An advance request is written usually in a lawyer's office, with a power of attorney document, I would think. The centre for bioethics had an excellent template a couple of years ago. I wish they had not stopped producing it. Dying with Dignity Canada has an excellent template. There are a number out there that I have used, and I pull from a number of them to create the advance requests that I have written and the ones that I recommend my patients use, but there is no master template that is used universally.
We don't have a master template, certainly, for advance requests for MAID, because it's not possible yet. There is no master template for the waiver of final consent. I drafted my own when it became legal, and I have revised it over time, improving it and adding things to it, so that it's as clear as possible to me. When I meet the patient, I want to understand what they need and want, what their suffering is and what their criteria would be. I ask them to write things down, and I help them to draft it in a way that makes sense to me.
Usually, there are family members or friends present when that's done, so that they understand what's going on as well. However, I have to say that I also have a lot of patients who do not have family members close by—who don't have family members at all or don't have family members that they can trust to do this—so I am concerned with the idea of having to include family.
I have a couple of patients right now whose families are being very obstructionist and are not allowing them to proceed with MAID, and I can't do anything without their co-operation. It makes it very difficult for the patients who are not getting access. I think that may be even more pronounced if there's an advance request that requires a family member to be involved.
I hope that answers your question.