Yes, it's very real.
There are several ways, and the first is to point out that the stigmatization in some sense goes in both directions. If you don't let people have advance requests, you're in a sense saying that people with dementia can't be trusted to make decisions for themselves in the future because they're too vulnerable to these external pressures and so on. I think that itself is stigmatizing of persons with dementia.
The second point is that it is the person's decision. It's not society saying, “Your life as a person with dementia is not worth living.” It is only for the person. I would never say to somebody else who has dementia that their life is not worth living; it is for the person to say whether it's intolerable suffering. That way, it doesn't carry a stigmatization, because it's internal.
With regard to supports and services, this is your opportunity to be bold. It is to be bold about the parallel tracks. You're a committee sitting in the House and the Senate. You have federal levers to improve the supports and services for people with disabilities and mental illnesses. My whole argument all along has been parallel tracks.
An individual has access to MAID while they're capable, or through an advance request. At the very same time, we put a huge push on. We shine a very bright light and demand accountability for improving the supports and services that are so desperately needed. They're not mutually incompatible. In fact, by having a conversation about MAID, we now have an opportunity for people to listen to a conversation about supporting persons with disabilities and mental illnesses in Canada. That's where I hope this committee is bold and figures out ways to use the federal purse and convening powers. You have all kinds of tools. Use those to fix the problems that are coming to light and that people are finally paying attention to. Don't constrain access to MAID, because you should never make individuals hostage to fixing systemic problems.