Discussion · Government Orders
Garnett Genuis Conservative
“The safeguards for assisted dying do not work. People can just keep asking doctors until they find two who agree, even if 28 others said no. This will cause huge family fights over advance requests.”
“Mr. Speaker, clearly there has been a failure with respect to the implementation of the safeguards. A core reason for that is the requirement that it be two doctors who assess, but it could be any two doctors. Thirty doctors could be consulted, and we could find two who have an opinion that is different from that of the other 28, and then it is able to proceed. I do not know how we can implement an advance directive framework within which people can shop for different doctors and then say that a certain two doctors think the conditions of the advance directive have been met, when another two do not think it has been met. For example, the son has the two doctors he has consulted, but the daughter has the two doctors she has consulted. It is a mess. It is a recipe for conflict. It does not involve safeguards when we can shop around and find two doctors to agree with us, potentially anywhere in the country.”
Mr. Speaker, clearly there has been a failure with respect to the implementation of the safeguards. A core reason for that is the requirement that it be two doctors who assess, but it could be any two doctors. Thirty doctors could be consulted, and we could find two who have an opinion that is different from that of the other 28, and then it is able to proceed. I do not know how we can implement an advance directive framework within which people can shop for different doctors and then say that a certain two doctors think the conditions of the advance directive have been met, when another two do not think it has been met. For example, the son has the two doctors he has consulted, but the daughter has the two doctors she has consulted. It is a mess. It is a recipe for conflict. It does not involve safeguards when we can shop around and find two doctors to agree with us, potentially anywhere in the country.