Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Professor Mishara, we agree that not everyone whose only medical condition is a mental illness has suicidal thoughts or wants to commit suicide. For some time now, I have felt that a close connection gets drawn between a mental health issue and a desire to end one's life. In my practice, I have met people whose only health issue was a mental illness and who weren't thinking about suicide. They want their suffering to stop, they want good treatment and they want good care. It isn't necessarily a cause-and-effect relationship.
I sometimes get the impression that, to prevent medical assistance in dying from being offered to people whose sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness, mental illness is automatically linked to suicide. Am I wrong to think that not everyone with a mental health problem thinks about suicide?
Is it reasonable for a person who has tried a number of things, undergone treatments, listened to their psychiatrist and taken their medication to have the choice to die with dignity?
It isn't the same thing, Professor Mishara. We seem to be confusing a lot of things and drawing connections that seem a bit narrow to me.