Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for the question and for his work during the deliberations of the special joint committee.
The Belgian study to which he refers is one of many studies. In the judgment at the trial level of the B.C. Supreme Court, which is several hundred pages, Madam Justice Smith referred to these studies and others like them. She concluded that we can do better in our bill. She concluded that it was appropriate that the constitution reflect that competent adults have the ability to use physician-assisted dying, medical aid in dying, when they meet the very specific and stringent conditions that were articulated.
Consent is at the core of this. One has to be careful that there is consent that has not been pressured in any way. I think the bill does a good job of addressing that.
The idea of having some kind of advance legal requirement for consent determination and the like was rejected by the committee because it would be an absolute barrier to many people, particularly in remote communities, from being able to have the choice that the Supreme Court said Canadians constitutionally enjoy.