Mr. Speaker, I want to point out four matters and lower the tone a bit. We need to talk about facts as opposed to emotional arguments.
My first point is to clarify that depressed individuals are not subject to this regime. We have specifically included a carve out for mental illness as a sole condition.
My second point is that the data collection the member seeks is being beefed up by this very bill.
My third point is that hyperbole has entered into this debate about people being “killed right away”. The notion of having a written consent witnessed by an independent witness and then the eligibility being verified by two independent practitioners, and that occurring in a matter of minutes or hours, is categorically false. That is not the way the system currently operates.
My fourth point is that it is an absolute red herring to raise a case based in Holland, which as has advanced directives for ailments such as dementia. We do not have dementia within the penumbra of ailments subject to this regime. We are also not proposing advanced directives; we are proposing advanced consent.
The member has raised, in some instances, concerns about what he perceives to be patients who are suffering or doctors who are acting aggressively. Those are important cases. If the member has cases, he should have those cases brought to the attention of either disciplinary bodies, regulated physicians or to law enforcement, because those should be enforced.
In fact, what we have is evidence to the contrary, that doctors are not practising this overly aggressively. In fact, there is a small of pool of doctors that—