Thank you very much.
I just want to comment on what Mr. Beaudry said about how advance requests that we might make at 60 would maybe make no sense to us at 75 or 80.
I just have to say that we do this all the time within the law, legally, in this country. We write wills. We leave them with lawyers. They may have been written five, 10 or 20 years ago. We have “do not resuscitate” orders. We now have final waivers of consent. There are lots of concepts around where this is practised.
The legislation I'm putting forward in the Senate now is based on consultations with people who have been part of this process for a very long time. We are proposing that there be a long list—to Dr. Wiebe's point—with very specific circumstances under which a person doesn't want to live and wants to proceed with their advance request. It's not, “I can't feed myself on Tuesday”, but it's still very specific: “I am no longer able to feed myself on a consistent basis.” It goes on through all of the things that she's already noted.
The other part that I think is very key to this is that the updates of this need to be regular. We've said five years. I'd be very comfortable with three. I think we have to do what gives the most people comfort on that question.
Then we come to this very important role of the substitute decision-makers. They can't just show up five minutes before this request. These people also have to be involved in the process of making sure this is updated. This is a huge commitment for people, but I think it's the only way we can do it. If you are going to be one of my two substitute decision-makers, then you are going to have to participate in this process of updating and of being interviewed by perhaps a lawyer, a doctor or another medical professional in this field. The issue is that when it comes to the provision of MAID, it may not be your family doctor. That may not be the person. These substitute decision-makers need to be very familiar with your wishes over a long period of time.
I can't think of any more safeguards that we can put in while still respecting the person's views, laid out repeatedly, about what constitutes quality of life and dignity in death.
Dr. Wiebe, do you have anything else to add to that list that I should have been considering?