Professor Harvey Chochinov:

I referred to it being a measure of last resort because what we are seeing in Canada is that is less and less becoming the case. We originally introduced legislation in 2016 which stated this would be available only for people who had a reasonably foreseeable death. Almost immediately, that was challenged. Several years later, there was new legislation that said it is discriminatory to provide this only for people who are imminently dying and there is a need to provide it for people who are not necessarily imminently dying. As we speak, we in Canada are in the throes of another debate, with this one in respect of whether assisted dying should not be restricted to people who have physical conditions, and that mental illness alone should be an eligibility criterion for people who are suffering. I use the words "last resort" simply to underscore the fact that even though we have tried to put a tight circle around legislation, it has been impossible to control and, if anything, eligibility has been expanding over time such that, as of the last report, 45,000 Canadians since 2016 have availed themselves of medical assistance in dying.