Bill C-218: An Act to amend the Criminal Code (medical assistance in dying)

This bill primarily affects healthcare providers — physicians, nurse practitioners, and clinical staff at hospitals, clinics, and long-term care facilities across Canada who are involved in assessing or providing MAID. These practitioners would no longer need to evaluate MAID eligibility for patients whose sole underlying condition is a mental disorder, which simplifies their assessment protocols but also changes the scope of services they can offer. Mental health clinics, psychiatric facilities, and counselling practices may see indirect effects as patients who might have sought MAID are redirected toward ongoing mental health treatment and suicide prevention supports. The impact is not size-dependent — it applies uniformly to any healthcare professional or institution involved in MAID across all provinces and territories.