Thank you, Mr. Garrison.
You're right. I think the phrases you've mentioned—I can't repeat them exactly—and also referring to this bill as “euthanasia” legislation, which I have heard in the House of Commons, are incredibly demeaning to the dignity of people who are attempting to access this service and incredibly demeaning to the professionalism of the incredible physicians and other MAID assessors whom I had the privilege of meeting while I did the consultation.
This is incredibly personal, detailed work, which a physician and practitioner does sometimes within a team and sometimes on their own within a hospital setting or clinical setting, with people who are in what might arguably be some of the worst conditions of their lives, who are struggling and suffering, and who want, above all, compassion and empathy.
I think we all need to understand that no one, especially in the medical profession, takes life frivolously. As a practitioner, no one considers this lightly. As a matter of fact, one of the challenges we've had in people accessing medical assistance in dying is that we don't yet have enough practitioners who feel that they have the skills and the ability to do this work.
I think we need to respect that the professionals who are providing this support for Canadians in some of the darkest times of their lives are doing so with a high degree of respect for life and a high degree of respect for individuals who, as the practitioners themselves have pointed out, have deliberated on this decision for way longer than they've even told their practitioners. I don't think it does any of us a service in Canada when we demean the individuals who desperately want this help and demean the people who are doing the work.