Senator Gold: As I tried to explain in my discussion of the Charter, the position of the government is that it is not discriminatory because the nature of the cases is different. When there is a grievous and irremediable physical condition, whether or not it’s accompanied by a mental disorder, that is a qualitatively different kind of assessment, it is submitted, than if someone is presenting only with a mental disorder as the underlying condition.

The suffering is the same. The desire for access to MAID is the same, but the actual assessment is going to be done differently because, unless I am incorrect, I believe that those who qualify for MAID under Track 2 — or Track 1, for that matter — are qualifying because of the irremediable physical disability or ailment, and not because they have, as some do, though not all do, a mental disorder that accompanies it.