Exactly.
There are two safeguard regimes. Some safeguards relate to natural and reasonably foreseeable death, and others relate to death that isn't reasonably foreseeable. Bill C-7 removes the criterion of reasonably foreseeable natural death. However, this criterion is reintroduced when we come to the safeguards and the two safeguard regimes. Some doctors who appeared before us said that the criterion wasn't medical and that it was vague and confusing.
I wanted to clear up this confusion to ensure access to both safeguard regimes. The issue isn't about access to medical assistance in dying, but about defining provisions regarding access to medical assistance in dying in the event of either imminent or non-imminent death, through the two safeguards.
After “whose natural death is reasonably foreseeable,” I added “because the person has received a prognosis of 12 months or less as to the specific length of time that they have remaining [this is a clear criterion, which is part of medical practice], taking into account all of their medical circumstances, the medical practitioner or nurse practitioner must”.
The other aspect that provides access to the second safeguard regime is the following: “whose natural death is not reasonably foreseeable, because the person has received a prognosis of more than 12 months as to the specific length of time that they have remaining, taking into account all of their medical circumstances.”
I'm adding a clarification to enable practitioners to make a prognosis, as they do every day. The concept of 12 months or less covers all cases of people who request medical assistance in dying at the end of life. If death isn't imminent, then we're talking about 12 months or more. If circumstances change, the person could also access this safeguard regime. We must strictly determine the two safeguard regimes by establishing whether or not they're 10 days and whether or not they're 90 days.