Mr. Speaker, the hon. member for Burnaby-Kingsway has not said anything which I would contest with respect to me or Minister of Justice. It is still the intention of the Minister of Justice to allow this debate.
The hon. member has requested that the Minister of Justice advise the House when members will have the opportunity to review the issue of physician assisted suicide, including the provisions of section 241 of the Criminal Code.
Both the hon. member and the Minister of Justice have referred to the important work undertaken by the special committee on euthanasia and assisted suicide which tabled its report in June of last year. The terms of reference provided that it examine and report on the legal, social and ethical issues regarding euthanasia and assisted suicide.
The report is lengthy and contains recommendations concerning palliative care, pain control, sedation practices, withholding and withdrawal of life sustaining treatment, advanced directives, assisted suicide and euthanasia.
Of the recommendations presented in the report, there are a number of legal implications unanimously agreed on by committee members. This was not the case with respect to their recommendations concerning assisted suicide.
While the senators were unanimous in their view that counselling suicide, subsection 241(a), should remain an offence, they were not unanimous in respect of the provision of subsection 241(b). As the Minister of Justice has indicated, there was difficulty in achieving consensus with respect to some of the most fundamental questions that arose in the course of the committee's study.
Specifically, with respect to the issue of assisted suicide, a majority of the committee recommended that subsection 241(b) of-