About 70 per cent of people with major mental health disorders aren’t well enough, “through no fault of their own,” to hold down jobs, Bowman said. “I know some people that are living with (severe mental illness) and it’s hell. The special joint parliamentary committee on MAID and mental illness heard testimony from 21 witnesses, including legal and medical experts, and received hundreds of written submissions. The majority report highlighted concerns around assessing “irremediability” — essentially, whether a person’s mental illness is incurable — and whether doctors can distinguish a “reasoned wish to die” from a death plea made during a time of crisis. “However, to treat patients with a mental illness differently to other citizens and automatically exclude them as a group based solely on their diagnosis is stigmatizing and discriminatory,” the Ottawa-based organization said.

Source: National Post January 31, 2024 17:04 UTC