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Significant gaps currently exist in our mental health system, including a lack of access to treatment, long wait lists and insufficient training for health-care providers. We should not give the mentally ill access to assisted suicide if we cannot give them full access to treatment and support options.

Delivering the means to suicide straight into the hands of mentally ill individuals directly contradicts the suicide prevention standard in the mental health field. How can we expect mental health caregivers to advocate suicide prevention on one hand, while signing the death warrant for a mentally ill patient with the other?

The preservation of hope for mentally ill people is absolutely paramount. Those who endure psychological suffering need our support, our resources and our promise that we will never give up on them, even when they can see no other option but to give up on themselves.

I have lived for almost seven years now without my husband. I have picked up the pieces and moved forward, trying to create something meaningful out of our personal tragedy. And yet, not a day goes by when I don’t wonder if there might have been another way out for Dave — another counsellor, another medical treatment, another conversation that might have made the difference. Because of the finality of his choice, I will never know.

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I don’t want more Canadian families to know that kind of pain. In good conscience, we cannot allow physician-assisted suicide to become just another option for those who struggle with mental illness.

Because of the Supreme Court ruling, physician-assisted suicide will be part of our reality in Canada. But if you believe it should only apply in cases of terminal illness, and not to minors or those who are mentally ill, we need to make our voices heard on this issue — and fast. Please contact your local MP and tell them where you stand. The lives of our vulnerable loved ones might just depend on it.

National Post

Denise Batters, Q.C., is a senator from Saskatchewan.