I just want to say that I love this bill. I was terribly moved by our colleague's story of personal courage. I note that reference to “courage” is made at the beginning of the bill. Undergoing surgery to give an organ does involve a real risk of death, and I assume that the risk of death would have been described to Mr. Aboultaif when he was preparing for surgery. It also touches on my personal family history. My father wrote me a letter the night before he was going to donate a kidney to his brother. Thank God, he survived, and I've never had to read that letter.
I guess my concern with this amendment is that donating blood does not involve a material risk of death. Some of these surgeries for donating organs can be in the order of a one-in-300 chance of death, compared to a one-in-10,000 chance for bone marrow donation. It's basically unheard of, almost impossible, to die from donating blood. When I think of a medal ceremony, I think of recognizing physical courage, and I wonder if the mover of the amendment could touch on that point. Why has a decision been made to seek this amendment?