Mr. Speaker, we have all struggled with this very delicate and sensitive issue in light of the Supreme Court direction, which has left parliamentarians with the task of constructing a law that conforms with the Supreme Court case decision in the Carter case. Of course, the Carter case laid down very specific criteria in allowing Kay Carter, the litigant in that case, getting the court's approval for her to access physician-assisted death.
Ms. Carter did not have a terminal illness. She specifically did not have a condition that would lead to her foreseeable death. Yet the court found that her rights under the charter were violated.
When the court laid down the clear criteria required in a grievous and irremediable condition, could the member explain why the Liberal government added the extra criteria of requiring that death be reasonably foreseeable when the lawyer that argued the case and every serious constitutional expert in the land, the Court of Appeal in Alberta and in Ontario, all indicated that it would be unconstitutional?