Laws are like sausages: it’s best not to see them being made

With the government seeking to delay an expansion of MAID by three years, the Senate must depart from a process resembling sausage-making, and bring law-making back into repute by considering all relevant evidence.

On Feb. 1, Health Minister Mark Holland introduced legislation that would delay legalizing MAID for mental illness as the sole underlying cause. The federal government cannot reasonably justify this based on the work of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying, write Jocelyn Downie and Mona Gupta.The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Opinion

BY JOCELYN DOWNIE, MONA GUPTA

February 1, 2024

The recent Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) was mandated to review the state of readiness for MAID where a mental disorder is the person’s sole underlying medical condition (MD-SUMC). In the end, the committee failed to fulfill its mandate.

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