An expansion of the criteria for medically assisted death that comes into force in March 2024 will allow Canadians like Pauli, whose sole underlying condition is mental illness, to choose medically assisted death. In 2021, the most recent year available, 10,064 people died through medically assisted death, about 3.3% of deaths in Canada that year. Dembo served on an expert panel on assisted death and mental illness that presented a report to Canada's parliament last year. loadingThe reported cases of people resorting to medically assisted death in part due to lack of supports are "tragic," Lametti said. "It does in one sense [represent a slippery slope], doesn't it, because it started off with terminal illness and it's ended up with non-terminal illness and mental illness."

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Persons: Lisa Pauli, Pauli, I've, David Lametti, Lametti, It's, Marie, Claude Lacasse, Georges L'Esperance, Sarah Dobec, Justine Dembo, Dembo, She's, Mary Heatley, …, Heatley, Sonu Gaind, Michelle Hewitt, Hewitt, Sean Tagert, Lou Gehrig's, Tagert's, Sean, Charles Falconer, it's, Anna Mehler Paperny, Denny Thomas, Suzanne Goldenberg Organizations: TORONTO, Reuters, Health, Quebec Association for, Canada, Health Sciences Centre, Labour, Thomson Locations: Canada, Netherlands, Belgium, Provinces, Quebec, British Columbia, Ontario, Health Canada, Canadian, Britain