Madam Speaker, one thing my colleague intimated early in his speech was the number of countries that allow physician-assisted suicide. There is sometimes a misconception that most countries do allow physician-assisted suicide. The reality is that less than 3% of the world's population live in areas where physician-assisted suicide is accessible.
I have a question, though, regarding the terminology being used in this bill, “medical assistance in dying”. There is no clear demarcation between physician-assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia. Part of that, I think, is because we like the softer language of the current bill, but the more important distinction is that in a regime that has physician-assisted suicide, the results are that only 0.3% of all deaths are attributed to physician-assisted suicide. In regimes that have voluntary euthanasia, it is 3.0%, a tenfold increase in the number of deaths resulting from a system with voluntary euthanasia.
I am wondering if my colleague would agree to include an amendment in the final bill that would say that wherever possible, where the patient is able to, it must be physician-assisted suicide, so that the patients themselves must administer the drug that the doctor prescribes.