VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – With the deadline set by the Supreme Court of Canada looming, there likely isn’t time to figure out how we are going to safely allow the mentally ill to have access to doctor-assisted death. That’s one conclusion of a new study from SFU.
The SFU-led study reviewed existing literature on physician-assisted suicide for the mentally ill and found we are too early into research on this topic to go forward with allowing it in Canada.
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in February 2015 that a competent adult with a “grievous irremediable medical condition” who clearly consents to end their life with the help of a doctor has a right to do so. The federal government was given one year to present legislation to make it legal. A four-month extension of the deadline was given in January.
That leaves the federal government with mere months to come up with a framework for all groups, including the mentally ill. Study Author and Ph.D. Student in Psychology at SFU Catherine Shaffer says key questions surrounding how to make this work for the mentally haven’t been answered. “What types of assessments do we need to do? How should we do competency evaluations in these cases? Should we restrict certain types of mental disorders from access to this?”
Shaffer says more debate is needed and it needs to include members of the mental health profession. “I think as a society, we really need to ask ourselves is this what we want to see happen in Canada? We really need to have more professionals involved in this debate, particularly psychologists, psychiatrists… Is this the best choice to be made for us as a society?”
Shaffer wants to see these ideas thought through so we don’t see doctor-assisted death become anything except for a very last resort for the mentally ill.
