Thank you very much, and good evening, honourable members.
My name is André Schutten. I'm a lawyer with ARPA Canada. We were intervenors in the Carter case, and we have analyzed the various legislative and policy proposals that have been published since that decision was released in February by the Supreme Court.
I want to emphasize at the beginning that Parliament is not forced to pass a law legalizing euthanasia or assisted suicide. If Parliament passes such a law, it does so willingly and cannot wash its hands simply because the Supreme Court made you do it.
In fact, the Supreme Court made an error, and Parliament has a moral duty to correct that mistake. Parliament has a legal option—and I'm not talking about the notwithstanding clause—to fully protect all human life by prohibiting euthanasia and assisted suicide. I would be happy to discuss during the question period how that can done as an amendment to Bill C-14.
If Parliament insists on choosing to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia, it will put the lives of vulnerable people at unacceptable risk, thus violating their constitutional right to equal protection of the law. The Supreme Court Law Review just published an article that I wrote making that very argument. Again, during the question period, I'd be happy to take questions on how Bill C-14 and the Carter decision actually violate section 15 constitutional rights of men like James and Pieter, who are sitting beside me.
Now I'm a healthy, able-bodied Canadian, as are all of you, including the doctor you just heard from, but I don't think we fully appreciate the disadvantage that Bill C-14 puts on some of our fellow Canadians who courageously face many obstacles that we will never face. Instead of me trying to convince you of those types of things, I've asked two such Canadians to share their perspectives directly with you, to comment on how Bill C-14 affects them, and then to share changes that they believe are necessary in order to make them feel a little more secure living in a post-Carter Canada.
I'm going to turn it over to James first, and then to Pieter.