To a layman, it seems unambiguous: Margaret (Margot) Bentley, while of sound mind, left a living will in 1991 that states she does not want liquids or nourishment if diagnosed with an incurable disease with no reasonable expectation of recovery. "I direct that I be allowed to die," she wrote. Bentley, a former nurse, would have had a clearer idea than many of what end-of-life care might entail, and rejected being kept alive by artificial means.
Yet Fraser Health has directed the Abbotsford care facility where she has lived in a vegetative state for the past four years to continue feeding her against her family's wishes -and despite the legal directive she had the forethought to create some 13 years before she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
To be clear, Bentley's brain function is mostly destroyed. She is not sitting up in bed and waiting for supper. "Feeding" is a matter of repeatedly touching her bottom lip with a spoon until she opens her mouth. Her family says she could die before the suit they have launched against the province and the publicly funded care home is settled. But they want her case to provide clarity to B.C.'s health care consent legislation.
We applaud their painful decision to go public in pursuit of Bentley's wishes. The court decision, especially if appealed, likely won't come quickly, either. But we sincerely hope their uncomfortable time in the spotlight of media attention will leave a legacy so that others will not have to suffer the appalling sight of a loved one kept alive as a vegetable.
