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Kristina Tesser Derksen

Replying to Tamara Jansen (Conservative)
“Madam Speaker, I wonder if my Liberal colleague could provide us with a definition of intolerable suffering. A doctor would have to somehow decide that somebody has intolerable suffering. That person is not able to communicate with them, but they have made an advance request. As far as I understand, there is no definition at this time of the actual wording “intolerable suffering”.”

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Madam Speaker, sometimes in law, definitions are left broad on purpose. We want to ensure that the provinces that would choose to come on board with this would have their own requirements, their own regulations. Again, we want to ensure that medical providers and the people who go to them seeking care and perhaps choosing MAID have a discussion about what that means. It is impossible to define it in black and white in any sensible way, because there are so many vastly different ways that people can experience intolerable suffering.