Discussion · Government Orders
Sean Fraser Liberal
“The patient decides, not someone else. This bill lets people choose medical assistance in dying in advance, while they can still make decisions. It helps people who are suffering from an incurable illness and will later lose the ability to consent. Medical professionals must also agree that the patient's exact conditions have been met.”
“Mr. Speaker, I think my hon. colleague’s question gets to the crux of the very issue that is the subject of the debate around advance requests today. The answer to her question, as to who decides, is the patient themselves. The issue that we are trying to solve is the fact that there is a person who may have wishes, who would be eligible for medical assistance in dying based purely on the physical harm that they are suffering, the intolerable suffering, the irreversible nature of their illness and the advanced state of decline, but who will lose the capacity to make a decision for themselves to receive a service for which they would otherwise be eligible. The policy solution that we are advancing allows that person to outline, with a great degree of specificity, the very conditions under which they would wish to have access to medical assistance in dying. In addition to that person specifically having the opportunity to provide consent under certain conditions, those conditions would need to be agreed upon by the medical professionals who are assessing access to medical assistance in dying overall. This is all about consent for the individual themselves.”
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Mr. Speaker, I think my hon. colleague’s question gets to the crux of the very issue that is the subject of the debate around advance requests today. The answer to her question, as to who decides, is the patient themselves. The issue that we are trying to solve is the fact that there is a person who may have wishes, who would be eligible for medical assistance in dying based purely on the physical harm that they are suffering, the intolerable suffering, the irreversible nature of their illness and the advanced state of decline, but who will lose the capacity to make a decision for themselves to receive a service for which they would otherwise be eligible. The policy solution that we are advancing allows that person to outline, with a great degree of specificity, the very conditions under which they would wish to have access to medical assistance in dying. In addition to that person specifically having the opportunity to provide consent under certain conditions, those conditions would need to be agreed upon by the medical professionals who are assessing access to medical assistance in dying overall. This is all about consent for the individual themselves.