I will just speak to my past professional life as a nurse. I started working at the Hospital for Sick Children, and I can assure you that children die. At that time we had very little access to palliative care, and years after I left, I saw both to my delight and sinking heart that they finally discovered that children experience pain. We have a long way to go in understanding what we're going to do next with, for example, mature minors.
I think that the government intends to study this issue. One suggestion that we've kicked around in my office is that prior judicial authorization doesn't seem to be necessary if we look at the whole scope of what doctors, nurses, and nurse practitioners do with their patients. It would cause delay. It would be expensive. Who bears the expense?
If I'm settling a civil case for money damages and I'm dealing with a minor or a person with a disability, I need judicial authorization to enter into that settlement. Cannot some of these populations access medical assistance in dying if their eligibility criteria are met, perhaps with the caveat of judicial authorization beforehand because of the special and sensitive nature of these populations?