marr, of Nova Scotia, told CTV News that the decision felt like a “stab in the back.” She said she has spent most of her life coping with debilitating mental health conditions despite extensive psychiatric care, medication and therapy.
The former emergency responder, who retired in 2017, has been diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), treatment-resistant depression, suicidal ideation, bipolar II disorder and generalized anxiety disorder.
Marr is now angry that the Canadian government plans to permanently exclude people whose sole underlying medical condition is mental illness from eligibility for medical assistance in dying, commonly known as MAID.
“They’re not thinking about those people who have lived with it their entire life and have treatment-resistant conditions,” Marr said. “Like myself.”
Justice Minister Sean Fraser introduced legislation on Tuesday that would scrap a long-delayed plan to expand Canada’s assisted-dying program to people whose only medical condition is a mental illness, according to CTV News.
The bill would abandon the proposed expansion entirely, although it must still pass through the legislative process before becoming law.
The move has revived a divisive debate over whether psychiatric disorders can be deemed incurable and whether doctors can accurately determine that a patient has no realistic prospect of recovery.
Lisa Marr, who lives in Nova Scotia, has battled severe mental illness for more than five decades
Fraser defended the government’s position by citing divisions among medical professionals over whether serious mental illnesses can be considered irreversible.
He also expressed concern that people unable to access adequate psychiatric treatment could turn to assisted dying because the care they need is unavailable.
Canada’s current MAID rules require applicants to satisfy strict criteria. Their condition must be serious and incurable, they must be in an advanced state of irreversible decline, and they must experience suffering they regard as intolerable.
Marr, however, says the policy overlooks people who have spent decades trying treatments without achieving lasting relief.
Following Fraser’s announcement, she wrote to the minister about her own mental health history, saying her struggles began when she was five years old.
Marr said she has seen more than 20 psychiatrists over the course of her life and has attended weekly sessions with a psychologist for the past 10 years.
“I believe that it should be an option for those who cannot get better no matter how much therapy, medications and other treatments one endures for years and years,” she wrote.
“Fighting with every ounce of strength you can muster just to get out of bed each day is not quality of life.”
Justice Minister Sean Fraser introduced legislation Tuesday that would cancel a long-delayed expansion of Canada’s assisted dying program to include people suffering only from mental illnesses
Medical professionals remain sharply divided over whether it is possible to determine that a psychiatric illness will never improve.
Dr. Sanjeev Sockalingam, chief medical officer at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, said diagnoses and recovery outlooks can change over time. He noted that some people once considered resistant to treatment may later improve.
Psychiatrist Dr. Mona Gupta, however, criticized the government’s approach, saying the lengthy debate has failed to account for people who had expected assisted dying to become an option.
“As a society, we have chosen to pretend that people with severe, chronic, treatment-refractory mental disorders simply do not exist,” Gupta said.
