There has been a lot of discussion in the context of this debate about the importance of palliative care. I think there is a consensus about the importance of palliative care. There's nobody who is against palliative care here.
It has been a matter of concern among the different witnesses, both at the special joint committee and the study here at the justice committee, that there is not adequate palliative care in this country right now. I think there's a consensus about that and various proposals and plans for addressing that deficiency.
What this does is ensure that somebody who is seeking euthanasia, suicide, or whatever you want to call it, is consulted, is given the information about available palliative care. When I talk to people about this issue, so often people may talk about pain in a certain context being unmanageable and I happen to know, because of my connection to the medical profession, that pain in that particular case is not unmanageable, but perhaps was not managed well in that particular context.
A concern I have is that people will think their pain is unmanageable and they will think they cannot be helped, when in fact they can.
Based on a consensus around the importance of palliative care and also making sure that people have proper information about what is available in terms of pain management, I think that asking that people have some consultation and information about palliative care is important.
I want to note that this doesn't slow down the timeline at all, so I wanted to remove that little phrase to clarify that point. The legislation obviously has people visiting a physician already; they have to have consultations with various physicians. Therefore, including the assurance of receiving detailed information about available palliative care options, the fact that there's already a waiting period for someone, even in the midst of that waiting period to be able to get that information, I think, clearly isn't going to slow down anyone's access to this service, but it does provide an important safeguard so that people know exactly what their alternatives are before they take this very final step.