What is a living will?

What’s a living will? How important is it? Based on my friend Rossana’s recent harrowing personal experience, I’d say very important.

What is a living will? According to the Internet’s legal dictionary, a living will is a written document that allows a patient to give explicit instructions about the medical treatment to be administered when the patient is terminally ill or permanently unconscious; also called an advance directive. It can be revoked by the patient at any time.

Is it legal in Canada? Yes, according to a Supreme Court ruling in a British Columbia case in 1993, where the Court ruled that “there is a right to choose how one’s body will be dealt with, even in the context of beneficial medical treatment, that has long been recognized by the common law. To impose medical treatment on one who refuses constitutes battery, and our common law has recognized the right to demand that medical treatment which would extend life be withheld or withdrawn.”

If you don’t have a living will, for instance, and you get very sick, so sick that your body is still alive and consuming medicine and sustenance through tubes attached to your body, but your brain is no longer working, the doctor’s job is to keep you alive by making sure those tubes stay attached. You may wake up and get better one day, or you may stay asleep like that for years. Or you may die. Nobody knows when. A good doctor will have a better idea, and will let your relatives know about your chances. He will suggest courses of action, and give them the option to decide what to do next.

My friend Rossana had been placed in such an extremely difficult position three weeks ago. Her older cousin who also lives in Vancouver, had a massive stroke and landed in a hospital. She was unable to move, talk, or open her eyes, but is alive. There is a very little brain activity. They had been keeping her on life support since then, hoping that one day she’d wake up and start to get better. After her first stroke, this sick cousin gave Rossana a signed Power of Attorney, giving her authority to take charge of any arrangement necessary in case she passed away. The cousin also told her that if she got really ill, she didn’t want to go to a nursing home. However, said cousin didn’t sign any living will, as Rossana had suggested.

After many days, the doctor took Rossana aside and told her that there wasn’t a very big chance that her cousin would ever recover. Hooked on life support, she could go on like that, unconscious, for a long time. There was no way to tell. The doctor wanted to know whether my friend would allow them to remove life support and let nature take its course. 

"Life is short, temporary, and full of surprises. Tomorrow, it could be anybody’s turn. That’s why I don’t buy green bananas anymore. I might not be around to watch them ripen."

Rossana knew she had no right to decide. It wasn’t detailed in the Power of Attorney. She went home and contacted the cousin’s family in the Philippines. They told her No Way. Rossana knew she could overrule the Philippine cousins if she wanted to, instead she asked her cousin’s sister who lives in the US to come down and talk to the doctors. This sister works in the medical field and would understand. They had a meeting with the doctors and made a decision two days later. The sick cousin was taken off life support and was moved to a nursing home where she would receive 24-hour care while they were waiting for her to get better or get worse.

Rossana was now relieved, but emotionally burned out and physically spent. She phoned me to say, “Nobody had to make a decision like that for someone else. I’m thankful I didn’t need to do it. I wouldn’t want my family to go through the same experience that I just did. I’m definitely writing my own living will. As in, right now.”

I see her point. My husband has written his, a long time ago, and I will prepare mine first thing tomorrow morning. You never know.

Life is short, temporary, and full of surprises. Tomorrow, it could be anybody’s turn. That’s why I don’t buy green bananas anymore. I might not be around to watch them ripen.

(First published at the Mill Woods Mosaic, on January 15th, 2018)