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Thank you, Dr Coelho and Dr Green, for taking the time to speak to us. My question, which is a brief follow-up to my colleague’s question, concerns something that Dr Green hinted at. If a patient who presents to a doctor asks for MAID, is the doctor required to suggest palliative care as an alternative option? If so, is that requirement universal across Canada? I ask Dr Coelho to respond first.

It has been very helpful to hear two different sides of the argument. Thank you both for that.

One thing that has just been raised is coercion, as well as what might almost be coercion to prevent people taking part in MAID. Has there been any legal response, or have there been any legal cases after a patient has accessed MAID? Are there any figures on that?

Dr Green, you suggested that it is a doctor’s responsibility to introduce the option of palliative care if a patient requests MAID. Is that approach universal across Canada, and is that provision consistent?

Go ahead.

I will be brief. If we have time at the end, I will try to come back in with some other questions.

Dr Coelho, you brought up the issue of capacity to make the decision. In relation to people with dementia who may lose capacity towards the end of their life, is there any provision under the assisted dying law in Canada for people to put in place an advance directive for a situation where they lose capacity as their condition deteriorates?

I want to clarify how you got to the position of defining what a terminal condition is. Was there any pressure from a cohort outside of that definition to be included?

The state of palliative care in Scotland just now is that not everybody has the ability to access it. Given that, potentially, there are people who are not able to get the palliative care that they need, is there any evidence that that is driving them towards a different decision about ending their life?

Thank you—that is very helpful. Are the people who seek assisted dying required to provide their reasons for doing so?

Just to clarify, are you saying that palliative care providers are part of the process, with the ability to impact on and input into the process of assisted dying, and that their opinions are sought?

Yes. We are looking at the impact on the number of people potentially seeking to have an end-of-life alternative when there is a system in which palliative care is not so good compared with a system in which palliative care is really good. That is what I am trying to get at.