Madam Speaker, I fully agree. Probably the second most common concern I have heard about from people is conscience rights. I have talked to people who believe that is a huge issue. They do not believe that their personal belief system, faith or life journeys should be impacted by some imposition of government.
I want to share one other quick comment here. In the debate on this in the last Parliament, the former attorney general and justice minister commented about preventing the normalization of suicide to protect vulnerable person who are disproportionately at risk of inducement to suicide. She spoke of that repeatedly. This is from a CTV article:
In defending it before the Senate, [the former justice minister] warned that expanding the eligibility criteria to include anyone who is suffering intolerably would “send the wrong message that society feels it is appropriate to address suffering in life by choosing death. This message may encourage some who are in crisis and already considering suicide to act.”
I really do not think we should be putting our medical professionals in that place.