First and foremost, Madam Chair, my apologies to the committee. I apologize for my IT issues. I want to thank the IT department for helping me through this—many thanks. I hope that my connection is a little better now, if nothing else.
I have quite a bit to add to this.
One thing I was going to speak to was Dr. Catherine Ferrier, but, of course, my colleague Mr. Cooper already spoke to that.
With respect to what you just said Madam Chair, again, we don't want to add a whole bunch of verbiage to this discussion, but I think it's very important that this committee takes a good hard look at Mr. Manly's amendment. I think it's an amendment that truly speaks to protection of all Canadians. Additionally, this amendment will aid in the prevention of abuse and malpractice, which ought to be a central concern, especially when dealing with individuals whose mental and/or physical states are especially fragile or vulnerable. There will always be the risk of coercion, undue pressure and things of this nature.
However, this legislation should mitigate the risk as much as possible, ensuring that every patient is informed of all available alternatives, including receiving counselling regarding the continued management of their condition with ongoing treatment or therapeutic measures. That should be seen as a basic and fundamental prerequisite for the consideration of the procedure to end one's life.
Madam Chair, I would again ask respectfully that this committee gives a good hard look at supporting this amendment. I think it's a great amendment.
Again, I apologize to the chair and to the committee for my IT issues here. I will certainly have more to say on further amendments.
Thank you, Madam Chair.