Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to have this opportunity to speak to this legislation and enter this debate. First, I want to thank the leadership of all the parties for making this a free vote. This is such an emotional, difficult, and personal debate. Having had the opportunity to sit in the House since the eighties, I have had the opportunity to be involved in many debates. From my experience, this is one of the most difficult debates that as a parliamentarian I have entered into.
I want to be clear, as we start this discussion, that I support the legislation, and I will lay out to some extent the reason why I feel this way. This decision has to be based on our own personal life experiences and some would say, our own values. However, the reality is that all members in this place come from different parts of Canada, come from different experiences, and have different understandings in some respects of what we are entering into.
We all have to keep this in mind. This is fundamental societal change. This is fundamental because we are moving to allow individual Canadians, people who we love, who we are close to, who are our neighbours, our friends, the ability to have medical assisted dying. It should be one of those debates that should not be taken lightly. Nor should it be a debate where we talk specifically about what the lawyers or the courts are saying. Yes, we have a court case to deal with and the Supreme Court has told us what its sense is, that in fact people have a right to assisted dying. However, we should not diminish the importance of what that may do to our country over the long term.
I want to use my experience as a member of Parliament to explain the rationale for being extremely careful and diligent in our decisions as we move forward over the next number of years.
I represent a riding that probably has the most suicides of anywhere in Canada. Over the last decade, I have watched hundreds of young people take their lives, people who I know their families, their moms and dads, and have watched with some horror as they have made that kind of decision. Yes, it is a little different than what we are debating today, but it defines how we feel about the objective of allowing people to make that ultimate decision of taking their own life with the medical assistance of others.
We should in some regard be careful not to assume what is being said by others in the House, for example, that the legislation does not go far enough, or that it may be not charter compliant because it is too restrictive, or that it goes too far for some people who have made equally compassionate arguments in the House. This decision has to be based on where we think we want our society to go. It is not up to the courts to define and to suggest, as some have suggested even today, that we have not gone far enough so therefore we have to go all the way to a particular place because it may not potentially be compliant with the charter.
I sat in cabinet for a number of years and I have seen many legal arguments put to cabinet on different issues by legal counsel and on many occasions. On many occasions I have had the opportunity to see the decision made right or the decision made wrong, or the advice to be given not exactly as we had anticipated. Therefore, we cannot stand in this place and assure Canadians that this legislation is absolutely perfect one way or the other.
That is why I like the approach the government has taken. It has taken an approach that it is very restrictive. It gives society time to look at the other areas that we may consider, as parliamentarians, to allow people to take their own life, for example, minors.
As I said, I have had the experience of watching many young children take their lives. To talk about minors who are willing to take their lives and make it legal and easier, if I could put it in those terms, is not something I totally support. I am very concerned about that.
I am worried about the whole issue of advance requests. It is hard to predict the situation a person will find themselves in, so we need to have more study of the whole issue of advance requests, and minors and mental illness.
I support the legislation, not because the leadership told me to do it. I do not tend to work that way and never have. I think it is the best approach for something that would fundamentally change our society forever.
We have to remind ourselves as we stand here, and when we vote tonight, that someone close to us very soon will use this legislation. It may not be as comfortable and as simple as some people have made it sound. We have had this discussion today.
The legal framework is important. It is important for the Senate not to get into this discussion about whether or not it goes far enough. The reality of it is that if it is a framework that allows us to get the compliance we need through the charter, we should move forward on it. I want to make this clear. I do not care which legislation we would pass, the one the NDP seems to favour or the one the Conservatives seem to want to have, and I am not sure exactly which way that would go. That legislation will go to the Supreme Court to be tested as we move forward. It does not matter which legislation we pass because this is such a fundamental change to our society, there is no doubt people will go to the Supreme Court to test the reality of the legislation.
Here is the reality we face. Under the legislation, we allow mentally competent adults who are in an advanced state of irreversible decline in capability, have a serious and incurable illness, disease or disability and are experience enduring and intolerable suffering caused by their medical condition, and whose death has become reasonably foreseeable, taking into account all of their medical circumstances, to seek assisted dying. That is a pretty large amount to start with.
I know this will change our health care system for the next generations. I strongly recommend to members of Parliament not to be too quick to judge what other generations will want to have 50, 100 years from now. We should be very careful about that.
I believe, as most Liberals do, in individual rights. I am not suggesting we restrict those, but the right to choose for people who are competent is fair. Having control and obviously the dignity in dying are very important concepts for me as a member of Parliament.
Today I am pleased to have this opportunity to make these comments. This is not a partisan issue. This will not get any member of Parliament more votes, one way or the other. This is a profound fundamental change in how I will deal with individuals every day with whom I am close. I want to ensure we get it right. If we did restrict it too much this time, I would rather do that than go too far.