The Editor, Re: "Having the right to die," Opinion, Aug. 14.
Feeding Margaret Bentley food and water is the most fundamental of nursing duties. It is NOT an artificial or extraordinary means of keeping her alive.
Let's suppose that we find an abandoned one year old child crying for food. Would we leave her to starve to death because she is not able to talk, go to the bathroom or do things for herself? Like this child, a person in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's no longer has a self-awareness of their condition. Like this child, she is a precious human being who needs love and care until the natural end of her life.
Giving someone the ability to decide whether or not one's life is worth living leads to a slippery slope.
Just as our parents spent many sleepless nights taking care of us, let us care for them when they are no longer able to care for themselves.
If we show them that we will be there loving them and taking care of them, however disabled they are, until their natural death, they will not feel that they will be a burden to us and wish to end their life sooner. They are NOT a vegetable but a human being with a soul.
Caroline Macken
Richmond
