Madam Speaker, in my colleagues' interventions, there is sometimes a presumption, it seems, of malfeasance when it comes to the health care system. When the slippery slope argument is invoked, it is as though people think that health care providers do not need to be caring and compassionate, first and foremost, in order to be hired. If that is not the case, they should be thanked and let go. I find it strange that so little consideration is given to health care providers.
We have talked a lot about vulnerable individuals. Those are precisely the people the Supreme Court was trying to protect. The Supreme Court indicated that people with degenerative diseases, who have a grievous and irremediable condition, who are experiencing intolerable suffering, should have access to medical assistance in dying, under section 7. It is pretty remarkable to see that all the rights in section 7, namely, the right to life, the right to liberty, and the right to security of the person, are affected by the total prohibition.
The Supreme Court wanted to protect people in an extremely vulnerable situation. When we talk about protecting the vulnerable, who and what are we talking about? It is as though, when someone enters into a continuum of end-of-life care, they are given the choice from the outset between an injection and comfort care. There is a presumption that should not be there.
What the Supreme Court is asking the legislator to do is to provide a framework for assisted suicide, in other words, for all those whose natural death is not reasonably foreseeable. Those people do not need palliative care. What they need is legislation that frames the provisions to allow them to die with dignity, according to their wishes, and on their terms. That is the essence of the debate.
Yesterday in committee, the Barreau du Québec told us that Bill C-14 was not in line with the Carter decision. Last week, the Carter family's lawyer told us that Ms. Carter would not have been entitled to medical assistance in dying. How can the government claim that she would have been entitled? That was the response in committee by the Minister of Health and the Minister of Justice. Did they get an outside opinion?
The Barreau du Québec just said that this bill, because of the totally vague criterion of “reasonably foreseeable natural death”, will make this legislation a legal hornets' nest. I hope that after all this energy we are putting into this debate we will not end up with endless court challenges. The Barreau du Québec sounded the alarm yesterday, as did the Carter family's lawyer. The bill is telling people who have a degenerative disease and are suffering immensely that they cannot make an advance directive.
People with degenerative diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, ALS, and other cognitive diseases, are not suicidal. They want to live as long as possible until their condition becomes intolerable to them. It is not up to us or anyone else to decide what is or is not tolerable suffering for a person. How could we presume to do so?
We have to protect these people from extreme suffering and a society that is basically trying to make decisions for them.
If Kay Carter did not have access to medical assistance in dying, and if advance requests are not allowed for people with degenerative diseases, then it seems as if this bill does not treat all grievous and irremediable medical conditions that people might have the same way.
The minister says that Kay Carter would have been entitled to medical assistance in dying under the reasonably foreseeable natural death provision. Exactly what does “foreseeable” mean in this case? Does it have anything to do with her age? I hope that we are not talking about age discrimination here. Spinal stenosis can be intolerable at 52, 62, or 82 years of age. Age is therefore not a criterion.
If we want to be thorough, we absolutely must provide a framework and amend the bill to include advance requests.
Furthermore, we must remove the criterion of reasonably foreseeable natural death. Even in a situation as clear as someone in palliative care requesting death, this is not a natural death. Yes, the process of death is irreversible. The patient wants to put an end to the irreversible process of a slow death. It is up to patients to decide whether this is what they want. It is their choice.
However, claims that patients will be forced to make a decision have no place in this debate. This is not the case. I have heard members say that this is frightening and that we should invest in palliative care. As I said this morning, palliative care is important, and the Quebec law addresses this issue, among other things. What about assisted suicide? These people do not need palliative care. They do not need it and we do not need to invest in palliative care to fix their problem. We simply need to respect their right to self-determination.
That is why advance requests are so important. These people do not want to move forward without the assurance that they will be cared for. We are not the ones to decide for them. They will decide.
Of course, sometimes there are people who suffer from insomnia. Things can happen in an instant one night. You go to bed at night and everything is fine. When you get up in the morning everything has changed. For that reason, we have to amend the bill. We must also amend the bill to include an equivalency clause, as I mentioned this morning.
The debate lasted six years in Quebec. Quebec's legislation provides a very good framework for end-of-life care, and it would be unacceptable for this bill to interfere with the Quebec law. That is why we are insisting on these amendments.