A retired paramedic who has battled severe mental illness for more than five decades has slammed Canada’s decision to block people with psychiatric conditions from accessing medically assisted death.

Lisa Marr, who lives in Nova Scotia, told CTV News it’s a ‘stab in the back,’ saying she has spent much of her life struggling with debilitating mental health conditions despite years of psychiatric treatment, medication and therapy.

The former emergency worker, who retired in 2017, suffers from complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), treatment-resistant depression, suicidal ideation, bipolar II disorder and generalized anxiety disorder.

Now, Marr is furious that the Canadian government is moving to permanently prevent people whose only underlying medical condition is a mental illness from qualifying for medical assistance in dying (MAID).

‘They’re not thinking about those people who have lived with it their entire life and have treatment-resistant conditions,’ Marr said. ‘Like myself.'

Justice Minister Sean Fraser introduced legislation Tuesday that would cancel a long-delayed expansion of Canada’s assisted dying program to include people suffering only from mental illnesses, according to the outlet.

Fraser’s latest legislation would abandon the planned change altogether, but the bill must still pass before it becomes law.

The proposal has reignited a bitter debate over whether psychiatric conditions can ever be considered incurable and whether doctors can reliably determine when a patient has no chance of recovery.

Fraser defended the move by pointing to disagreements within the medical community about whether severe mental illnesses can be classified as irreversible.

He also raised concerns that Canadians struggling to obtain adequate psychiatric care could seek assisted death because they cannot access the treatment they need.

Under Canada’s existing MAID requirements, applicants must meet strict medical criteria, including having a serious and incurable condition, experiencing an advanced state of irreversible decline and enduring suffering they consider intolerable.

But Marr believes the government is ignoring people who have exhausted decades of treatment without finding lasting relief.

She responded to Fraser’s announcement by writing him a letter detailing her mental health struggles, which she says began when she was just five years old.

Marr described consulting more than 20 psychiatrists throughout her life and attending weekly appointments with a psychologist for the past decade.

‘I believe that it should be an option for those who cannot get better no matter how much therapy, medications, and other treatments one endures for years and years,’ she wrote.

‘Fighting with every ounce of strength you can muster just to get out of bed each day is not quality of life.’

Medical experts remain divided over whether doctors can actually determine that a psychiatric illness will never improve.

Dr Sanjeev Sockalingam, chief medical officer at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health, warned that diagnoses and recovery prospects can change over time, including among patients previously considered resistant to treatment.

But psychiatrist Dr Mona Gupta criticized the government’s approach, arguing that the prolonged debate has overlooked the consequences for people who had hoped to qualify for assisted death.

‘As a society, we have chosen to pretend that people with severe, chronic, treatment-refractory mental disorders simply do not exist,’ Gupta said.