Honourable senators, I rise to speak to an amendment that I will propose which deals with an issue I have spoken about before in this chamber. The amendment primarily deals with section 241(5), the exemption for a person aiding the patient.

As honourable senators know, the legislation allows an individual requesting assisted suicide to choose between having the death administered by a medical professional in a medical facility or taking the medication as a prescription.

There are a number of concerns when a person takes the medication as prescription. First, there are no safeguards in place. There is no restriction regarding when an individual can take the prescription. It can be immediately or years down the road.

There is no person able to assess consent at the time the person takes the prescription, let alone assessing the competency to consent.

There are no mechanisms in place to ensure the individual is not being coerced or forced into taking the prescription. The list goes on.

Many of us believe that a procedure of this gravity should only be taking place in a medical facility where safeguards are in order, and where they are prepared and equipped to deal with a person's remains.

The following clause in the bill is extremely troubling. Proposed subsection 241(5) reads as follows:

No person commits an offence under paragraph (1)(b) if they do anything, at another person's explicit request, for the purpose of aiding that other person to self-administer a substance that has been prescribed for that other person as part of the provision of medical assistance in dying in accordance with section 241.2.

Colleagues, this subsection allows virtually any person to assist a person in death as long as they say they were asked to do so by the patient.

I cannot state strongly enough, no jurisdiction in the world that has legalized assisted suicide allows for any person, other than the patient or the physician, to administer the substance.

We, in this bill however, have opened it wide up to allow for any person to assist the patient in dying. There are no constraints in place. This is wide open to potential abuse, and, colleagues, we need to put in some reasonable parameters.

In the independent witness clause, namely 241.2(5) it states the independent witness can be:

Any person who is at least 18 years of age and who understands the nature of the request for medical assistance in dying may act as an independent witness, except if they

(a) know or believe that they are a beneficiary under the will of the person making the request, or a recipient, in any other way, of a financial or other material benefit resulting from that person's death;

The ministers were right to include this exception. In doing so, they have acknowledged that, sadly, there are people out there who would take advantage of family members in a situation like this for financial gain.

The same principle must apply to section 241(5), the most wide open provision of this bill. It is the exemption for the person aiding the patient. While I personally do not believe that anyone should be aiding the patient other than a medical practitioner, I believe that this restriction is a reasonable compromise and the government would be acting irresponsibly not to accept this proposal.

I also propose to add the same language to proposed subsection (4), the "Unable to sign" clause, which again provides no limitation on who is able to sign for a patient who is unable to do so themselves.

The recommendation to amend these two clauses was passed unanimously at the committee with the support of independents, Conservatives and Liberals, including both the sponsor and the critic of the bill.

This is an extremely important exception, and I hope I can count on all honourable colleagues to support this amendment.

Motion in Amendment

Hon. Donald Neil Plett: Therefore, honourable senators, I move:

That Bill C-14, as amended, be not now read a third time, but that it be amended in clause 3,

(a) on page 4, by replacing line 24 with the following:

"ance in dying in accordance with subsection 241.2, except if they know or believe that they are a beneficiary under the will of that other person, or a recipient, in any other way, of a financial or other material benefit resulting from that person's death."; and

(b) on page 7, by replacing lines 33 and 34 with the following:

"who is at least 18 years of age, who understands the nature of the request for medical assistance in dying and who does not know or believe that they are a beneficiary under the will of the person making the request, or a recipient, in any other way, of a financial or other material benefit resulting from that person's death —".