At what cost? Framing mental illness in digital news media coverage of Medical Assistance in Dying

This study investigates digital news media reporting on the upcoming expansion of medical assistance in dying (MAiD) legislation in Canada, specifically the expansion of sole eligibility criteria to include mental illness, slated for 2027. National, provincial and municipal news media articles published in English (n=431) from the introduction of Bill C-7 (2020 to 2024) have been gathered using Factiva. Critical discourse analysis (Fairclough 2012; Van Dijk 2015) will be used to explicate framings of assisted dying and of people diagnosed with mental illnesses within these accounts.