(LifeSiteNews) — A Canadian pro-life Christian group is praising a new Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) bill that would ban extending state-sponsored euthanasia to those with mental illness as a positive way to “step back” the expansion of assisted suicide and is urging all MPs to support it.
“As Christians, we can continue to advocate for caring, not killing, in all circumstances. And we can continue to put pressure on our elected officials to do the same,” said the Association for Reformed Political Action (ARPA) Canada in a recent press release, about Bill C-218.
The Private Members Bill, C-218, or “An Act to amend the Criminal Code (medical assistance in dying [i.e., euthanasia]),” was introduced by CPC MP Tamara Jansen and passed its first reading on June 20, 2025.
ARPA observed that when it comes to Bill C-218, it offers Canada as a nation the “opportunity to step back from the euthanasia ledge and onto firmer ground that respects the value and dignity of very human life.”
“We are grateful that another MP has taken up this issue and is pushing the government to repeal further expansion of euthanasia,” noted ARPA.
LifeSiteNews reported on Bill C-218 earlier this week, noting that the bill’s sponsor, CPC MP Jansen, said allowing “medical assistance in dying” (MAiD) – a euphemism for assisted suicide – for those with mental illness is “not healthcare, that’s not compassion, it’s abandonment.”
“Mental illness is treatable. Recovery is possible, but only if we show up and help,” she told fellow MPs.
Jansen’s Bill C-218 reads, “This enactment amends the Criminal Code to provide that a mental disorder is not a grievous and irremediable medical condition for which a person could receive medical assistance in dying.”
The Conservative Party has attempted to oppose the expansion of euthanasia for some time, but recent legislative attempts to stop the expansion outright, instead of just delaying it, such as through Bill C-314, have failed.
Canada can ‘never be ready’ to legalize euthanasia for mental illness, says action group
ARPA’s Policy Analyst Daniel Zekveld said in a press release sent to LifeSiteNews that “offering euthanasia to people with mental illness implies there is no hope of recovery and normalizes suicide as a solution for suffering.”
“But psychiatrists tell us they cannot reliably diagnose mental illness as irremediable. Canadians with mental illness need hope and support, not euthanasia or assisted suicide,” he added.
Zekveld warned that “Canada can never be ready to offer MAiD for mental illness,” as doing so would “undermine suicide prevention efforts and mental health care.”
“Canada cannot promote suicide prevention while at the same time offering suicide assistance as a solution for mental illness,” he said.
Assisted suicide was legalized by the Liberal government of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2016.
Under the current law, assisted suicide is prohibited for minors and the mentally ill. Activists, however, have been pushing for these expansions with varying degrees of success.
In 2021, the 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 of 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.
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.
As reported by LifeSiteNews in May, documents show that Health Canada has been funding a university research project concerning “youth views” on euthanasia that included a brief discussion as to whether children with severe autism would ever be allowed to qualify for death under the nation’s assisted suicide program.
The most recent data show that assisted suicide is the sixth-highest cause of death in Canada, with Health Canada reporting in 2022 that 13,241 Canadians died by “MAID” lethal injections. That figure accounted for 4.1 percent of all deaths in the country that year and represented a 31.2 percent increase from 2021, the first year euthanasia was available to those who were not “terminally ill.”
