Physician-Assisted Dying committee  It's an interesting question, because what we've laid out in the protocol is a series of steps here, including an assessment of whether or not the patient meets the eligibility. First of all, the patient makes a request. Their competency and all of the eligibility criteria are a

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  Yes, and you're absolutely right, in that a 21-year-old who is not competent would not meet the eligibility criteria for the purposes of physician-assisted death. Age by itself would not be sufficient. That would apply on the north side of 18 or on the south side of 18. Also, wh

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  One thing that was pretty clear to us throughout our deliberation was that almost every patient we'd be talking about in this particular conversation would be vulnerable in one way or another. Vulnerability was something that would apply to all patients, as a whole, who might be

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  I think our recommendations were quite clear that it's really around definition and the scope, particularly as related to health professional roles. That will be an issue that cuts across all provinces. In terms of more prescription than that, I think there will likely be some p

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  Yes.

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  We eventually just went with the language that was in the Supreme Court of Canada's ruling, of course, but we did hear some.... Each of these terms could be unpacked and has its own associated controversies. Consistency would be great. I don't know how to land on that to provide

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  Yes.

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  This became clear to us through the consultation. We heard from many physicians who initially felt as though this was a burden and it was falling only on physicians' shoulders. However, on the issue of access, very clearly, there are multiple actors who need to be operating toge

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  It is of regulatory authorities, indeed. I think this is where the Supreme Court of Canada invited us to balance rights. We do acknowledge in clinical practice—not just physicians but other health professionals as well—that they have a right of conscience. In fact, one of our m

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  There are a couple of factors here. The most obvious example is a case of somebody who is competent, has a grievous and irremediable condition, and is suffering intolerably. In that case, it's very clear they would be eligible. They meet the criteria, no question. We have a very

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  That's an excellent point. Indeed, most of our recommendations were focusing on the provinces and territories, in part because they were wondering what their scope or role ought to be. But you're right, and one of our key messages is embedded in there, but it's probably worth un

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  One of the reasons why we reinforced this is that there were a few voices that were starting to say, “If you could just tell us what it means, we'd know how to apply it”, but most clinicians say that doesn't work for them, that they don't know. One of the key messages we heard

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  This is an issue that we've heard crop up a number of times, on whether or not there should be a retrospective review or pre-review of all cases. We've spent a lot of time thinking about this, and we've heard testimony about it as well. One of the concerns often raised was that

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  In our analysis of this issue, the Carter decision left room for both self-administered and physician-administered death. We looked at a number of jurisdictions. Some jurisdictions provided self-administered death. One of the limitations of this approach, of a self-administered d

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  The other area is definition, and again, we are focusing on definitional issues because they were highlighted, through our consultation, as an area where clarity within the Criminal Code would be an enabler of some consistency across the provinces. One topic is the definition of