Regarding the technical aspect, I would note that we did consult 80 groups, organizations of health professionals and doctors. As we made clear, mental health is too important a subject for there not to be consensus in that regard. We did not perceive that there was a social consensus on moving in that direction.
At present, it is too difficult to determine whether there is an irreversible or incurable illness. However, the subject is really important. We decided that we would not make recommendations in that regard for the moment, and that we would see whether, in future, a new committee would study only the question of requests for medical assistance in dying on the sole ground of a mental health disorder. Given the data we had and the lack of social consensus, we believed it was too difficult to expand medical assistance in dying to include mental disorders as the sole ground relied on.
A person who has a mental disorder and also suffers from another illness may still be eligible for medical assistance in dying. The person's request will not necessarily be refused because they have a mental health disorder. It will be refused if the sole ground for the request is a mental health disorder.
On the subject of the legislation and consistency between the federal and provincial positions, we shall see how things turn out on the federal side. There will certainly be adjustments.