Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Ultimately, with respect, it appears that the expert panel has done their best to provide you with what they think is correct, and they're entitled to their opinion. My response is that, at the outset of their report, they rejected the idea that we need to ensure that the harms d

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I would say that I've seen both argued and, frankly, it's another area where people are often just looking at curves without actual statistical analysis accounting for other factors that may affect suicide rates. However, certainly I think you have to be concerned about an increa

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I would answer that we can all try. We are all experts. We can do our best. However, it's never been the subject of rigorous scientific study, no.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I'm not sure I fully understood. Maybe I could just clarify. I think the issue is that our ability—

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  No, I don't think that's what I'm saying. There's a consensus that some mental disorders are incurable, and certainly that the suffering that exists as part of mental disorders might be incurable in certain instances, but we have absolutely no data to identify what those instance

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I know there has been some focus on heroic measures in this discussion, but I also think it's important to say, as someone who is a practitioner in the tertiary care centre, that I've seen many people who have been judged to have irremediable illness in the community, who are ref

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Yes, in the Truchon hearings.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Correct.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I think anybody could offer an opinion, but whether that opinion would be solidly grounded in science I think is a very dubious claim.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I would say so. I just would wish that my colleagues would have better data to act on if we're going to go forward with this.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I think they're dubious. If you look at the Canadian Mental Health Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the expert advisory group, numerous organizations have clearly said that in fact we can't make such determinations. I'll let Dr. Freeland obviously comment on her

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Here's the issue. If someone asks.... You can ask my opinion. Courts can ask people's opinions. If we're asked, we have to provide the best opinion possible, but to make such a consequential decision, I would want better evidence and usually medicine demands that.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I think that's correct. If you think about it logically, if someone asks if this plane can fly.... We have a dangerous plane. We know that it crashes. Can we get it safely from point A to point B? You could get a group of people to say that we should put a whole bunch of safeguar

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I think here's the difficulty. One could construct a study where you take all of those people who might be eligible for MAID for mental illness and provide them with really excellent care, provide them with whatever they might need—psychotherapy, adequate pharmacotherapy, a nutri

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Sure.