Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister, for being here. It's always good to see you come before our committee.
I want to ask you about Bill C-7, medical assistance in dying, which I think everyone concedes is a very complex topic. On November 3 you stated, on the question of medical assistance in dying where mental illness is the sole underlying condition, not only that “[e]xperts disagree on whether medical assistance in dying can ever be safely made available in such cases”, but also that “there is always the possibility of improvement and recovery”, that it is “especially difficult to tell whether a desire to die is a symptom of the illness, or a rational response to it”, and that it is “fraught with serious risks”.
What changed between November 3 of last year and February 23 of this year, when you accepted what I would submit is a radical sentiment that makes medical assistance in dying where mental illness is the sole underlying cause a fait accompli?