Dear editor,
Years ago, my husband and I filled out the Advance Directives for capable adults, because we truly believed that it was the responsible thing to do.
We thoughtfully and painstakingly stated our wishes to be allowed to die if the day came when our physical and mental health deteriorated to the point where we had no quality of life.
We discussed this with our physician at the time, and made sure he noted this in our chart.
Here is a word of advice for anyone considering taking the time to fill out the Advance Directives for capable adults: don’t bother.
Your wishes will not be honoured.
For weeks, I have seen my husband, a once proud, peaceable and dignified man languish in pain, semi-comatose in a hospital bed. Stripped of his ability to talk, eat, drink, and in any way look after himself, he is reduced to expressing his most basic needs the only way he can by thrashing around in violent outbursts, which understandingly frightens the staff. His body wracked by the side effects of his medication. Human dignity? No.
Quality of life? No.
I am a firm believer in medically assisted dying.
I say to anyone who objects to this humane intervention (which by the way, we offer our dogs), if your misguided belief in preserving life at all cost is based on some kind of religious notion of this being God’s will, this God to whom you genuflect, I, for one, do not want any part of.
Laurance Stratton,
B.Sc.N., N.P., MSN
Courtenay