Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I thank my honourable colleague for raising this point. What I was directing my comments to was dealing with the anesthetics and pain relief medication that may be administered; that through the consultation process the doctor and patient discuss procedure; that if there is any apprehension, certain medications are given to relieve tension and stress -- if there is any hesitation on the patient's part. What I was referring to was to deal with the fact that no one is subjected to an operation against their will without an anesthetic. If a patient said, "I want an anesthetic; I cannot go through this," they are not forced physically.
Because judging by the story that I heard, that people were holding someone down -- people on the street mentioned the words, 'torture chamber.' This was said to assuage the fear that procedures were taking place in the hospital against people's will without any medication or anesthetic. We do not do those things these days, Mr. Speaker, and that was what I was alluding to, and for some reason that just did not come through clearly. I was not referring to a person's choice of 'take it or leave it," so to speak; not at all. It was merely to say that if it was deemed that a great amount of pain was going to be experienced, anesthetic could be administered.
As I said, part of the procedure was to administer certain relaxants, certain pain killers, prior to the procedure, if requested and required, and in post-operative recovery.