Thank you very much, Chairs.
I am listening to two panels, the one an hour ago and this one, and I must say that some of the things I hear concern me. First and foremost, I buy and I accept the idea that we need to have palliative care accessible across the board. We know that provinces are responsible for that, so we need to look at some kind of universal accessibility, regardless of where you live in Canada, to good palliative care.
I hear that we don't have enough human resources to deliver palliative care, especially specialists. I'm hearing that and I buy all that. I accept all that, but what I am a little concerned with is, does anyone on this panel believe that palliative care and MAID are actually interchangeable, or that they're separate and you might have one or the other, and not that it's a continuum of care? If palliative care does not work, if a person's existential suffering becomes so great, then who are we to say that somebody is not suffering existentially?
How do we know that? Especially adults.... I accept the question that small children don't know and can't articulate, but for many adults, existential suffering is exactly what that is. We know that it sometimes can.... We heard it from one of the panellists in the last hour, who said that some people get great palliative care, yet they just don't want to continue because whatever they're feeling, whatever they're suffering, is just too much.
If, all things being likely, we have great palliative care, we get money put into it, it is universally accessible and we have enough human resources to train and deliver good palliative care, my question is this: Could a person who was undergoing all that, with the ability to get it without any problem about the ability to pay—as we know, in Canada medical care means you shouldn't have to worry about the ability to pay.... Do any of you believe that a person should be forced to stay in palliative care and not be offered MAID if they so choose?
I notice that Dr. Li is shaking her head, so perhaps, Dr. Li, I'll direct that question to you first.