Hon. Stan Kutcher: Thank you very much, Senator Gold, for that speech, and I think you are absolutely correct in pointing out the challenges of sorting out this very difficult issue, one that is both personally difficult and professionally difficult for me, but also one that is difficult for all Canadians. People in the chamber know that of the nine countries that provide some form of MAID, Canada is the only one that excludes people with a mental disorder.

You mentioned that at this point in time — and you correctly noted that more psychiatrists are being trained — about 2% of psychiatrists have been trained, and that is a very small number. But you neglected to mention to the chamber that only about 2% of Canadian doctors are trained in MAID, and fewer than 1% of all MAID recipients in the Benelux countries are for a sole mental disorder.

We have 2% of psychiatrists that can’t do the work, but 2% of doctors can do the work. This goes to the heart of the discrimination against the people with mental illness. We use one argument that 2% is not good enough, but then 2% is just fine.

Can you help us understand why, if it is okay for 2% of Canadian physicians to be trained, and we can do MAID for physical illnesses, it is not okay for 2% of psychiatrists to be trained?