Advanced directives

trishasaffron

I know this is a very serious topic and maybe not suitable to this forum, if so feel free to move. It is stimulated to some extent by an article in today's Irish Times Health Supplement by Des O'Neill geriatric consultant and I quote a small extract:

All staff dealing with adults need training in the illnesses of ageing (particularly dementia and stroke, which can affect the ability to communicate wishes) and in the interpretation of flexible advance care preferences that can adapt to changing circumstances and new therapeutic and palliative advances.

Bertrand Russell wrote that the demand for certainty is one which is natural to man, but is nevertheless an intellectual vice. In the case of the advance directives currently proposed by the Forum on End of Life, certainty might also foreclose early on your options for a full palette of care at the end of your life.



I know from seeing an elderly parent with dementia that decisions made in the whole of one's health to limit the amount of care, not wanting to be a burden etc etc seem very superficial when viewed against the reality of death. It has been my experience that the old/sick/dying very often would do anything for one more day of life however poor their "quality of life" might seem to an outsider. And yet there seems to be a dangerous consensus building that a person can know in advance what kind of care or decisions they would like made for them.

Just interested in hearing other people's thoughts on this.

Beruthiel

trishasaffron wrote: »

It has been my experience that the old/sick/dying very often would do anything for one more day of life however poor their "quality of life" might seem to an outsider.

I understand that when it comes to this, you have to have some experience before you can fully comment.
However, not everyone thinks like that.
I recently watched Terry Pratchett's documentary on assisted death.
I believe I would prefer it.

Difficult to watch, but well worth it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slZnfC-V1SY

I love my life, I enjoy being able to do mostly what I want.
When I can't I get frustrated and pissed off.
I do not make a good sick person and if it were to become long term, I'd rather avoid it at all cost.
For instance, if I were to get an incurable disease, I'd want the option to opt out.
I do not fear death, I fear a long, drawn out disease. I would fear the loss of my faculties.
I'm a control freak and would not trust anyone else to make decisions on my behalf.