MAiD expansion delay to allow ‘deeper conversation’ on assisted dying: Holland

Thirteen years ago, in the throes of a major political loss and personal crisis, Mark Holland experienced the darkest period of his life.

Since his return to federal politics, he’s been candid about his suicide attempt, and the mental-health struggle that took him “to the doorstep of my own oblivion.”

Now, as the federal health minister, he is asking Parliament to slow down on his government’s plan to expand access to medically assisted death for people whose sole underlying condition is mental illness.

Holland asserts that the ordeal he survived is different from the suffering of people who he said would qualify under the program.

More time is needed to get medical systems and the public ready to tell the difference, he told The Canadian Press.

“I want to make sure, with every inch of me, that everybody is afforded the same path out of darkness that I was able to find,” Holland said in an interview about his own mental-health experience.

“Where we’re having really difficult conversations is: What do we do when there are circumstances that we can’t figure out? Where people are in nightmarish pain?”

Under existing legislation, people in mental anguish will qualify for medical assistance in dying starting in mid-March.

Last week, Holland tabled legislation to delay expanding the eligibility for three years.

Provinces told him they either weren’t ready or weren’t willing to move forward, he said, and putting it off is meant to allow for more time to prepare.

The pause would also give Canadians more bandwidth to confront their discomfort with the policy, he said.

“Because it’s uncomfortable, it’s easy to pretend there are simple solutions and to not dig into it,” Holland said. “I think part of the idea of this pause is to allow an