Colleagues, I will not use my allotted time, and I will not speak to the constitutionality of the law or the constitutionality of what we have the right to do. I know that we have very learned people such as Senator Joyal, Senator Baker and now our rookie senator, Senator Sinclair, who have much more knowledge about the Constitution and the rights we have in order to do what we are doing.

I really want to only get on the record why I will at the end of the day and at the end of possibly Monday be doing what I will be doing and why I will be voting the way I will be voting.

I, too, want to express that I certainly consider myself as being — and I think most senators would agree — one of the more partisan senators in this chamber, and I don't apologize for that. As Senator Irving Gerstein said one day, "I am a Conservative bagman, and I'm proud of that." Well, I'm a Conservative partisan, and I'm proud of that.

But I do believe that we have had tremendously non-partisan, respectful debate on what is, for many of us, the most difficult vote that we will ever make in this chamber.

I take some solace in the fact that I do not believe for one second that, when I vote — and if I vote "yea" on either the bill as amended or the bill as it may come back, because I believe it probably will come back — we are making assisted suicide legal. I think that was done by the Supreme Court of Canada, and so we are now going to vote on whether or not this is as good a law as we can strike.

That allows me to sleep at night. For example, one of my amendments passed, and I thank the chamber for voting for it, but the other one didn't. I am passionate about that. I am equally sorry that some amendments did pass, but nevertheless, that again is the democracy that we have and that I always want us to keep.

At the end of the day, I want to be able to break bread with those senators that were on a different side of an issue than I was, and I know that we will be able to do that. I have tremendous respect for senators opposite and senators right here that voted differently than I did on some issues. That isn't what I want to speak to. I respect that.

I, as Senator Unger, am a firm believer that life begins at conception and ends when a natural progression occurs, whether that's God taking that life or whether that's just natural death. I'm not going to decide that.

I am sorry that we don't have an abortion law. I am sorry that Parliament at that time gave up on a tie vote and didn't ever revisit that. However, that's not what I'm revisiting today. I am just expressing my feeling on it.

Colleagues, I will struggle at the end of this debate with whether I can support the bill. It is an amended bill, and so I know that I have some choice. I'm going to be conflicted, because I do not want us to defeat this bill. I think that would be the worst thing in the world we could do. I think the bill in its original state is much better than what we will have if we defeat the bill. We will have a law in Canada. We have a law in Canada now, but it is not as good as it will be under the bill that was brought to us.

I have respect for the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Health and the work that they did. I don't believe for one second that either of them relished the task that they were given by the Supreme Court as brand new ministers needing to deal with that. I respect what they gave us.

I hope that they will respect — and this will be my own feeling — and accept three of the amendments that they got over there.

Sorry, Senator Joyal, that is what I hope they will do. But where I did not support Senator Joyal and the amendment, I support Senator Joyal 100 per cent in his expertise. One day I would like to see Senator Joyal and Senator Sinclair have a constitutional debate. I would pay money to hear and listen to that.

Colleagues, at the end of the day I'm not sure how I'm going to vote on the amended bill. I know that I want a different law than what we have today. Colleagues, we need to make sure that the House of Commons has the opportunity to look at this and then send it back to us if they don't like it or if they can't accept it. Defeating it again, colleagues, is the worst thing that we can do, in my opinion.

I will struggle and I will pray, and when we come to the end, I will vote.

Excuse me.

It has been suggested to me, "Don, leave the chamber or abstain." I will not do that. I will stand and be counted and hopefully the right thing will happen. Thank you.