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A publication from the website La Derecha Diario is circulating on Twitter which states: “Canada allows euthanasia for patients suffering from depression or financial problems”and attaches a note from the same website containing supposed information on the subject.

But this is misleading. Candidates must meet 5 criteria to access euthanasia in Canada and economic problems, poverty or any other related term are not part of it, contrary to what the viral tweet indicates.

After March 17, 2023, People with mental illness as their only underlying health problem will only be eligible for euthanasia if they meet other eligibility requirements.even though Canadian ministers will ask the Canadian Congress to delay this date to debate the measure.

At the time of publication, the tweet had 3.6 thousand retweets and 8.9 thousand likes. Similar misinformation has been fact-checked by Chequeado and other fact-checkers, such as AFP Factual And Political Animal (Mexico).

Why the content is misleading

As explained in this verification of Checkedeuthanasia – the process by which a person can receive medical assistance to die – It is legal in Canada and is covered under the MAID Act. and includes a series of eligibility criteria.

Candidates must meet 5 criteria and economic problems, poverty or any other related terms are not part of itcontrary to what the viral tweet indicates.

According to section 241.2 of the Criminal Code of CanadaHere are the eligibility criteria:

Regarding depression as a cause, according to the Canadian government websiteTo be considered to have a serious and irremediable health condition, all of the following criteria must be met: have a serious illness or disability (excluding mental illness until March 17, 2023); be in a state of advanced irreversible decline and experience unbearable physical or mental suffering due to your illness, disability or state of decline which cannot be alleviated under conditions that you consider acceptable.

Medical assistance in dying is currently not permitted when mental illness is the only medical problem. Anyway, Contacted by AFP, Hélène Guay, a Montreal lawyer specializing in health law, explains that “it is possible to request MAiD if a person suffers from a mental illness or other medical problems.”

Natalie Mohamed, Health Canada Press Officer, Factua told AFPCanada which “As of March 18, 2023, MAiD requests will be authorized for individuals with a mental disorder as their sole underlying health condition.” and added that “such requests will still have to be assessed according to the criteria and safeguards strengthened in the legislation.” This is also explained by the Government of Canada website.

On December 15, David Lametti, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada; Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Health; and Carolyn Bennett, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health of Canada, They asked to delay this date In a joint statement: “Under current MAiD law, eligibility for MAiD will be extended to people whose sole health condition is a mental illness starting March 17, 2023. After listening to experts and Canadians, we believe this date should be temporarily postponed. the ministers stressed.

“Delaying eligibility for people whose only health problem is mental illness would allow doctors and nurses to spend more time on outreach and recruiting key resources. For these reasons, we are informing Canadians today that our government intends to work with our parliamentary colleagues in the House of Commons and the Senate to negotiate an extension of the eligibility date to March 17, 2023. “This will require the introduction of legislation when the House of Commons and Senate return in January,” they added.

That is, after March 17, 2023, people with mental illness as the only underlying medical condition will have access to the AMM but if they meet “all the eligibility conditions and the professionals respect the guarantees established for this group of people”. Canadian ministers will ask the Canadian Congress to delay this date. In addition, not all people with mental illness are eligible for medical assistance in dying.

This verification is part of Facebook's Third Party Fact-checker initiative in Argentina. In the case of photos and videos, we work with doctored or taken images. of the context and we always analyze the images with the text with which they were presented.