Lynn Ruane (Independent)
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I thank Dr. Collins for clarifying that should we end up with a system whereby we legislate for assisted dying that safeguards should be in place whereby somebody with a conscientious objection would be required to ensure whoever is seeking information has access to information. Perhaps other people would like to speak on this. We have reasonable people who will conscientiously object. However, reason sometimes can leave the room and emotion can set in. Somebody may have a very stark belief about assisted dying. How will this be monitored? How are other areas of conscientious objection monitored? We have spoken about coercion and it usually seems to be about society and family. I wonder about medical coercion when it comes to certain decisions about the end of people's lives. How do we ensure there is not just one doctor in a room who is having this conversation with a patient after which nobody would ever know that the patient requested a certain piece of information? It is about assessing, monitoring and evaluating how conscientious objection has worked.

I have enjoyed listening to Dr. Chochinov. Some of his contributions have reminded me of a book I read recently by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross on death and dying and the relationship between the end of life and hospice care or palliative care. I cannot seem to make the leap to see how palliative care is somehow in opposition to the potential for assisted dying if this is what someone wishes. I do not know why they must be in opposition to each other with regard to connection.

I have moved on in my thinking from suffering, which we have discussed loads. Now I have moved onto the idea of ritual. What palliative care cannot give people is the definitive moment in which they will die. It cannot give them the guarantee that the moment they die their family will make it to them in time. What palliative care cannot give people is perhaps the two, three or four days, or five or six weeks, for them to be able to do, enjoy, speak, think, or watch the sunset for the last time. There are other things beyond suffering. If someone knows they are going to die within an immediate distance, such as an arbitrary number of four or six months, the idea of them choosing that moment is that it gives them the potential for their own ritual and connection in that moment with those whom they love. What palliative care may not give is a sense of coherence if people have to be medicated for pain. Palliative care cannot guarantee coherency in the moment that people die with their loved ones around them. I do not know whether I am making a lot of sense.