I'd be happy to address that.
There is no question that these patients may suffer greatly, but the thing that never fails to amaze me is the resilience of the human spirit. I have seen many patients with spinal cord injury and one of the things that is well documented in the literature, and as other witnesses have already said, it is that we often and nearly always profoundly underestimate the extent to which those patients value their lives and value other persons.
I have presented reasons why I would not be willing to participate in ending the life of a patient in that condition because it would be treating them as...a means to an end.
Now, it is a free society and some doctors are willing to do this, but if you're going to put this law in place then it needs to guarantee that someone like one of your children, in the terrible scenario that we all fear, which you presented, has all of the potentially reversible determinants of suicidality addressed.
For the patient I spoke of, who was just deeply, profoundly lonely and isolated, we ensure that those kinds of needs and concerns are addressed. This law needs to guarantee that those processes and the infrastructure are in place to meet patients' needs before they arrive at a position where they feel like they have no option left but to seek euthanasia.