Madam Speaker, our first duty is to our own conscience. Former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau recognized this by enshrining conscience rights as the very first delineated in the charter.
Tens of thousands of doctors truly and wholeheartedly believe that taking part in a physician-assisted suicide breaches their calling to do no harm. As access to euthanasia expands, they may be forced to either violate their conscience or leave the careers to which they have dedicated their lives.
For the last five years, there has been no federal law to prevent the violation of this inviolable right. This must change. Parliament created a legal void and has a moral responsibility to fill it by passing a law that vigorously defends this pre-eminent charter right for our medical professionals, because, first, we must do no harm.