Minors should be eligible for assisted dying, parliamentary committee says

Canada’s assisted dying laws should be expanded to include minors, a parliamentary committee has recommended in a report tabled in the House of Commons.

After hearing from nearly 150 witnesses and reviewing more than 350 briefs on Canada’s medically assisted dying (MAiD) program, the special joint committee of MPs and senators concluded that minors deemed to have the appropriate decision-making capacity should be eligible for assisted death.

A number of witnesses noted Canadian minors are already allowed to make decisions about withholding or ceasing medical treatment, even when such decisions may hasten death, while others said they felt the decision to seek MAiD is simply too weighty for a minor to make.