This story was updated March 18 following Bill C-7’s passage by the Senate on Wednesday.

The Senate’s approval of expanded euthanasia Wednesday has left Archbishop J. Michael Miller “distressed, but not surprised.”

With the passing of Bill C-7, individuals requesting assisted suicide need not be facing imminent death but can be on a “predictable trajectory” toward natural death. Two years from now it will also allow euthanasia for those suffering from grievous and irremediable mental illness.

Archbishop Miller said the law opens up so-call “MAiD” law to those who “are in fact not dying, which now makes ‘medical assistance in dying’ a misnomer.”

The legislation also reduces the number of independent witnesses needed to sign a euthanasia request to one, from two previously, and removes the 10-day “reflection period” for those whose deaths are reasonably foreseeable.

“In light of this tragic expansion of euthanasia, it is more necessary than ever that Canada put in place a system of palliative care that is accessible and affordable,” said Archbishop Miller.

Following the Senate approval, Minister of Justice David Lametti tweeted, “This law will respect the autonomy of Canadians while protecting the vulnerable,” a claim rejected by the Catholic Civil Rights League.

In a statement, the CCRL said, “Protection of the vulnerable was also assured on the original version of the law. Those standards are now further relaxed. We share the opinions of disability rights advocates and mental health advocates who also have stood strongly in opposition.”

The league said it predicted the rapid expansion in euthanasia when the law was introduced in 2016 and rejects the notion that safeguards can exist, pointing out “the societal pressure placed on vulnerable populations that accompanies the MAiD regime, particularly with insufficient provisions or access to palliative care.”

Euthanasia opponents slammed the federal Liberals and the Bloc Quebecois in advance of the Senate vote for opening the door for the mentally ill to be request euthanasia.

The Bloc joined with the Liberals to impose closure on the debate to force a vote on the bill before sending it to the Senate.

“While the federal government was noting the 11th anniversary of Canada’s signing of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the House of Commons passed Bill C-7 thereby making MAiD available to healthy people with disabilities,” a statement released by the Council of Canadians with Disabilities said.

“In the case of mental illness, MAiD is a permanent lethal solution for a temporary situation,” said Jewelles Smith, a spokesperson for the council.

Allowing the mentally ill access to assisted dying was not originally supported by the Liberals, but after that was a made a requirement for support by the Senate, the federal government used closure to force the vote March 12. MPs voted 180-149 in support of Bill C-7. No Conservatives or NDP MPs voted in favour of the bill.

The bill changes the law so that it complies with a 2019 Quebec Superior Court ruling that said limiting assisted suicide to only Canadians whose death was already “reasonably foreseeable” was too restrictive. The Senate wanted the federal government to eliminate a blanket ban on the mentally ill from accessing a medical death for 18 months. The House agreed to allow the mentally ill access to euthanasia in two years, after further study and review of safeguards surrounding the law and how it pertains to the mentally ill.

The disabilities council in a March 15 statement said Bill C-7 “will put vulnerable people with disabilities in harm’s way by making it easier to access medical aid in dying.”

“While many people with disabilities cannot access the disability-related supports that they need to live dignified lives in the community, they will be able to get MAiD. Even people experiencing a mental health crisis will have access to MAID,” the statement said.

“We are extremely concerned that people with disabilities experiencing a temporary crisis will accept MAiD and die needlessly,” said Smith.

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) said opening up assisted dying to the mentally ill is a mistake without more evidence of what exactly constitutes mental illness. In its position paper “CAMH came to the decision that the federal government should not make an amendment to MAiD legislation for people with mental illness as their sole underlying medical condition at this time due to a lack of evidence that mental illness is an irremediable medical condition.”

“This was not an easy decision for CAMH to come to,” the CAMH statement to Parliament said. “As psychiatrists, we cannot stay out of it. We cannot ignore, avoid or just rubber stamp our patients’ requests for MAiD. This is not only because of the ‘medical’ in MAiD but also because of our duty to advocate for the best evidence-informed care for our clients.”

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition’s Alex Schadenberg said opening the door to the mentally ill being able to access the MAiD system is “shameful,” but it does expose what opponents of MAiD have been saying all along — once the door is opened to legal euthanasia it will continue to expand to cover more and more Canadians.

“The fact is that the Liberal government, the BQ and the euthanasia lobby have clearly told Canadians where they stand,” said Schadenberg. “They are not concerned about the lives of people with disabilities or those who live with chronic conditions. They are not concerned about people who struggle with mental illness or other psychological conditions. They are not concerned about people who are at a vulnerable time of their life.”

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