(LifeSiteNews) — The Canadian government has created a committee filled with euthanasia advocates to determine whether or not Canada should expand assisted suicide to those with mental illness, but a few Members of Parliament on the committee promise to advocate for life.
The Special Joint Parliamentary Committee is made up of 10 MPs and five senators who will look at Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) program to determine whether it should be expanded yet again.
One of the committee members is pro-life Conservative MP Andrew Lawton, who announced on X that “I’m honoured to be named to the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying, which will review the incoming expansion of MAID to people with solely a mental illness and no physical ailments.”
“This expansion comes into force next year unless new legislation is passed.”
Other pro-life Conservative MPs on the committee include Tamara Jansen and Michael Cooper.
However, there are many pro-abortion and pro-euthanasia advocates on the committee as well, notably Senator Kristopher David Wells, Liberal MPs Kristina Tesser Derksen, and James Maloney.
As reported by LifeSiteNews, Lawton, who almost died in a suicide attempt 15 years ago, recently launched an initiative to help those struggling with mental illness choose life and to help stop a plan by the Canadian government to expand euthanasia to those with mental illness.
The expansion of euthanasia for the mentally ill is slated to become law in 2027 as a consequence of the passage of Bill C-7.
Conservative MP Garnett Genuis introduced Bill C-260, “An Act to amend the Criminal Code (medical assistance in dying – protection against coercion),” which, if passed, would ban any person in government or other authority from proposing to someone that they consider euthanasia if the person did not ask for it.
Bill C-218, as reported by LifeSiteNews, or “An Act to amend the Criminal Code (Medical Assistance in Dying [i.e., euthanasia]),” was introduced by Jansen and passed its first reading on June 20, 2025.
As reported by LifeSiteNews, Canada’s Catholic bishops have said they “support” a Conservative bill before Parliament that would ban extending state-sponsored euthanasia to those with mental illness.
Pierre Poilievre, leader of Canada’s Conservative Party, praised Lawton for telling his story about almost dying by suicide and for raising awareness of a bill that seeks to stop euthanasia from being expanded to those with mental illness.
Assisted suicide was legalized by the Liberal government of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2016 and has been expanding ever since.
As reported by LifeSiteNews, Canada could be one step closer to allowing euthanasia for newborns. Under the current law, assisted suicide is prohibited for minors and the mentally ill. Activists, however, have been pushing for expansions with varying degrees of success.
In 2021, the former Trudeau government expanded euthanasia from killing only “terminally ill” patients to allowing the chronically ill to qualify after the passage of Bill C-7. Since then, the government has sought to include those suffering solely from mental illness.
In February 2024 after pushback from pro-life, medical, and mental health groups, as well as most of Canada’s provinces, the federal government delayed the mental illness expansion until 2027.
