No, that's not how I perceive it. The important thing to note is around suicide contagion. When a society makes MAID available, the population believes it is a way to end suffering. In other jurisdictions that have had MAID available for mental disorders, not only are there deaths due to MAID, but there are also deaths related to non-MAID suicides.
I just want to emphasize that it's not a suicide prevention mechanism. It's really a way.... We're actually going to make not only suicide deaths go up, but also MAID deaths go up.
I really want to emphasize that people have lots of untreated mental illnesses and addictions in our society, and we should be spending a lot more energy on trying to make sure that people are getting evidence-based care, rather than focusing as much on MAID. There have clearly been reports about people in British Columbia showing up to the emergency department and somebody saying, “Have you thought about MAID?” We've had veterans who have been asked if they would rather have MAID, instead of a wheelchair.
We really have to be thoughtful about the unintended consequences here of making MAID available for mental disorders in Canada, and these safeguards are false reassurances.
Really, we don't agree with proceeding at this point.