What the member is referring to is that between the request and the action, I put in a 14-day span, so if the individual in any way said that they wanted to live, that would nullify the physician-assisted death request. Some people wanted it to be seven days or 24 hours, and some people wanted it to be years, but this is one of the key issues. How far in advance can a request be made, and what will be tolerable in the Criminal Code as far as living wills go?
That is a Criminal Code issue. If this committee could come up with a consensus, and I think it would be in such form that in a decade or whatever you would have to renew it, most Canadians would be in favour of that and would find peace of mind, especially with all the terrible things we hear about dementia, brain injuries, stroke, and so on.
That would be a helpful suggestion from the committee, but telling provinces what they can and cannot do is a slippery slope.
I will say just one more thing. To emphasize the importance of the framework of the Supreme Court decision, the committee can suggest raising the penalty. If you go outside of the 18-year-old competent adult, you're going to go to jail for a long time. That would be a very good countermeasure to make sure people follow the intent of what the Supreme Court has suggested.