Engagement, better disability supports would improve assisted dying program: report

A parliamentary committee is recommending the Liberal government improve access to palliative care and boost financial support for people with disabilities.

A parliamentary committee has made 23 recommendations to improve Canada’s assisted-dying regime.

Members of the committee held 36 meetings, heard from nearly 150 witnesses and reviewed more than 350 briefs on the medically assisted dying program.

It is recommending the Liberal government improve access to palliative care and boost financial support for people with disabilities.

Without more financial supports and better access to social support, the report says “persons with disabilities might see (medical assistance in dying) as a way to relieve suffering due to poverty and lack of services.”

The report also recommends better engagement with Indigenous communities and persons with disabilities on how Canada’s assisted-dying program works.

It says the federal government should convene an expert panel to “study and report on the needs of persons with disabilities” as they relate to medically-assisted death.

The report recommends developing a system that harmonizes access to the program across Canada.

It also says Health Canada should do a review of “promising therapies, such as psilocybin, for both research purposes and for individual use as part of palliative care supports.”