Legislation must be put in place to ensure that the specific requirements are met for a patient to be granted physician-hastened death. More than one person should be conducting the competency assessment. We must ensure that trained professionals are used during these consultations and that they are able to adeptly analyze a patient's illness trajectory and make sure this is the only option to alleviate a patient's suffering.
The federal government will need to be responsible for developing universal legislation with regard to physician-hastened death that provincial governments can follow. There needs to be one set of regulations and norms of practice that should be followed nationwide.
Clear information and readily available guidelines must be available to all Canadians in order for them to be informed about their options. These resources should be led by an awareness campaign funded by the federal government and distributed among the provinces.
In closing, I have a few bullets.
The CHPCA is calling on the federal government to consider a national federal strategy or framework for hospice palliative care that would work toward the following: ensuring universal access for all Canadians; a national awareness campaign for hospice palliative care, including advance care planning, which would inform Canadians on the options available to them at the end of their lives, including physician-hastened death; the protection of Canadian health care workers in the hospice palliative care field, including the option for them to opt out of providing physician-hastened death should they choose to, although they would then refer a patient to the appropriate place; clear and informed legislation regarding physician-hastened death, developed federally, to be enacted provincially and through institutions; and readily available information and resources for physicians, families, caregivers, and patients regarding their end-of-life options and physician-hastened death.