Justice committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for the question. Any group of persons who have raised concerns about whether there are adequate safeguards, how a law is being implemented and practised, are certainly to be taken seriously, and they are certainly to be considered valid and to be explored.

Justice committee  There's no harm in spending more time thinking about these issues; they are complicated issues. I think a lot of work has already been done on these questions and I think that if we look at countries where this practice is permitted, we see that the lack of consensus doesn't go away, so we can continue to study, but I don't know that we're going to learn a lot more that's new.

Justice committee  Another alternative would be to say that there are some really specific safeguards and best practices that we want to get right in this area and we want to give ourselves that time to do it, but let's discipline ourselves and put a deadline on that exclusion clause so that it can't be indefinite.

Justice committee  I think part of what motivated what I was trying to bring to the committee today is the fact that people who have mental disorders and physical disorders can access medical assistance in dying now and have already accessed medical assistance in dying, and that these types of clinical situations raise exactly the same kinds of concerns that the government indicates in its charter document.

Justice committee  Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee, for the opportunity to meet with you today. I'm going to restrict my remarks to the question of MAID for persons whose mental disorder is their sole underlying medical condition, as this is my area of expertise. Throughout, to be more succinct, I will shorten this to MAID for mental disorders.

Justice committee  Yes, absolutely. I will try. I have sent the French version of the report to the clerk and I will be able to send you the English version at the beginning of next week. Our committee's work illustrates that professionals working with patients and families are able to come together and agree on standards and safeguards for MAID for mental disorders.