Canadian lawmaker Andrew Lawton says he attempted suicide multiple times in his early twenties and survived every one.
Parliament is about to vote on a law that would let people do what he almost did.
Lawton says that same law would have made sure he never got the chance to recover.
Lawmaker Andrew Lawton Says He Almost Used the MAID Law Canada Is About to Expand
Andrew Lawton is a sitting member of Canada's Parliament, the Canadian equivalent of the U.S. Congress.
"If I told a doctor in 2010 I wanted to kill myself, I'd be institutionalized," Lawton said. "If I had the same conversation next year, I'd get a referral to someone who could help me do it."
MAID stands for Medical Assistance in Dying, Canada's legal euthanasia program.
"Had this form of medically assisted dying been around in 2010, I'm confident I'd be dead right now," Lawton said.
Lawton overdosed on a cocktail of prescription medications in December of 2010, trying to end his life.
He had tried before, and survived every time.
"I got better," Lawton said.
"My life today is living proof that I had reason for hope in those dark periods," Lawton said.
Bill C-218 Would Block Assisted Suicide for Mental Illness Alone
Canadian lawmaker Tamara Jansen introduced Bill C-218 in June of 2025.
The bill would amend Canada's criminal code to state that a mental disorder is not a grievous and irremediable medical condition, the legal standard Canada's Medical Assistance in Dying program currently requires.
"Imagine your son or daughter battling depression for some time, after losing a job or maybe a broken relationship," Jansen told Parliament. "Imagine they feel the loss so deep that they're convinced the world would be better off without them."
Under the law already on the books, Jansen said, those same Canadians could walk into a doctor's office and ask to end their life, and the system could legally do just that.
Struggling Canadians, trauma survivors, and those battling depression, schizophrenia, and PTSD are being told death is a solution the country is now willing to offer, Jansen said.
"That's not health care. That's not compassion. It's abandonment," Jansen said.
Canada legalized MAID in 2016.
It is already a leading cause of death in the country, accounting for about five percent of all deaths.
Canada is on pace to reach 100,000 MAID deaths within a single decade.
Doctors and Ten Provinces Already Warned Ottawa About This MAID Expansion
Bill C-218 exists because the medical community itself is worried.
Dr. Sonu Gaind, chief of psychiatry at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, said Canada has no meaningful safeguards to stop people in suicidal crisis from getting approved.
Gaind said the loneliness and sense of being a burden that MAID applicants commonly cite are traditional suicide risk factors that, in his words, "are not able to be filtered out properly."
Dr. Francois de Wet, a family doctor in Nunavut with three decades of experience, said the expansion worries him deeply, especially in a region already fighting a suicide crisis.
"I'm very, very worried about it," de Wet said.
Ten provinces and territories, including Alberta, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia, formally asked Ottawa for an indefinite pause on MAID for mental illness back in January of 2024.
Ottawa is moving ahead anyway, with the expansion set to take effect March 17, 2027, unless Bill C-218 passes first.
Justice Minister Sean Fraser's office says it is reviewing the committee's findings before deciding how to proceed.
Fraser has not committed to canceling the expansion, even with the deadline six months away.
Most Canadians Say Mental Illness Should Never Qualify for MAID
A Research Co poll conducted in October of 2025 found only 42 percent of Canadians believe mental illness alone is a valid reason to qualify for MAID.
That means most Canadians, most doctors, and most provinces already agree with what Bill C-218 is trying to do, and Parliament still has to vote on it.
Blue State Assisted Suicide Laws Already Mirror Canada's Expansion
This is not just a Canadian problem.
New York signed its own assisted-suicide law this year, and Illinois and Delaware both followed suit in 2025.
Vermont and Oregon already dropped their residency requirements, so anyone from any state can travel there to die.
The same slow walk that has Canada one vote away from letting doctors help kill people over depression alone is already loosening the rules in blue states here at home.
Lawton's message to his colleagues is simple.
"This is not health care," Lawton said. "This is giving up on those who are suffering."
Every member of Parliament who votes no on October 7 is voting against a colleague who lived it and lived to tell them so.
Sources:
- Cassy Cooke, "Canada to Hold Vote on Bill Blocking MAID for Mental Illness," Live Action News, September 2026.
- "Canadian Bill Would Stop Euthanizing Mentally Disabled People," LifeNews, September 14, 2026.
- "Why MAID for Mental Illness Has Provinces and Doctors Worried," Canadian Affairs, July 11, 2025.
- "No MAID for Mental Illness, Parliamentary Committee Says," Canadian Affairs, June 18, 2026.
- "More U.S. States Push Assisted Suicide as Canada Expands MAID," Standing for Freedom Center, March 21, 2024.
