Here's what I would say on behalf of the CBA. We believe that the response to vulnerability issues is to ensure there is informed consent. When discussing the issue of people with mental illness, clearly the issue of those people being vulnerable is being raised.
In Carter, the Supreme Court of Canada accepted evidence that vulnerability can be assessed on an individual basis by physicians. While recognizing that risks “are already part and parcel of our medical system”, the court noted that those issues are resolved through the assessment of informed consent on an individual basis.
The issue, in the CBA's view, with excluding all persons with mental illness from the MAID legislation is that contrary to what the Truchon decision has concluded, inferring vulnerability on a collective basis, in reference to a group seen as vulnerable people, may not adequately reflect the diversity of circumstances among that group. That's why we support a more patient-centric approach. That's why we also believe that the exclusion of all people with mental illness is a subjective constitutional challenge.