Thank you.
I'll try to be brief and be respectful of your time.
There's just a little confusion on the issue of conscience protection. You did reference Carter. It's quite clear in paragraph 132, “In our view, nothing in the declaration of invalidity which we propose to issue would compel physicians to provide assistance in dying.” I think there would be disagreement among professionals, legal and otherwise, as to what that actually means. Does it include active referral? Does it even include passive referral? I don't want to get into that argument right now, but I think there is room for debate around the definition.
One of my concerns is that as we approach the issues of conscience, it's paramount and I think this committee is charged with the very simple obligation to ensure that physicians have conscience protection, including, I would go so far as to say, not to refer. No other jurisdiction that has legalized physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia imposes any compelling of medical doctors to refer.
I want to ensure that our world view, as doctors or whatever other practice we're in, is not compromised by a set of external forces that forces us to go against our conscience. In fact, I would be concerned that in the issue and the situation with medical doctors who are compelled to go against their conscience, could there not be a serious implication of possible post-traumatic stress syndrome or other psychiatric issues with which those physicians might have to deal?
That's a very existential question. A more practical one is that if the regulations are allowed to be developed on a province-by-province case, is it not possible that a physician practising in Nova Scotia, where the regime is more mandatory, could move to New Brunswick, for example, or some other province where there's a more lenient and what I would call a more “open” regime in terms of allowing physicians to actually practise according to their conscience in all spheres of medicine?