Mr. Speaker, I believe we would all prefer to face death serenely, peacefully and without suffering. Gloria Taylor, Kay Carter, Jean Truchon and Nicole Gladu sent a message: our death, like our life, belongs to us.
The autonomy bestowed on a person by law through the principle of self-determination and its corollary rule of free and informed consent is never questioned throughout a person's life, even in emergencies. Why then would things be any different for a person with an incurable or irreversible disease who is suffering intolerably? Why would it be any different for competent individuals who are neither depressed nor suicidal and who have expressed a desire to live fully until they reach the limit of what they can tolerate?
Let us make medical assistance in dying a non-partisan priority for this Parliament. The Bloc will collaborate. We must work together because it is our duty to succeed this time.