Flawed Canadian media coverage of euthanasia (MAiD) for mental illness.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

A study published by Toronto Metropolitan University on July 24, 2025 provided a critical analysis of 367 media stories between 2020 - 2024 on euthanasia (MAiD) in Canada. The study stated purpose is:

Our study aimed to capture how Canadian news media portrays MAID's impending expansion to include mental illness and frames the lives of people diagnosed with mental illness. Further, it aimed to evaluate the sociopolitical risks of current news reporting practices. Our team conducted a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of English-language Canadian news media articles from 2020 to 2024 (n=367) using Factiva to understand how MAID MD-SUMC and people diagnosed with mental illness are rhetorically represented within these texts. Outlining the evolution of MAID legislation in Canada and ongoing debates on whether or not MAiD should be considered a form of suicide, the contextual groundwork for the project is laid out.

The study found that MAiD for mental illness was primarily presented by the media as a political issue rather than a health issue, mental illness was described as suffering and individual stories of lived experience were very limited.

The study made the following recommendations:

To enhance the quality and inclusivity of MAID MD-SUMC reporting, four recommendations are made. First, it is recommended that MAID be reported on as a health issue rather than political news, to better engage the public in health matters. Second, it is recommended that Canadian media guidelines for MAiD be developed and that impacted communities be involved in the development of those guidelines. Third, emphasis is placed on the need to minimize harm. Avoid equating mental illness with suffering in reports about MAID MD-SUMC in order to prevent harmful stereotypes. Fourth, it is recommended that news outlets and reporters covering MAID consider the photographs they use more carefully, to avoid tropes.

I disagree with the recommendation that MAiD be reported as a health issue even though I agree that reporting MAiD as a political issue removes the human element. 

MAiD was legalized in Canada by creating an exception in the criminal code therefore it should be presented as a legal issue not a health issue.

I agree that media guidelines should be developed for MAiD but those guidelines should be similar to the guidelines for reporting on suicide.

There are a lot of people who have lived with mental illness and recovered. These are the stories that need to be reported. We need hope for recovery not killing people by euthanasia who are having difficulties recovering.