Medical Assistance in Dying committee  No, that sounds good. As I said, it has to be specific enough that you'll find a provider who will actually provide, at that point.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  People who went into detail about why tended to be the ones who said “I watched my mother” or “I watched my aunt.” They know a great deal about dementia from the outside, or inside a family but outside the person. They were very knowledgeable. I think the people who have no pers

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  These are the kinds of conversations I have every day with my patients. They say, “If I can't take care of myself in my own home, I don't want to live any longer.” They talk about independence—not just quality of care, but having strangers wipe their bum. That's such a common sta

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Well, I'm not a constitutional expert or a political one. I know that the criminal law can't be as specific.... Just make sure the word “specify” is in there somewhere, so that an advance directive that just says “Kill me if I'm a vegetable” is not legal. It has to be specific, a

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Thank you. You can't ensure that. That's what I was trying to say. It's not possible. You need to recommend an amendment to the law that allows for advance requests, because that's what Canadians want. They really want it. Most of them want it because there is such terrible suff

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Thank you so much for allowing me to talk about a subject I have thought so much about, talked so much about and am so interested in. My experience is in assessing almost 800 Canadians for medical assistance in dying, and providing for over half of those. I was a family doctor f

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Yes, and what I'd say is that it's more like the court case A.B. v. Canada, in which the patient had unbearable disability and pain from her inflammatory arthritis, and she said that it was not good enough. We have treatments. You can certainly say that arthritis is treatable—it

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Why do we have that distinction? That's not mine to answer, but I can tell you my position here is that chronic conditions are similar whether they're mental or physical. Pancreatic cancer has a very strict trajectory, but the chronic conditions that people are suffering with and

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  No. I accept a lot of them, almost all of them. My concern was with the issues of the provinces and the colleges being responsible for the standards guidelines. There's a huge problem with that. There are 26 different colleges that are handling the professionals involved, the nur

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Okay.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Absolutely, and do so immediately.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  That's right.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Thank you. Yes, Health Canada has partnered with the Canadian Association of MAID Assessors and Providers to set up a national program of education. We have already been doing this, but this will be far more extensive and well done.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  That's right.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Yes.