This year I sat down with my elderly Mother, my wife, a lawyer and a lawyers assistant to sign some documents at the family dining table.
Good to know your mother is being realistic, Bill. However, you need not have incurred legal fees to ensure her wishes will be adhered to. You will have a document in NSW which is equivalent to the Queensland Advance Health Directive. This is a legal document, completed by your mother (or you when you consider you should also think about the inevitable, even if it were to occur via a car accident eg), in conjunction with her GP.
It has multiple scenarios which you tick indicating whether you want, e.g. antibiotics, assisted breathing, in other words medical intervention of any kind.
For the document to be 100% effective, a copy probably needs to be lodged at her local hospital, plus a copy with you and her GP.
Having a legal document in place makes an unfortunate event easier for everyone. The medical staff have something clear to go by, and are not obliged to consult you when you may be in a distressed state.
My job is to carry out her wishes. The Lawyer said, "I am your witness and your Mother is of full mental capacity". "When the time comes Bill it will be your duty to carry out her wishes", "you have Power of Attorney." I was a bit overwhelmed at the time.
Presumably, then, you have also had her execute an Enduring Power of Attorney in order that you can operate her bank accounts, carry out real estate transactions etc?
I personally would rather die happy and in control and knowing what I am doing rather than suffering and wetting myself as a demented old man being feed through a tube in my stomach. How dare anyone tell me how to die.
Repeated surveys have shown that around 80% of the population thinks likewise. But without clear instructions to the contrary, the ethos of the medical profession is to preserve life. No matter that it's a complete nonsense when the patient is going to die anyway.
I am fairly sure that allowing your mother to die when she is only supported by artificial means is perfectly legal.
Yes, that's right. But to have the patient's wishes clearly set out in writing makes it easier for everyone.
You will always get some young doctor full of his own reluctance to not sustain life, an abhorrent situation where it's about that young doctor rather than what is best for the patient.
Ridiculous levels of expensive care are employed when people are going to die anyway, often because staff have no instructions to the contrary and the family are too distressed to be clear about what the dying person would have wanted.
Where the law intervenes is when a doctor/nurse/relative/carer actively does something to cause death, even if that is the wish of the person. I believe that too should be legal if the person gave consent to euthanasia when in sound mind, just as your mother did in regards to not being resuscitated.
I agree, but as the law stands at present, any medical personnel acting in such a way can be charged.
The way around it if the patient is able to communicate and is in pain is to have them respond "Yes" to the question "are you in any pain"? If the answer is yes, the nurse/doctor is entirely justified in increasing the morphine et al dosage. As far as the law is concerned, if the dosage required to control pain happens to result in the patient's death, that's acceptable.
That being said, I know quite a few nurses who tell me it is not uncommon for them to "encourage" death when the know that is the wish of the patient and the patient is in severe pain.
Yes, as above.
Most muggles don't have the balls to do it though.
They want the guvment or doctors, or the hospital to make the decision for them.
gg
That is sadly true. People are reluctant to talk about death. So they remain in denial of its inevitability until ultimately their families are faced with the reality of not actually knowing whether their mother/father would want heroic medical measures taken or not.
We are all going to die. Best, therefore, surely, to ensure we are not vulnerable to being kept alive through artificial means (something I can't imagine anyone would want) simply because we have failed to make provision for a more comfortable alternative.