MAiD and Mental Illness Panel Review

The precautionary words of leading Ontario psychiatrists

TORONTO, March 18, 2022 /CNW/ - The "Expert Panel" report on MAiD (Medical Assistance in Dying) when mental illness is the sole underlying condition, will be released this month. In preparation for news coverage on this report, it is crucial that both sides of the conversation are heard and considered.

Dr. John Maher is an assertive community treatment (ACT) team consulting psychiatrist. He previously worked at a hospital doing adult and emergency psychiatry and running a day treatment program for patients with personality disorders. Dr. Maher is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Ethics in Mental Health and President of the Ontario Association for ACT & FACT (OAAF).

The deVeber Institute for Bioethics and Social Research hosted a lecture series on MAiD and Palliative Care in Canada over the last three weeks. The final night of the lecture (Wednesday, March 16, 2022) focused on MAiD in the context of mental health with presentations from two leading Ontario psychiatrists: Dr. Sehora Tang and Dr. John Maher.

Dr. Tang, assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Ottawa, cautioned, "Bill C-7 requires that patients be given information for alternative treatments but there is no requirement that patients have access to treatment. There's a difference between knowing about a treatment and actually receiving that treatment and being able to experience it."

Dr. John Maher, the president of the Ontario Association for ACT & FACT (OAAF), affirmed, "A law, that under the weight of its own legal precedent, cannot set any sustainable limit on accessibility to what is supposed to be a rare outcome of last resort is both naïve and dangerous."

The "Expert Panel" report on MAiD and mental health, needs to be presented against the backdrop of concerns voiced by psychiatrists on behalf of their patients. 

"I'm begging for the people I'm privileged to meet on a daily basis to be cared for, loved, respected, honoured and given the opportunity to heal and recover. We need to be ashamed of what we're doing. We're offering death. We're saying, 'I don't think your life is worth living but I'll help you die'," asserted Dr. John Maher.

Watch the complete presentations from Dr. Sephora Tang and Dr. John Maher on our website www.deveber.org or in the attached YouTube videos.

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SOURCE deVeber Institute for Bioethics and Social Research

The deVeber Institute for Bioethics and Social Research, Zoe Stewart-Bedard, 416-256-0555, [email protected]