'Worse than flipping a coin': Psychiatrist warns MAiD mental illness assessments have a high chance of inaccuracy

At a MAiD committee hearing in Ottawa, a psychiatrist, Dr. Sonu Gaind, testified that it's impossible to tell the difference between suicidality and a MAiD request.Last week, Gaind testified at the feds' Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying, sharing concerns regarding mental health and MAiD, which will become a sole qualification for euthanasia on March 17, 2027.Gaind stated in a response that, if Canada were to expand MAiD for mental illness, "we will be providing to suicidal people who could and would have gotten better."Gaind referenced a 2023 study examining what the standard should be for euthanasia and mental illness, stating, "for something as severe as treatment-resistant depression, for potential MAiD assessments — assessors would get them wrong more than 50% of the time.".He also cites a study from 2022 about the debate on euthanasia for psychiatric disorders, finding that the objective criteria for an "irremediable mental disorder" has yet to be developed — due to its contradiction with the way psychiatry operates through recovery-oriented care."It's actually worse than flipping a coin," Gaind stated about psychiatrists' ability to judge a patient's ability to recover.Gaind also says high rates of social suffering are linked to suicide risk factors — something the US' suicide prevention strategy has identified.Most ironically, Canada does not even have a similar suicide prevention strategy, "yet we're talking about expanding MAiD for sole mental illness.".Gaind also points to stark evidence from the Netherlands — that shows more women than men are receiving euthanasia for psychiatric disorders as their only condition.In a 2024 study looking at patients with a mental disorder who received euthanasia between 2017 and 2022, 67% were women. Another 2025 study looking at patients under the age of 24 between 2012 and 2021 in the Netherlands who wished to receive MAiD for their mental health issues — 73% of applicants were female."If a drug company made a pill that mistakenly ended the lives of more women than men — and of people who showed markers of suicidality like social suffering — I cannot imagine we'd say it is then ok that more women are dying since they're more likely to have chronic conditions anyway," Gaind pointed out.

'Worse than flipping a coin': Psychiatrist warns MAiD mental illness assessments have a high chance of inaccuracy

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