Yes. Doctors cannot perform any medical services for any patient without someone consenting to it. Many times it's implied. If a patient just shows up in my office to see me, I don't get them to sign a consent. I presume they are consenting because they are there. However, the ante has to be upped once you get into serious matters. For example, no Canadian going for surgery is going to have it without a written consent.
I think this is maybe one of the ultimate decisions in life, so I think we need to keep the bar very high on the fully informed consent that one has to think about for a while.
Are doctors attuned to those issues? I believe the average doctor is. Family doctors make these decisions on a daily basis when they're assessing patients. That's not to say that we couldn't improve. I think there needs to be a general education program for physicians, not only to help them deal with the mechanics of physician-assisted dying but also to help with the philosophical issues, the ethical issues, and the issues of informed consent.
We need to learn more, but I think we're pretty okay with informed consent currently.