Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Thank you to all the witnesses today. It's so vital that we continue to hear from across the country and have these discussions and open dialogue, and we certainly could use a lot more of them.
Dr. Catherine Frazee, a renowned academic with a disability herself and leader of Vulnerable Persons Standard, presented on Tuesday to our committee. She asked the question, why us? Why not indigenous or suicidal healthy young men or other marginalized persons on the fringes? What is it about persons with disabilities that makes it okay to target this character of protected group for a special track to get suicidal completion, and other groups get help, protection and resources?
She went on to point out that a majority of the Canadian population wanting MAID for those living with disabilities don't mean that they should be put in danger and that their minority voice be silenced and ignored.
In our last meeting, Liberal member Marcus Powlowski, in his question to Dr. Ewan Goligher, said that, if his son suffered a spinal cord injury and felt he wanted to end his life, he would support his son. He said this to an able-bodied witness among three other witnesses who live with disabilities. I have to believe that this was interpreted by these brilliant women as an instance of ableism, and this is exactly the kind of discrimination that makes disabled Canadians fear for their lives when Parliament is considering a bill like Bill C-7. It sends them a message that their lives are not worth living.
The impact of allowing MAID, which is an extremely inexpensive and fast-tracked option, in the absence of other options, such as financial support, pain specialists, good housing, and well-trained and sufficient home care, will lead to coercion, as evident already by many witnesses on Tuesday, such as Roger Foley and Taylor Hyatt.
A recent release in the Netherlands shows that there is growing interest in euthanasia from vulnerable people, those less educated, poor, isolated and lonely, and the findings suggest that many of those people would not ask for euthanasia if good social measures were in place.
My question for Dr. Naud is this: What do you think about disability groups unanimously asking for protections and not a suicide completion track in Bill C-7?